At the same time, he too is guilty of the same ineptitude and inaction, of which he continues to accuse the Nigerian government. He has failed to initiate the mechanism needed to emancipate himself, and the entire nation, and of course the generations to come, from the grip and shadows of the invisible force that has controlled and continued to lead this great nation as it deems fit, for the benefits of members within its circle, only. He is too mentally and intellectually lazy to think through the problems that we all face. This invisible force is well nurtured and established, spreading its tentacles in all parts of the country. It has become institutionalized.
What is even worse is that you often hear from the superstructure of the Nigeria government, mostly on the pages of Newspapers, on Televisions and other media, which is a tool in the hands of the few that control the lives and resources collectively owned by all Nigerians,
Many writers have devoted their time and efforts, writing about the avalanche of problems facing this country, and attempting to proffer what in their opinion they feel is the solution to solving the Nigerian Question. The question that needs to be asked is, How many young men and women in Nigeria actually take their time each morning reading these articles? And for those that do, how much has their reading affected their general view about the situation in the country? These are mostly the questions that face us. Until the young man and the young woman, whose hands rest the future of this country, begin think differently from the philosophy of old, until they begin to see things differently, and until they make extra effort to make a clean and total break from the old ideas and concepts that got us to this present situation, then we are likely not going to experience the kind of development that a country of Nigeria size, abundance natural and human resources deserve. The first necessary step is political independence.
Just so I may be understood, there are two different kinds of independence that must evolve in this country. The first one, which became a reality at the attainment of independence from the British Colonia Maters on October 1st, 1960, has now outlived its importance. Now is the time to vigorously pursue the second phase of political independence for the average Nigerians. The struggle to accomplish this will be a more daunting task than the first because, unlike the first where the Nationalists clearly knew who their opponents were, today our opponents are people of the same colour with us, people who share the same experience as we do, people who speak the same language that we speak, people who are part of our system and therefore know our weaknesses and strengths. These people know the right thing to say, they know the best way to orchestrate their plans, to manipulate and perpetually force their will down our throat. They understand the frustration and desperation of the average Nigerians of whom they continue to take advantage.
First necessary steps to be taken
The following are considered to be the more practical steps and alternative options to be taken in correcting the anomaly in the Nigerian system.
1. To initiate legislations aimed at abolishing the principle of Federal Character. Good as the idea that encourages proportional appointments and employment along ethnic line in filling government owned parastatals and institutions may have been in times past, we however can see the down side of this principle today as it doesn’t reflect the concept of hard work and reward. It is far worse when one considers the fact that this same principle is encouraged in our federal schools and colleges of higher learning, in that the very concept of education which awards grades according to performance is compromised. To say that this principle encourages lazy attitude towards excellence is abuse and excessive use of euphemism. Studies show that environmental factors can influence people’s attitude to a large extent, and if one takes the principle of performance and reward and non performance with failure, then the picture becomes clearer.
(i) The principle of Federal Character negates all efforts at making progress has now become the very source of backwardness and confusion to many people. This issue must now be addressed pragmatically, once and for all, because so many things are wrong with this concept, not only because it fails to take into account the downside of it which among others includes discouragement of the pursuit of excellence nut also because it doesn’t ensure professionalism which’s been lacking in almost all of the institutions in Nigeria. The best and most qualified candidates should and must be given the chance to put what they know into use, irrespective of their ethnicity or state of origin.
(ii) In fact, there is urgently the need to initiate an act by the national houses of assembly to promote a system that forbids any candidates to include their states of origin when filling out employment application forms. This way, appointment would only be based upon performance and technical requirements, and on merits. The act must also stipulate the strapping of such provisions that requires Nigerians to have to state their state of origin on any forms or applications, be it for university admission, hospital, etc. This provision will encourage impartial treatment, and healthy competition in all spheres, especially among students. Nigeria will be better for it, as none is born academically disadvantaged-only through conscious training and efforts shall one achieve excellence. And it should be clearly understood that no one will ever make any worth while efforts if they are constantly being told that they will get whatever they want simply by their ethnicity or whether or not they work hard for it.
2. To establish a more engaging orientation programme specifically designed to re-educate all Nigerians, in redefining our general priorities in a preferred and more realistic order.
The human brain is inherently reactive. When subjected to certain circumstances, such as challenges, competitions or necessity, the brain wakes up and takes up the tasks. People are not encouraged to read hard in schools when you have a system that fails to recognise and reward professionalism and knowledge. This is a cyclical movement, in which the reality of the ground defies all logics and clear goals of development. It is akin to walking in the opposite direction of one’s objectives.
(i) establishment of the right atmosphere for learning. The student must be made to understand that he is naturally intelligent and that he can academically compete with the rest of his mates from other parts of the country or the world. He must be encouraged to pursue his dreams and ambitions, by telling him to work hard to pass his exams, and that if he fails to obtain good grades, then someone who is more qualified will take his place and space. How else could one possibly encourage stagnation and backwardness? It is simply by not rewarding hard work, which is what the principle of federal character has manages to inflict upon the entire nation. This single act is responsible for most of the problems facing all sectors in Nigeria today, including education, health, power, security, agriculture, people’s attitude to one another, to mention but a few. It is tearing down the entire nation. All of the fabrics that make a nation great have been drastically eroded by this monster.
