The pioneer Executive Director of #FixPolitics Africa, Anthony Ubani, has warned leaders and adults to be cautious of the values they pass to future generations.

In a treatise he released from Abuja over the weekend, the leadership and governance expert alluded to the biblical warning that “whatever a man sows, he reaps,” noting that this generation cannot be corrupt and expect the coming generation to embrace integrity.

He referred to Frank Nweke II’s speech at the first convocation of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG), Kenya, on Friday, July 3, 2026, at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi, with the title ‘The Future Has Ancestors’.

According to Ubani, the title is one of those rare phrases that appear simple at first but grow larger the longer one thinks about it. “It is imaginative, philosophical and deeply true. It does not merely describe the relationship between the old and the young; it places a serious moral responsibility on every adult, parent, teacher, leader and citizen,” he added.

Those ancestors, he explained, are not only the men and women whose names appear in family histories or whose photographs hang on the walls of ancestral homes. “They are the people living today whose choices, values, examples and failures will shape the generations coming after them. In that sense, we are all ancestors in the making.”

He asserted that the future president “is presently someone’s child, student, employee or younger colleague.”

Ubani further noted that future governors, judges, police officers and business leaders “are watching” the behaviour of today’s people.

“They listen to what adults say, but they learn more from what adults do. This is where Nigeria faces a serious crisis. We complain constantly about the character of young people while refusing to examine the examples we have given them.

“We say the young are dishonest, impatient, materialistic, entitled and desperate for sudden wealth. But who built the society from which they learnt these habits? Children do not come into the world knowing how to bribe a police officer, buy examination results, manipulate an election, inflate a contract or use public office for private enrichment; they learn these things by observing the adults around them,” he stated.

Decrying the laissez-faire attitude of today’s adults, Ubani said: “Unfortunately, too many Nigerian leaders behave as though the future will never question them; they build no durable institutions, strengthen no public systems and leave behind no example worthy of imitation. They take everything from the country and return almost nothing to it. They forget that they, too, will become ancestors.”

He reminded them that one day, the convoys would disappear and the official residences would be occupied by others, while the security details would be reassigned and the titles removed, wondering what would remain of the roads they built or failed to build, the schools they improved or abandoned, the institutions they strengthened or destroyed and the moral example they left behind.

The future, the leadership expert warned, will not only inherit our buildings, roads, debts and institutions; it will also inherit standards.

He added: “That is why ‘The Future Has Ancestors’ is not merely a beautiful title; it is a warning and a call to duty. It asks every parent, leader and citizen to consider what values are being passed on through their conduct. It reminds us that the next generation cannot become better than the examples consistently placed before it.

“Most importantly, it leaves us with a question that should trouble every thoughtful person: when the future looks back at us, what will it say it inherited? The future has ancestors. We are those ancestors, and tomorrow is already watching us.”

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