Sahara Reporters is no doubt the most unbiased Nigerian news media outlet in the US for Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora. This notwithstanding, they may have their own agenda which may either be positive or negative to the entity called Nigeria. I leave the choice of whether or not the Sahareporter’s plan for Nigeria is good or bad for posterity to judge.
Sahara Reporters is no doubt the most unbiased Nigerian news media outlet in the US for Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora. This notwithstanding, they may have their own agenda which may either be positive or negative to the entity called Nigeria. I leave the choice of whether or not the Sahareporter’s plan for Nigeria is good or bad for posterity to judge.
My concern is not with this news media but rather with the teaming masses that read the articles being churned out by this media giant. I’m concerned about these readers who write their comments on what they have read. I am also concerned with the mindset of Nigerians as a whole.
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Some of the readers of Sahara reporters articles will vouch not to come back if what they see is not in line with their political or religious believes or to their public understanding of an issue. But they continue to come back. Some will curse Saharareporters that they are touching the anointed as against the “Touch Not my Anointed.” Some will comment because they saw a lot of comments and they must comment even though they do not know the issue in question or the antecedent or context of the issue. Some will offend other faiths or their adherents, or other regions or people from other regions and totally deviates from the original story which they are commenting on. Some will discuss in such a way that one would be wondering what kind of training did this people get. A reasonable person will be wondering if the corruption in Nigeria has degenerated to our educational system to the extent that people are now taught ignorance as a subject in Nigeria schools.
President Jonathan Goodluck said we do not need a strong leader but strong institutions. I disagree with the President on this. What we need is not only strong institutions but also strong leadership. We also need strong, sound and vibrant followership. But have we any strong institution, strong leadership or strong followership in this country? The answer is NO. Our institutions which include education, health, telecommunication, energy, electoral system and so on, are in their worst state in decades. If there is any adjective that is worse than worst, I will prefer to use that for our institutions.
Nigeria is a country that even the Minister of Health will never want to be treated in our glorified mortuaries that we call hospitals. Our education minister and those in public office will prefer to send their kids to US, Canada, Britain and even Ghana to get an education. Yet, we the masses will choose raining curses on ourselves because we come from different ethnicity or because we are adherents of different faiths.
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I think posterity will not only judge our leaders, it would also judge us the followers who refused to change the polity for better when we have the power and freedom to do so. We would rather vote for someone who will serve himself and his family instead of serving us. Our votes have become “Jeun soke, kotun jeun sapo,” this means, vote for the moneybag or a corrupt politician and line your pocket with money. This tendency showed itself in the last election where people were doing multiple thumb printing for corrupt and incompetent candidates because they were given money. Our polity has so degenerated that a first class Oba (King) was also caught in this act and no prosecution for this criminal offence was carried out.
How much is this money in question worth? It is a token that cannot take one for a week but would put us in bondage for the term of the office holder, 4 years at least. Why is it difficult for us to think with our head? Why is it part of us to believe either you vote or not, the moneybag will always win? Why is it that we believe in voting for the wrong person and think we’d pray to gods or God to make our country better? Why is it that we do not want to live beyond our ethnicity and religious believes? Why is it that we do not desire real change but pretend we want it? Why is it that we are looking for mystery when we should be the miracle maker? Why is it that our looters do not see one another as a southerner, a northerner, a Muslim or a Christian but we do?
There are many whys that are begging for answers. Do we need to continue doing the same thing over and over and rely on gods or God for help? God will help those that help themselves.
More on our educational system, it is surprising that none of our universities is in one to one thousand (1-1000) in the world universities ranking. We have graduates in various fields. We have people that made first class in different fields of endeavor, but Nigeria could not boast of any serious research breakthrough that is of international interest. Larry Page and Sergey Brin that invented google are products of Stanford University, Jerry Yang and David Filo, that invented the yahoo are also products of Stanford. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg who invented the Facebook, that all of us use, and even our president is a product of Havard University. Although these are top rated universities worldwide, but there is nothing stopping us from aspiring and becoming a country that has the best universities in the world. The list of products of different universities having significant world changing inventions is endless, but our own universities are no more than glorified post primary schools, where ignorance, secret cult, tribalism, nepotism, ethnic and religious intolerance are the core subjects that every student must pass before graduating.
On any issue of national importance it is not clear how we Nigerians cannot contribute objectively without deviating from the topic of discussion. Rather than being objective, we prefer abusing one another based on the region and religion. I practically see no hope for Nigeria if we continue to live like this. Nigeria will always be like this, if as Nigerians we do not see ourselves first as Nigerians before seeing ourselves as Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo and as a Muslim or Christian. Libya, Egypt and Tunisia are better than Nigeria in terms of quality of life, yet their Nationals wanted more from their government. But as Nigerians we want the status quo and pretending we need a better life and better Nigeria.
