LAST week Friday, Nigeria turned 61 as an independent nation. So much has been said about the 61 year old who is still a toddler and has refused to push itself to attain its full potentials. A lot of commentaries have been done portraying the country as a failed state that is beyond redemption.
I agree with the many prognosis and the variety of the arguments of the personalities who have painstakingly done their analysis using all of the statistics at their disposal to show us why they have reached such a conclusion. They have every right to draw such a conclusion.
At 61, it is expected that one would have gone past his youth and would have attended adulthood. In fact, the individual would have been at his peak and in some cases would have retired from public life and would be settling down to enjoy the fruits of his labour having become a senior citizen.
The frustrations of the citizenry is, therefore, understood and appreciated. It is not acceptable to refuse to exploit the resources available to help aid your own growth especially in a resource rich country such as Nigeria, neither is it excusable the way we have all refused to fully utilize the human resources available to grow our economy for the benefit and enjoyment of all and sundry.
Yes, we have made so many mistakes as a people. Yes, we have refused to even unite as a people. Yes, we have allowed ourselves to be led asunder by those who do not mean well for us but has it been all gloom? Have we not also been culpable as followers who have refused to point the ways for our leaders? Can we not start doing our own little bits that would help change the narrative from our little corners? Just like mother Theresa of blessed memory said “ it is the little bits we do in our small corners that add up to affect the larger society”. If this is true are we all not guilty?
We have all refused to stand up when it would have mattered the most. Indeed Fela Kuti provides an answer to Nigeria’s problems when he said all Nigerians have a reason to fear for everything including their freedom. “We get reason to fear even for the breeze around us”. We keep giving excuses why we refuse to stand up to those misleading us and expect God to come down from heaven to fight on our behalf. Unless we shed off that mental slavery, those misleading us would continue to hold sway.
We, therefore, need to have a hard look at ourselves and make the decision to change our ways. We need to start a rebuilding process and make it very clear that the present political class has failed us. It is clear that all that they worry about is their group interest and not that of the generality of the people. Look at how they change political parties as if they are changing their clothes and yet the people refuse to see through their follies.
I would dare to say the followers are the problem. They settle for crumbs when in actual fact they are the owners of the wealth. It must not continue to be like this if anything is to work in this country. The era of being politically correct is long gone. The people need to insist that the right things be done.
This can be achieved if all say no to being short changed. We can harness all the positive energies and channel them in one direction so as to achieve our aim. We can not continue to allow these so called leaders to use religion to divide us. This is resorted to only when their interests are threatened otherwise religion does not matter to them. Nigerians must understand that tribe and tongue has not served us but the politicians resort to them when their interests are threatened.
Show me a market where religion or tribe determine the prices of goods and services. Show me a mosque and church where goods and services are rendered free of charge for a particular tribe or religious adherents? We need to wake up from our slumbers and see with our own eyes that unless something is done we would continue to wallow in abject poverty as a people. The country would continue its downward slide until we change our approach to dealing with issues that concern us as a people. There are many good Nigerians who are excelling in various fields of endeavours, these are the set of people who should be trusted to lead this country not some ethicists or religious bigots who knows little or nothing about the art of uniting and growing a country
There is a silver lining in the horizon and if well managed .would lead to the development of the country. The population alone can provide all the needed markets to help us consume what we produce. But we have to put the right people in the right places.
We must also take advantage of our youth population. The youth have a lot of creative energies, they shout therefore, be made to harness these energies for the growth of the country. But they can only do this if the right policies are put in place to allow them thrive.
The youth also should know that power is never surrendered on a platter of gold. They must work hard to seize power from an elite that has shown it is not ready to retire. They must acquire the necessary tools to arm themselves so as to take over from these lot that have failed and are refusing to yield and give way.
The youth have the power to change the political configuration using their population but only when they show seriousness. They must take seriously every responsibilities they are given not being unserious when saddled with responsibilities.
