Nigerians desperately need not how to fix Nigeria, because that is now an impossible task; what we need now is SOMEONE who can FIX US -Nigerians! You can say we have been blessed with many men with spines of soft rubber.
Nigerians desperately need not how to fix Nigeria, because that is now an impossible task; what we need now is SOMEONE who can FIX US -Nigerians! You can say we have been blessed with many men with spines of soft rubber.
Logical to think we are now ready for someone with a spine of STEEL. We have been copiously blessed with many men who have done what is good for self; we are now ready for a superstar who can do what is good for country. Regrettably, the horizon is empty of such a superstar. There is a ruckus of noise makers on how to fix our nation. Failure awaits all who try unless they can fix us first!
Men of my generation and those before us have enjoyed the fruits of a generous country. We were lucky then to have a focused and, relatively, corruption free leadership. But Men of generations after me have come to find that ‘our’ generation was like a plague. We have destroyed and devoured all that is good and left in our wake a country that has no desirable character or quality to speak of.
The sweats of few have turned into waste and the hearts of many have been turned into haulers of pain in quantities unknown by any scale. We are a country of has-beens. We are full of Excellencies and honorables, of Chiefs and Alhajis, of Drs’ and Profs, of high Priests and super Mallams, and of unmerited national honorees. But in all this litany of self righteous glorification and the fraudulent usurpation of the people’s power and goodwill, we find very miniscule few with HONOUR.
Professor Wilmot, renowned ABU academician, reminded us eloquently that “it is not how long a leader reigns but how well that matters.” He refers again and again in one of his books to that “great patriotic soldier-statesman, General Murtala, who offered the country, and indeed Africa, such inspirational leadership during his brief reign in power.” He declared that “good, purposeful and inspirational leadership is the enduring lesson of Murtala's leadership of approximately 200 days.” All others since then have failed to emulate his example, even those who practiced civilian autocracy.
We are the proud practitioners of a democratic government but only in name. In our action, we are just a nation of unguided, uncouthed, unprincipled, and ‘unenlightened’ lot. We all know that the ruling party is the party to beat but Wilmot states that “the PDP must learn a useful lesson here. The purported largest party in Africa is unlikely to achieve in the six decades it plans to ride the Nigerian horse without opposition, what it has been unable to do over the last decade of steering the… ship of state.”
Nigerians have been deprived of their liberty and happiness through systematic plundering of the treasury. They have been deprived of their right to education, their right to the security of self and property, their right to enjoy good health, clean water, good roads, and stable electricity. And, unlike in any other democratic country, where the government derives its rights from the governed; In a Nigerian democracy, the government derives it rights from itself. Thus the government owes its citizens NOTHING and it functions despite them.
The greatest thinker of self government – Thomas Jefferson once said that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it,” and Prof Wilmot said “After half a century of independence, Nigeria, the potential super power of Africa has travelled in reverse gear. If Nigeria had been a motor vehicle it would have been scrapped. And the scrap dealer would probably have refused the metal because of its flaws. On every measure of performance for a state with its wealth and material resources, Nigeria has been a failure. Nothing works - from health, education, housing, manufactures, telephones, roads; the historical record is almost blank. In a thousand years scholars could look back and sigh; there's no sign that wise men once ruled."
Nigerians are dying from pure neglect, pure laziness, and pure illiteracy (and YES, many of the Universities are churning out “educated” illiterates). Nigerians are suffering from pure exploitation and pure unmodified poverty. Nigerians are battered from constant misrepresentation of the truth by those who have sworn to uphold the truth. Nigerians are being misled by the failure of the elite to uphold the minimum decorum of a civilized people and thus we have become the blind, led by the shadows of those who claim to work for us.
What more can one say? Yet, we want to spend Ten (10)billion Naira to celebrate our fantastic failure as a nation. We are individually smart but together we become incompetent ignoramuses. "[It is a] great truth that industry, commerce and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of [a] people." If our leaders can gain the insights of this simple truth and devote their time and energy to securing these crucial sectors of human survival and growth, they will have solved our problems with ease.
Gives us water, roads, electricity and good health and no one will come to beg for your (elitist) trifle handouts. Our industries will wake from the dead. Our commerce will thrive and living standards will rise. Give us security in the places we work, the places we live, and the places we do business; and you will see us bloom with ideas and wealth, armed with the knowledge that no one can take what is mine by force nor tell me to leave my home and business because of some colonial indigenous classification created by politicians to divide us and rule us. Our security will guarantee our right to be free to live and conduct business anywhere in Nigeria.
To the people of Jos, I say, if you are a perpetrator of mayhem, then the day you shall answer will surely come. To the victims, I say do not relent in asserting your rights. Your fight is the fight of all good Nigerians and sooner or later, the good always prevails over the evil.
A warning must also be sent forth to any other group who think it is now their chance (there are some in others areas that have this delusion) to claim some imaginary right of ownership to a land or territory, I say you are embarking on a journey that has failed before it begun.
Nigeria is yours; Yes. And it is equally mine as well. Do not assume rights that do not belong to you. Do not assume silence and dignity from us is fear! It is either we live together or we perish together. There is no other option! The claim that someone is an indigene and another is a migrant in any part of any state, any city, any town, or any emirate is a huge fallacy. It is either we are all owners or we are all squatters. No one can remove me or mine from anywhere, especially the places of our birth and heritage.
Ask any Nigerian, and without hesitation, he or she will be quick to tell you that our problem lies with the leadership. Yet, we painfully stand by and allow our political system to be governed by the almighty Naira, not by the necessary dissertation of ideas and passion accessorized by the abundance of patriotism.
Let us not continue to dishonor ourselves by turning on each other! Let us do our part and select the right people to lead us to the greatness that Nigeria is capable of! Let us find someone who can fix us! The electoral law is now in place. It is not very useful if we do not act, thus let us perform our duty diligently and fix our politics! We will have no right to complain afterwards.
H.D. Fika writes from Potiskum
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