The Generation We Are Ushering In

Photo by Lisa Marie Theck on Unsplash

By Ojonugwa Yahaya — Daughter of Africa

I write so that silence can be heard. ✍🏼

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In this reflection, I will not be economical with words. I will speak plainly — brutally, if I must — because sometimes the truth must sting before it heals.

Every generation hands over a mantle, a baton of continuity in the long relay of existence.

But the question that keeps echoing in my mind is this:

What kind of mantle are we handing over to the generation we are ushering in?

Each era bears a sacred duty — to till the soil that the next will plant in. The shaping of conscience, the building of character, the strength of laws, the honor of leadership, the sanctity of citizenship, and the rhythm of love for one’s country and humanity. All these lie squarely on the shoulders of the present. And when we falter, the generation coming after us inherits not light, but confusion. They either crumble under our ruins, or erect a dangerous standard that might destroy them.

I remember, back in secondary school, how our principal — like many elders — would say, “Our generation failed you, but don’t fail yourselves or those after you.” At the time, it sounded like wisdom. But today, I wonder if we are not becoming the very echo of that same lamentation — apologizing to posterity before they are even born. Are we not telling the same story, just with better grammar and more data?

Let us be clear: we are losing hold of the generation we are raising. The first ground of socialization — the home — has been outsourced. Parents have handed the duty of moral formation to schools, and schools, overwhelmed, can only teach what the walls can contain. But character is not confined to a classroom; it is cultivated in daily life, in example, in discipline, in love, in truth.

We are now raising a generation whose conscience is gasping for breath.

A generation that calls right “old-fashioned” and wrong “smart.”

A generation addicted to shortcuts, obsessed with quick money, searching for 100 ways to die instead of one reason to live.

A generation so depressed it transmits its pain like WiFi — fast, invisible, contagious.

A generation of ring lights, TikToks, and filters — where validation is currency and authenticity is poverty.

A generation that celebrates “fake it till you make it” and sneers at those who choose to make it with integrity.

And now, we are witnessing something even darker — a generation that measures value through visibility and turns self-expression into a marketplace. In music videos and media, men are styled as symbols of power while women are packaged (and often sexualized) as consumable aesthetics. The female body has become a product to be sold, liked, and shared, not a person to be understood. We are raising minds that confuse being seen with being valued and mistake market demand for self-worth.

We have become a society of self-centered advocates, where anyone who hurls insults at authority, warranted or not, is instantly branded an activist. But activism is not noise; it is conscience. It is not self-promotion; it is selflessness. True activism builds. False activism burns for clout.

Because the people are weary and hungry for voices, they often rally around the loudest, not the truest. We now have one-sided crusaders — daytime critics who by night dine with the very systems they condemn. They feed their bellies while the masses mistake them for messiahs. And so, young people follow shadows, mistaking performance for purpose, and losing sight of what genuine leadership looks like.

Many no longer seek true mentors.

They find inspiration in the opposite wing of goodness: those who appear more visible, more available, more glamorous, especially on social media. But the mirrors we hold up to the next generation are the reflections they will become.

We have a lot of work to do.

The family, the government, the private sector, the religious houses, and every individual must work in synergy to rebuild a sane people and a saner community.

Because whether we like it or not, every generation fades away — and one day, ours will too. 

The question is: what will be the fate of the generation we are ushering in?

Will they inherit our wisdom, or our wounds?

Our values, or our vices?

Let us not raise a generation that finds joy in self-destruction.

Posterity will ask us hard questions.

And the echoes of our silence will be louder than our speeches.

This is not the time to scroll past reflection.

This is the time to rebuild.

The crossroads are here, and the road we choose will define not just our future, but the humanity of those yet unborn.

There is much work to do, and now is the only time we have.

The clock is ticking. The fence is gone.

There is no room left to sit and watch.

We must rise.

We must restore conscience.

We must light the path again.

Because someday, history will open its pages and ask:

When the world tilted, what did your generation do?

And may we have an answer worth recording.

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For the Generation We Are Ushering In…

I point forward, not for myself,

but for those who will come after us.

May they inherit our courage, not our silence.

May they find hope where we planted truth.

— Ojonugwa Yahaya

Daughter of Africa 

I write so that silence can be heard. ✍🏼

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