When useless work ethic meets the useless class in northern Nigeria, By Mohammed Dahiru Aminu
Across the world, as technology advances, the historian Yuval Noah Harari has warned about the rise of what he calls the useless class — people who will become economically irrelevant because they have no skills that the modern world needs. But in northern Nigeria, we are not only at risk of joining that class. We are breeding a mindset that celebrates it. Harari’s warning was about the economic side of uselessness. Ours is worse because it is philosophical and cultural.
There is a dangerous philosophical sickness spreading in northern Nigeria. It has taken hold of the minds of many young people who now claim that one’s progress in life is not the result of hard work. I do not even blame them much, because such mindsets are exactly what produce poverty and underdevelopment. If we had not been thinking this way for decades, we would not be sitting at the bottom of every global measure of progress today. This kind of thinking is common among those who have never seen the world beyond their own narrow corners, or those who have seen it but lack the intellectual depth to understand what it teaches. These are what Barack Obama once called the “forgotten corners of the world.” People born in such places, raised in such places, and content with remaining in such places, see their limitations as the natural order of things. They live in environments where success is often achieved through shortcuts, so they assume that cutting corners is the global rule of life.
If they had travelled and seen developed societies, they would understand how self-destructive such a mindset is. There is no greater insult to yourself and to society than to believe that your success does not depend on your own hard work. Nothing makes a person more useless than refusing to accept that the life you live tomorrow is built on the choices and efforts you make today. Believing otherwise is simply a lazy attempt to rationalise irresponsibility. If they had ever lived in London and taken the Underground on an early weekday morning, they would see how serious people behave. They would see men and women rushing to work because they know that nothing will save them except the hours they put in. When you pass through Canary Wharf or London Bridge or Waterloo and see the movement of people who believe in the power of their effort, you will know that progress does not happen by miracle but by work.
If they had ever taken an early morning train into London’s Waterloo, Victoria, Paddington, or Euston, they would see tens of thousands of disciplined men and women leaving home in the dark cold of winter, dressed for work, holding newspapers, and catching up on the news as they head to earn their living. They would see that hard work pays because it is the only thing that ever has. I cannot even be angry at people who think that hard work does not matter. Their minds are simply filled with nonsense. The good thing is that once you change your mindset, you change your life. I once had that same foolish mindset. I remember telling my PhD supervisor that reviewers were rejecting my manuscripts because they did not like me or because of my name. It took me a while to understand that my problem was not the reviewers. My problem was me. I had simply not done the work at the level required for a top five per cent journal.
Every day, one hears young people say that those who succeed only did so because of privilege or connections. While that may sometimes be true, it is not the full truth. The real story of success anywhere is the story of effort and persistence. You cannot remove work from the story of progress. Even those with privilege must still work to maintain and multiply it. The poor who refuse to work remain poor, and the rich who refuse to work eventually lose what they have.
My friend, Dr Abdulbasit Kassim of the University of Rochester often speaks about the same thing. People come to him looking for success, even though they have done nothing to deserve it. They want results without effort. You can live your life thinking that hard work does not matter, but you must accept the consequences when life proves you wrong. You may be born and raised in the forgotten corners of the world, but if you remain there mentally, you will stay forgotten. No one will be to blame but you. There was a time when our people respected work. Farmers took pride in their sweat. Traders built fortunes from dawn to dusk. Students studied with hunger and ambition. Artisans built names through skills and discipline. But now, we are raising a generation that wants comfort without labour. Many young people no longer believe that effort brings reward. They mock those who work hard and idolise those who make money without visible means. They now believe that work is for the unlucky.
This is where northern Nigeria’s crisis becomes unique. Across the world, as technology advances, the historian Yuval Noah Harari has warned about the rise of what he calls the useless class — people who will become economically irrelevant because they have no skills that the modern world needs. But in northern Nigeria, we are not only at risk of joining that class. We are breeding a mindset that celebrates it. Harari’s warning was about the economic side of uselessness. Ours is worse because it is philosophical and cultural. In our case, even before machines make people redundant, people are already making themselves useless by choice. They are destroying the very idea that effort creates value. They are teaching themselves that it is pointless to strive. They are turning laziness into a worldview and calling it destiny.
This dangerous belief system will merge with the global crisis that Harari has warned about. While automation and artificial intelligence may make some people economically irrelevant, our society’s rejection of hard work will make us irrelevant long before machines do. Our biggest threat is not technology. It is the death of personal responsibility. Every day, one hears young people say that those who succeed only did so because of privilege or connections. While that may sometimes be true, it is not the full truth. The real story of success anywhere is the story of effort and persistence. You cannot remove work from the story of progress. Even those with privilege must still work to maintain and multiply it. The poor who refuse to work remain poor, and the rich who refuse to work eventually lose what they have.
The useless class will not be poor because the world hates them but because they refused to adapt. In northern Nigeria, if we keep rejecting the idea of work, we will join that class — and we will lead it. Hard work is not everything, but without it, nothing else works. And if we want to save the North from the trap of irrelevance, we must first cure this sickness of the mind that tells people that effort does not matter, because when you lose faith in hard work, you lose your future.
When I look around northern Nigeria, I see symptoms of a dangerous future. A region with millions of young people but few builders. Streets full of idle youth who neither study nor create. A society where begging has been normalised and dependency glorified. Political leaders who distribute money, instead of ideas. Religious preachers who turn poverty into proof of piety. And parents who pamper grown men who should be out working. This combination is what will give birth to our own version of Harari’s useless class. A mass of people who will lack skills and the will to work. They will be economically redundant and mentally content with it. They will live from handouts and still think the world owes them something. They will believe that their condition is the fault of everyone except themselves.
The tragedy is that this future is not inevitable. We can still stop it. But that will require a total change in mindset. We must rebuild respect for labour and restore dignity to work. Our schools must teach young people that education is not for status but for service. Parents must stop overprotecting their sons and start teaching them the value of responsibility. Communities must stop praising those who do nothing and start honouring those who work with their hands. We must also remind ourselves that religion does not excuse laziness. Islam teaches that the hand that gives is better than the one that receives. The Prophet (peace be upon him) encouraged Muslims to seek knowledge, learn skills, and earn through honest means. A man who works is serving God and a man who refuses to work while he can is simply disobeying Him.
The North must also understand that the world has changed. It no longer rewards paper qualifications but productivity. A young man with a certificate but no competence will be useless to himself and to society. The same goes for a graduate who cannot think or a trader who cannot innovate. Hard work today means continuous self-improvement and a refusal to give up. The coming world will be divided by wealth and by usefulness. There will be the upper class, the middle class, and the useless class. The useless class will not be poor because the world hates them but because they refused to adapt. In northern Nigeria, if we keep rejecting the idea of work, we will join that class — and we will lead it. Hard work is not everything, but without it, nothing else works. And if we want to save the North from the trap of irrelevance, we must first cure this sickness of the mind that tells people that effort does not matter, because when you lose faith in hard work, you lose your future.
Mohammed Dahiru Aminu ([email protected]) wrote from Abuja, Nigeria.