Nigeria At 52: Shouldn’t We Cut Her Some Slack?

How time flies indeed. Of course just like a whirlwind the anniversary of our independence is already here again with us. This time around we have gotten a year older exactly 52 years of directing the affairs of our nation by our own hands to be precise, exactly 52 years of steering this ship of a nation to the harbor of goodwill even though icebergs in the form of corruption, terrorism and militarism have all made this sail a slow one.
The Reactions trailing the celebrations from concerned neighbors and citizens I must confess is never the best this nation deserve, at least not at this time where the survival of this nation is left sitting on the edge of a precipice. People have said all sort of things, tongues have wagged, all calling different sort of names to the nation and the presidency. On the pages of social networks like 2go, Face book, twitter and the like, castigations is already the order of the day with citizens and enemies of this administration putting up absurd posts and rejecting broadcast messages that will add more flare to the celebration such that one is forced to ask if that is the best we could do for a nation that has suffered from all manners of threat to her existence? For how long shall we keep fixing the blame instead of fixing the problem? For all I know, those who fix problems soon get overwhelmed.
On my Face book wall, I managed to put up the following words “fifty-two years already gone……..bravo naija though tongues will definitely wag and tempers will rise about your haven not achieved nothing. And who is it that say we haven’t achieved anything? I believe we have achieved a lot, but then the expectations I want to believe is way too high. A nation of nearly 200 million individuals, the journey long ago started, the Rubicon we shall cross, a great nation we shall make, our patience and self-discipline the price we all ought to pay. Though we may not live up to that age, but am ready to give all I can for its attainment…at 52, we still don’t know where to focus. God help our nation”, what a way to think you may say!
My stance on the state of the nation is not that of a nation that has achieved all the success it can get, NO, not at all, but seeing that there is no gain in making noises that yield not a single positive outcome, I’ve resorted to being content with what we got, while hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Instead of continuing to nag over spilt milk, how about we go doing the mopping up? Instead of playing the blame game, how about we go fixing the problems
No doubt, the Nigeria we have today is not that, our heroes past premeditated or wished, but what more can we do? Ordinary men alone we are, all subject to the whims and caprices of the intelligences superior to man. It’s rather ironical and unfortunate, that I couldn’t watch the live broadcast of the annual event despite having a TV set in my apartment. The reason for this you may want to guess…..power outage. What more could you not have said of a nation celebrating the anniversary of her independence while her citizens live in poverty and penury, where insecurity has robbed them of the peace they before now enjoyed and where the sacrosanct nature of the human life is being betrayed.
Looking at all these scenarios, I have been forced to make myself an ambassador of hope. The worst part of it all is the fact that we ourselves are the master minders of the lacklustre nature of our developmental pace and not just a thing with the government. The mind of the average Nigerian including you and I, is every now and then preoccupied with thoughts of corruption. The get-rich-quick syndrome has eaten deep into each and every one of us. We keep calling our leaders corrupt, but then even in the smallest human community you are always quick to find elements and seeds of corruption among the leadership of that particular organization.
I think the time is come, for us to start changing our mindset, president Olusegun Obasanjo once said, “if you want Nigeria to be better, then make your own household better”, and I strongly believe in this philosophy, it is not just the responsibility of the so called leaders, it is on the contrary, a collective responsibility. An old adage says “WHEN THE RIGHT HAND WASHES THE LEFT HAND, AND THE LEFT HAND DOES SAME TO THE RIGHT HAND, OUR WHOLE HANDS BECOME CLEAN”. How many of us, have done this assignment of this erstwhile president? In all sincerity, scarcely a handful of us have, which indirectly implies that our problems are far from getting solved. Forgive my pessimism anyway.
After managing to go through the presidential speech, it was filled with the same promises we have been hearing. I will do this, I will do that. Oh my God! I wouldn’t blame him, the young man is out there doing all he can to change the face of the nation, but he occupies just one office when you have thousands of offices that are involved in the developmental process of a nation; that makes his job one hell of a job. You don’t just have to be good, you have to make the members of your administration even better. This of course is an invidious exercise.
I would on this note want to assure us all of a new and better Nigeria to come. Every developed nation we see today on the face of this edifice, called earth have had their own share of problems and are still having and will continue to have, so Nigeria cannot be an exception. You and I, might not live to see that Nigeria flowing with milk and honey, but its attainment lies solely in our hands. If we can be fair to ourselves, then it is clear that we are already on the right track; it’s only a matter of time before we can become an “ussein bolt” and finish up that race.
On a final note, let me share with you all, what my colleague told me many years ago. In his words “we all have a role to play before Nigeria moves forward; lets therefore desist from asking what Nigeria has done for us, and begin to share in the philosophy of the former united states president, john. Kennedy, by asking, what have we done for Nigeria?”…..Happy independence anniversary to you all, whether we like it or not, we have achieved something, and are still achieving and will continue to achieve many more, lets therefore cut this nation some slack. As we embark on this great stride, may God bless us all and may he bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria……turn to your neighbor and say, happy independence Naija!
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