Voices rose up in justified anger, fists curled up into knuckles weaving through the air at rallies, in unveiled nationalist protests against the subjugation of their people under the obnoxious self-imposed rule of colonialists who not only stole from the owners with impunity but also annoyingly reprimanded him (the owner) for seeking to watch over his usurped property. “This is the voice of the people, the true people of this nation. And they are telling you, get out and take with you your renegades who have lost all sense of shame.” Such rousing speeches characterized sensitization gatherings that eventually heralded the demise of colonialism and birthed self-rule in our dear beloved country.
Those days when the principal desire of statesmen was to wrestle power from the hands of colonial imperators are gone now, like stony ice dissolved in a mass of sea. They were remotely replaced by a period of trials and errors during which indigenous leaders new to the art of leadership contended with its accompanying challenges like a newly built ship released into the uncertainties of the Mediterranean, either to sail or to sink. However, banking on their intelligence, commitment and support of technocrats, they were able to surmount the storms that assailed them and sailed beautifully, albeit only for a few post-independence years. Their grand achievements as regards economic and infrastructural development shooting heavenwards soon began to recede into the mire of corruption, bickering and paranoia. Subsequently, time and resources that should have gone into the articulation and implementation of plans to further advance the lives of the people soon began to be frittered away on propaganda either to keep the opposition at bay, present it in bad light or completely muffle its roaring voice, all to the detriment of the nation and its people. The dogs had ceased barking and had begun to bite. An evil had been let loose upon the people and even a greater one soon took over in the name of military intervention.
A people who know not from where they come can hardly speed much towards their destination but having reminded ourselves of how we have come to have a nation that is available but not desirable, then it becomes necessary to point out those features which make this nation, Nigeria undesirable in its current state. This seems to be an invitation to the grim disheartening tales of decadence in virtually every sphere of our national life, starting with the saddening fact that of the nation’s 150million population, seventy percent are reported internationally to be living below poverty line, struggling to survive on less than a dollar daily. This obviously is as a result of the kleptomaniac predilections of successive corrupt and inept leaders who care less about taking the life of the common man beyond where they met it but rather whose actions and inactions have obliterated the middle class and further pushed down the impoverished majority into depths of misery.
The crashing standards of education reflected in dilapidated structures, empty library shelves and inefficiency of demoralized teaching staff is just one of the other parts of the Nigerian national life lamenting how far the nation has regressed. Add that to the grossly unequipped hospitals, dismal power supply, collapse of industries, horrible roads, unceasing fuel crises, uncurbed inflation, insecurity among other ills, and you are indubitably confronted with the image of a nation painfully refusing to fulfill its potentials. You see a nation with nothing in the midst of plenty, throwing away its opportunities at development like its flared gases in the Niger Delta. However, in the midst of all this darkness, a glimmer of light glows in the distance which is hope, the one thing a deprived people must never willingly yield to the ills that oppress them.
In the words of John Mason “Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” It’s thus clear that for us to have the nation we desire, we must keep the hope alive. That hope that Nigerians tenaciously cling onto is symbolic of their aspirations, expectations and desires for our beloved country. Collectively, Nigerians desire a country where things would work the way they should without the fear of someone placing a cog in the wheel of progress for his own selfish interest. That may seem a tall order but it’s definitely possible to have a Nigeria where medical services would not only be available but qualitative and affordable. Where political leaders and the wealthy would not need to incur the extra expense of time and resources to seek treatments for minor ailments abroad but rather have their health taken care of by excellent doctors working with equipment that dictate the world standard. We desire a Nigeria whose hospitals would qualify as the best referral institutions worldwide for the most complicated of surgical endeavors. A Nigeria where people need not say their last prayers before going to bed knowing not if their lives would not be surrendered before day-break either to armed robbers or religious-cum-ethnocentric fanatics.
Nigerians would indubitably be more than happy if their vehicles can glide across roads like snakes sliding on glasses or have light and potable water at their beck and call in the comfort of their homes. Such comforts would no doubt be complete if the people can happily rest their heads on their pillows with their minds at rest knowing that trustworthy and efficient bank managers handle their savings with utmost proficiency and professionalism and not shepherding their institutions towards heart-breaking liquidation through such reckless lending out to their cronies while they also lavish themselves with various items of ostentation procured with millions of naira sourced from the sweat of millions of Nigerians whose only sin is imbibing a saving culture and trusting their savings into the hands of some people they hold in high esteem.
Nigerians desire a nation that caters for its citizen’s welfare and grants them the benefit of constant development in such areas as technology, infrastructure, modern transportation models, agriculture and sports without neglecting any of the areas that make up its geographical or ethnic composition. A nation reputed globally for its worthy contributions to the world’s advancement not despised for the criminal predilections of a small but visible portion of its population, even acquiring a terrorist nomenclature in recent times. It’s however pertinent to note that these much desired transformations in several facets of our national life can only be orchestrated by godly leaders who intelligibly chart the course for progress and a committed citizenry honestly and diligently using the resources trusted into their hands to create the nation they desire. We can have good leaders, we can have the nation we so daily dream of, yes we can if only we rise up and transform prayerfully into actions those fantasies, those thoughts, and those plans that will create the Nigeria we all desire. Thanks!
TOBI ADEBOWALE.
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