The North Will Rise the Day Its Youth Stop Promoting Nonsense -By Abdulsamad Danji Abdulqadir

Northern Nigeria is gradually becoming a humanitarian crisis zone. From insecurity and mass kidnappings to poverty, hunger, unemployment, and political manipulation, the region is facing challenges that threaten both the present and the future of millions of people.

Yet, despite these realities, many of our youths appear distracted by things that add little or no value to society. Social media platforms that could have been used to educate, create awareness, and amplify the voices of suffering communities are now dominated by meaningless trends, leaked sex tapes, celebrity arguments, and endless TikTok dances.

This is not to say that entertainment is bad. Every society needs relaxation and creative expression. However, it becomes a serious problem when entertainment completely overshadows the urgent conversations that concern our survival and development.

While young people in many parts of the world are using technology to build businesses, create innovations, influence policies, and solve societal problems, many northern youths spend valuable hours chasing online clout and promoting content that contributes nothing meaningful to the progress of the region.

At a time when the North has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world, our social media spaces should be filled with campaigns demanding better education and opportunities for young people. At a time when communities are living in fear of kidnappers and bandits, our voices should be louder in demanding security and accountability from leaders.

Sadly, we often give more attention to a leaked video than to the cries of students kidnapped from schools. We spread gossip faster than we spread awareness about hunger, poverty, or insecurity. We trend scandals more than we trend the struggles of ordinary citizens.

This culture of distraction is dangerous because it slowly normalizes failure and mediocrity. It creates a generation that is more concerned about temporary online attention than long-term societal progress.

The painful truth is that politicians alone cannot destroy a society without the cooperation of a distracted population. If the youths continue to focus only on entertainment while ignoring governance and development, then the cycle of bad leadership, manipulation, and suffering will continue.

The North does not lack intelligent, creative, and talented young people. What we lack is collective focus and proper direction. The same energy used to make useless content trend online can be redirected toward promoting education, entrepreneurship, innovation, and advocacy.

Imagine if northern youths devoted the same passion they use in spreading celebrity gossip to discussing insecurity, demanding better governance, supporting education, and exposing corruption. Imagine if our social media spaces became platforms for awareness, development, and solutions rather than tools for distraction alone.

Technology is one of the most powerful tools in the modern world. It can either build a generation or destroy it. The choice is ours to make.

The future belongs to youths who use technology to create impact, solve problems, and uplift their communities — not those who use it only for temporary attention and meaningless trends.

Northern Nigeria can still rise again, but that transformation will begin the day its youths decide to stop promoting nonsense and start promoting progress.