Millenials’ magnificent reconnaissance and logistics on highway

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Recent events in Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, have created a shift in the general perception the older generation of boomers have about their millennials’. Born in the 1980s through the early 2000s, the “Y generation” as they are also known are millenials because they came of age in the 21st century. Before a recent protest against police brutality, the norm among certain figures in authority was that this generation of youngsters were, “superficial, bashful, lazy and disrepectful!” Their parents’ generation took delight in referring to them with the rather condescending phrase: “Children of nowadays” whenever they were found wanting. Many of them are maturing in age when certain values have virtually vanished from society. Respect now comes from wealth and power and influence. Sometimes, for them, how it’s attained is not important. This has carved a rather damaging dent on the moral fabric of society.
They grew up with amazing tools at their disposal: the Internet, mobile phones and Social media. They are impatient. Some refer to them as “The Now Generation because they want everything now. A prominent pastor hosted a group of millennial enterprenuers and middle level managers and was surprised to find out that the prevailing notion of work and business among them all was that they were moving too slow. Some expected to be hitting the top within five years of starting and were generally discouraged when it did not happen. Their speaker had to tell them, “It takes time”. Even the “over night riches’ stories are not really over night if they are legit. People keep hitting the grind stone to work their way up. The technology they have mastered plus the culture of their existence could be slightly responsible for their lack of patience. A lot of them frequent fast food joints. They love pizza, milk shakes and ice cream. Use a microwave and a timer on a rice boiler at home. Drimk instant coffee, down load movies they want to watch and binge instead of having to wait for them to be screened or broadcast like their forebears.
A sundry visit to the venue of a protracted protest at Lekki Toll gate on a highway that leads to layouts highclass residential real estate in phases and Ajah a suburb in Lagos, revealed that the general and rather stereotyped impression the older generation have of these young ones might not be entirely accurate. Thousands of youths gathered in a make shift community sealing off a major high way to press their demands to the government of the day home could tend to appear chaotic from a far off. But this group is organized. Consistent chants of #EndSARs rent the air. SARs is a Nigerian police unit that has apparently been accused of numerous cases of abuse of youths. Framing them for scams, accusing them of drug use and abuse having them locked up for days with out trial, the accounts of this police brutality and abuse of authority are heart rendering. This is not to say there are none who are guilty of these many crimes, but even for those, proper policing and criminal justice procedures are exxpected to be followed. The youths at the stand off have created a retinue of reconnaissance and logistics which many world class NGOs and Markting companies could learn a few tips from.
Public address systems blare information to the group; There are people who clean up left overs from meal time; others who herald visitors or announce threats to the group; food and drink trucks make regular forays into the space. The group has mounted its own security to keep out miscreants and undesirable elements from infiltrating. A mobile phone thief is caught be protesters. He is promptly beaten up and handed over to the police. Music is playing in the background. To one corner there is a massive solar powered phone recharging point where phones are kept optimized and fully charged for communication and picture-taking. Worship time is a model of tolerance and reverance many of their elders lack, as propoenents of each faith are allowed space to carry out their obesience to the Almighty God. All this takes place in orderly fashion.
By definition the protest looks more like a concert or charity show to raise funds for an important cause. But the unique nature of the protest is just a reflection of the generation that is staging it. Pictureques placads with #EndSARs printed or hand written are on display and blown to various social media via drones, mobile phones and cameras whch are taking airial, still and motion pictues and pushing them on to Twitter where the whole world can see what is going on with these youths.
Food, drinks, cosmetics and entertainment companies have found a way to identify with this mass group of youngsters. Each generation defines itself in ways distinct from the preceding one. These people love to dress down, wear dreadlocks, clingy jeans and sometimes colour their hair distinctively. Those that have made headway sometimes drive a flashy sports car. These trends have made them targets for ill trained police officers who have profiled anyone who appears in that manner to be a scammer, a fraudster or a thief.
Many people of the older generation have been blindsided in not realizing that using technology can actually speeden processes up. Computer applications social media and software have their strengths as tools for business processes. Using majorly twitter in over 10 days, these youths were able to keep food coming, organize legal aid, medical care and gather advice from quarters that they trusted.
Jack Dorsey, CEO and co founder ofTwitter and founder of Square a financial payments compnay, finally tweeted #EndSARs during the protest and that appeared to be a major endorement for the group of protesters who received goodwill messages from celebities around the world
A hacker known as Anonymous has gone to work uploading classfied information to Twitter. He started with the list of names of all SARs operatives in Nigeria and went on to embarrass bureaucrats of a government sponsored institute of science who had been transferring money large sums of money to various personal accounts. Some proponents of the protest are saying that Anonymous must be a group rather than an individual. Their analysis is possibly based upon the amount of data that is being uploaded at a time. It appears that the slogans of various internet service providers: Data is Life;Data is oxygen are aimed at these technology buffs who are using social media for so many things.
The youth are a bit clumsy in their approach to pressing for their demands. A lack of leadership or representation has left the government of the day a bit indecisive about how to approach negotiation. A lack of an arrow head could be both an advantage and a disadvantage because determing how to move forward to either escalate their activities or grind them to a hault could prove fatal at various points. It also makes communication to be open and massively presented so that there are no suspicions of manipulation or bribery.
Nobody is perfect. But their fortitude and ingenuity has made their elders sit up and take note that the general and stereotypical notions about them might not be entirely correct. In time to come, writers, analysts, marketeers and procurement officers would possibly build a couple of theories and technologically based processes around what they saw them do. It’s a more than a foot note in history already.

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