Age is But Number

Age is the number of years between birth and death. Experience is the sum of lessons – well or badly –learned. It is easiest to assume that experience is proportional to age, only it isn’t. One could be elderly and still plain.

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 With a wider exposure, a younger man will have more tales than an elderly one who is confined to a certain space, a simple culture and a lot of mental limitation. And with more trials, failures and successes; the young would have more useful offers to make.

One of the greatest mistakes of Africa is the false notion that people would have more to offer simply because they are old. Actually, one may have more to offer in any given area because they have dedication in such area and not necessarily a long time but quality time.

A man can father a child and irredeemably fail at being Dad even though he had the ability to ejaculate, the requisite age to get married but has not applied himself in the direction of raising a child. In the same vein, an older person should not be a leader simply because they have the required age.

In many African countries especially ours, age can sometimes be the determining factor rather than required experience: one has to attain a certain minimum age, even with very little education, because it is assumed that they would be better respected for their age. Another is that it might offend the older generation to take instructions from a younger person.


While I recognize the tradition of respect that we have, I do believe that a lot of the times it does act as a wedge to progress, more often when it comes to leadership. Less often leaders are born than they are made. When leadership becomes a birthright, stagnation is entrenched and when it is made something for the elderly, the best of a nation will be made to rot away while waiting for the ancients to die.

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