(ii) Events around the world have shown that knowledge controls and the world, and not just natural resources. It is not just the natural and human resources that a country has that decides her prominence, it is rather what she does with the resources she’s endowed with, her ability to blend and harness those resources. We should move away from the erroneous notion that simply serves to promote complacency in the system. We should become more knowledge conscious. The acquisition of technical knowledge should now replace the present prevalent ideas that only serve to put us where we are today. We should pursue technical advantage which is actually a more strategic tool for control and authority. We can not afford to be termed a Third World country anymore. Our leaders should know this. Nigeria must grow up. We cannot continue to be lied to. The Nigerian, irrespective of who his parents are, or where he comes from must be given a sense of belonging, and he must be taught to pursue excellence. A situation in which he sees the only means of success in life and climb to great heights not by who he knows, or where he comes from, but rather by what he can achieve with his potentials, and proper hard work.
(iii) He must be encouraged to exploit his full potentials. He must see that corruption isn’t the most attractive route to success and respect. He must see himself as being in the stream of several other intelligent people whose sole cause is to find a lasting solution to the problems we are faced with today, the problems of unemployment, insecurity, lack of electricity power supply, decay in education system, corruption in every sector, negative attitude among Nigerians, lack of standard infrastructure, et cetera. He must finally see that he is just as good or even could be better than his fellow White computer geek boy.
3. Overhauling the super-structure. The big and daunting question is how can we bring all of this about when so much has already gone wrong? Who is to be responsible for creating the necessary environment that encourages the above described atmosphere? I think we all know the answers-you and I, from the woman who sells Boli across the street to the bank Chief Executive, from the artisan roadside mechanic to the educated professional engineer, from the child to the adults, we all must assume the responsibility of moving this country forward. We must see that this country belongs to all of us, and that our actions today no matter how insignificant they may appear to be will determine the future of the next generations. As romantic as this may sound however, we also do know that individually, we can only do as much, and that the main responsibility lies with the government. We all know how powerful the government is, because we have collectively ceded the rights of self governance to an entity called the government. We know it is impossible for all of us to be involved in the day-to-day business of running the affairs of the country.
We consciously give legitimacy to a supreme power to provide for us what we know individually we can not provide for ourselves. The government must therefore use the enormous power it has been given for the benefits and growth of Nigerians. What the government chooses to do with this collective will is left in the hands of the elected officials to steer the ship of the affairs of this country. We must send a clear message across that amplifies the fact that if the government chooses not to and fails to use these powers in a constructive way, that we can and will bring it down, and install in its stead a more responsive one.
3.(i) They must be made accountable, and that the actual rights which it enjoys to rule, which is sovereignty truly rests with the people and that we can actually invoke this will. This is not theoretical, because we all know we can do it in reality. The government must therefore do the job it’s been assigned to do. We can not settle for less. There must be visible efforts by the government to revolutionise the power sector, Nigeria in the 21st century can longer afford to live in darkness, Nigerians must be given the same access to the standard education that others in the other parts of the world enjoy, we must begin to value our inheritance, we must see visible efforts to wipe out corruption, we longer want to see a situation where the law enforcement officer uses the gun and equipment which we let him have for our protection, turns around and uses that same power as weapon of oppression against us, we must cease to see a situation where we continue to be told lies about the in workability of our refineries, we must see a situation where we become self-sufficient, not just by wishing it, but by making conscious visible efforts, never again can we afford to tolerate a situation where government officials deliberately connive among themselves to ship our wealth abroad, and when they are caught, justice is subverted. Failure to bring this about, the people must take back the right which they had given to the government.
(ii) I personally think the government is no ignorant to these realities. They are aware of their responsibilities, and no wonder all of their efforts at aimed at uneducating the populace, in trying to pull the wool over our eyes, by creating all sorts of commissions which are actually another tool of deception. But like everything else in life, when you remove the ability to fail from people then you definitely remove the ability to succeed. A situation where we do not ask the government to report back to us how they use the powers which we gave to them, resulted in the environment in which we find ourselves today, because performance is not rewarded and neither is failure punished. 48years after independence we are still battling the basics, the ordinary things that are taken for granted in other parts of the world.
4. The power of collectiveness. The people must therefore mobilise. We must stand up and we must stand on our two feet and demand of the government to act, or it be brought down. The interests of this country must be placed above those of the individuals, practically. We can not afford to continue to lose our young able-bodied men and woman to the myth of paradise life abroad which for the majority of the Nigerians who travel abroad is more like slavery, except that it is self-inflicted, and we know that such myth of paradise and perfect life abroad for the foreigners does not exist. We all must be there for one another. We need this country and this country needs us to survive. There is nothing abroad that we can not have here. All it takes and requires is hard work, commitments, sacrifice, and above all the love for this nation.
5. To establish a more engaging orientation programme specifically designed to re-educate all Nigerians, in redefining our general priorities in a preferred and more realistic order.
We must have a paradigm shift. Our perception must change. This is the orientation that the ministry of information must strive to accomplish. Not just trying to engage in building castles in the air, by talking about rebranding the Nigerian image abroad. No doubt the goal is worthwhile, but it must be done in order of priority. This should be the end product, not the means to an end. The means are actually the orientation, the change in attitude, the change in situation in the country. You can not have a brand new name, wrapped up in corruption, decayed infrastructures, insecurity, epileptic electricity power supply, substandard dilapidated roads, lack of drinkable water supply, absence of quality education, and science and technologies, and expect the rest of the world to take us seriously. In order word, you can not package or rebrand lies; it is akin to wrapping poo in fancy packs. This is hollowness, superficiality. You clothe a pig in the best, expensive attire, and he jumps in the mud when you look the other way, thereby soiling and rubbishing the expensive attires. We must let the situation on the ground speak for us, not propagandas. America and the rest of the 29 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD) the club to which the developed countries of the world belong didn’t have to tell the world they are developed. You simply come to accept the facts. What we see.
Conclusions
Finally, we must value knowledge above physical money. Knowledge controls everything, the most effective tool of authority. A priority must be set that reflects progression, from acquiring knowledge and intelligence and then moving on. Everything else will be within our grasp.
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