I believe you are aware that Nigeria as a nation
recently celebrated her 54th anniversary. It was wonderful, though
not a jamboree like the earlier ones. If anything, at least we are cutting down
on the euphoria of age. After all, age is nothing but a number, right? There
was no elaborate celebration to celebrate the day unlike the preceding years
where giant national cakes were cut with parades in the capital city. It was a
normal day only mentioned in whispers and media houses who were only obliged to
remember such day and probably businesses who only exploited the day are worth
a mention. In the lives and mind of the average Nigerian working like a possessed
laborer just enough to be broke, the day meant nothing. I don’t blame him. With
age, you expect wisdom. However, we have learnt the hard way that old age is
not tantamount with wisdom. Well, with experience yes but experience does not
always translate into wisdom. Does it? So let me use this medium to say happy
belated Independence Day. I have this staunch believe that the next time I will
get to say that to you, we will indeed have cause to holler it and be happily
justified. It is a dream I hold tenaciously to. You should too. We have just
one country, don’t we? Let’s together make it worthwhile. I believe in friends,
in you, in the country. Do you?
Fela Durotoye said in the epilogue of the music video
of TY Bello, ‘The Future’ and I quote “The
future is not a time zone that is yet to come. The future is everything that we
can be but have not yet become. The future is everything that we can do but we
have not yet done. The future is here, the future is now. So go ahead, deliver
the future because you CAN; because you MUST! Together we will”.
Did you hear that? Don’t just sit in the corner of your
house and wish for a unified country where ethnic dissents are nullified. You
will be doing us a great harm if you fold your arms and expect our country be
rise from this pit of under-development all by itself. You are guilty of war if
you choose not to do what you can do to ensure we together hoist the Nigerian
flag and put her name among the developed countries. You are guilty of war when
you watch the TV, read the newspapers, listen to the radio and just shake your
head in pity for the country. We are tired of pity, aren’t you? You are indeed
guilty of war when you leave me to the task of ensuring a revolution for this
country.
You love Nigeria, don’t you? I know she has done
nothing over the years but shake your trust in her. That’s what Nigerian
politicians are, right? They shake your hand before the polls and shake your
trust after. It’s alright. It was really cruel of her treat you like that, very
wicked of her. You have every moral right to tell her to go screw herself!
Patriotically though, that is not good enough. After all, you didn’t choose to
be a Nigerian, right? Let me ask you though, did you disown your father when he
was very mean to you while growing up? No? Did you curse your mother to the pits
of hell when she refused you food and threw you into your room – if you had one?
No? I know you must have felt like it? It’s only natural. But you didn’t. You
saw it as a process through which you came out gleaming. Every one of us today is
a product of the kind of parent we have or had – good or bad. We stuck out with
a hope inside us that one day we will be free from their hold and we did get
free sooner or later. Isn’t that right?
Unfortunately, such hope is not there for us as citizens
of Nigeria. At least, for most of us. Some of us will never get the chance to
flee this country as some unpatriotic felons are doing – not even for pleasure
to return. So why don’t you just put all your God-given resources to work and
make this country the toast of the world? We have all we need. Nigeria is
smaller in land mass than most African countries and even outside, yet we have
the most amount of natural and human resources. There is hardly any solid
mineral not found within the soils of our dear country. We are blessed even
with the population which looks unequal with the land available. So what does
that tell you? Even in the small land, we have everything. We possess
everything to be the wealthiest country in the whole darn world! If only we will
get ourselves right and yes, our leadership right.
I believe in your brain, in your ideas, in your
resourcefulness, in your creativity, in you as a fellow citizen of Nigeria. God
out of the equation, we are all we’ve got. I have you and you have me. No more
of everyman for himself, God for all. I look to you. Please, rise together with
me and make a lasting impact in your immediate environment. You don’t need to
get into government before your hungry neighbor can be fed, do you? You don’t
need the government before you bring a smile to some homeless urchins. You can
be the unofficial governor of your street, the un-acclaimed difference that
brought the different change. You only need the right heart, the right
motivation. Resources abound around you if you will tap into them. Ideas rule
the world so come up with one and let the whole world starting from your
neighborhood be a better place. You might be expendable but the world is a
better place because you are in it. Make real your dream and the dreams of
millions of people.
I believe in you. Till we see again, keep the torch
aloft. Remember to email me if you need me. I am always around the corner.
I am the conversationalist and this, is the
conversation.
Shalom!
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