When I was doing my master degree in England, the Libyans in my class went back to their country as soon as they leave their pen and came back for graduation. The reason is not because their country is ok. It is because there is work is waiting for them and there is nothing in the western countries they could not get back home. They showed that patriotism in them. They have the enthusiasm to give genuinely to their country’s development and they came to study with various scholarships from their government and employers. These are same people that are fighting because they wanted more. But in our country, we do not have half of what they enjoy. Yet we remain silent and continue doing the same thing over and over and expecting miracle. How feasible is this?
A liter of gasoline is sold in Libya for $0.17 (N25.50), in Tunisia, $0.46 (N69), in Egypt, $0.31 (N46.50) and Nigeria, $0.44 (N66). And after removing the subsidies as our leaders are saying, I am sure Nigeria gasoline per liter will be one of the costliest in the world. And as Nigerians, we would continue to pray to the gods or God and voting for the same group of people and expecting miracle to happen to our standard and cost of living. The unemployment rates in these countries are Libya, 13 %, Tunisia, 13.3%, Egypt, 14% and Nigeria, (35%-50%, www.economywatch.com).
The people from these countries, except Nigeria, wanted more from their leaders. But we Nigerians wanted nothing and pretend we wanted more, if not we would not continue to do the same thing over and over and expect miracles. We would not be cursing ourselves because of our ethnic and religious differences.
During the June 12th election, Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Babagana Kingibe were voted for overwhelmingly despite the fact that both of these gentlemen were Muslims. Why? It is just because we believed in them and we believed they could change the destiny of our dearly beloved people for better. But the Nigerianism in us came out when General Babangida annulled the said election, that was proclaimed to be the best, freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria till date. This Nigerianism was in the form of reclaiming back the mandate we gave to these gentlemen- all other regions were quiet, except in the south-western part of the country as if that was the only section that voted for this duo. I ask myself on a countless number of times that could make we as Nigerians rebel against our oppressors, our ruiners and our tyrants? I just could not help myself to believe that we could or we are capable of doing that.
My point is not farfetched. We see ourselves first as southerners (SS, SW and SE), Northerners (NC, NE and NW), Muslims or Christians. This is exemplified in the electoral map of our last presidential election. Most of the southerners that supported President Jonathan Goodluck did that not because they believed in him, but because he is a southerner and a Christian. And most of those that voted for General Buhari did that not because of his previous records in office, but because he is a Northerner and a muslim.
Nigeria can never move forward if we, the masses, do not take our destiny into our own hands. Our religious leaders have failed us. Our political elites have failed us. The religious and political leaders are the most united in Nigeria against the masses. The religious leaders do not preach to our leaders to be exemplary leaders because they do not want to wrong them. But they will speak to us, using verses in the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran that supports being polite and respectful to our leaders. Who else can we rely on rather than ourselves? These political leaders do not use their region and religion to discriminate against themselves in sharing our National Resources. But anytime they are less preferred in the center, they would come to their base for support, using different terminologies such as marginalization of our region or our religion. It is high time we took our destiny into our own hands. If we cannot do the kind of revolution that happened in Egypt, Libya or Tunisia, let us achieve our own in the form of our votes. Let us vote based on past records of the would-be office holder. Let us start voting based on merit. Let us tell these leaders, politicians and office holders, that enough is enough. They have used us enough to achieve their selfish ends. These people do not come from Abuja or different state capitals to rig election. We do it for them. They do not handle the bombs that kill us. We handle it for them. We masses are the victims of our ignorance. They will fail to perform and when the election is near, they will come to give us rice, clothes (Ankara) and N50 to do their dirty jobs which will eventually have a negative effect on us, and on our children, and our children’s children, not them.
I call on well meaning Nigerians who has resources not to use their money to contest but use it for mass mobilization and change the attitude of Nigerians to be able to make the right decisions in the electoral process. I also call on those that want Nigeria to break to think otherwise, breaking Nigeria will do no good for any region. We all depend on one another. As one region produced the oil which serves as the principal revenue generation today, another region produced the food we eat. As one’s region technical expertise is evident another region’s technocracy is unquantifiable. We all need one another. Our problem is not in disintegration but in ourselves, the leaders and followers.
As the leaders continue to be what they are, the followers continue to apply same thing over and over again, and relying on God to change their situation. We continue to advocate for the wrong group of people from local government to the state government and to the federal government, and expect better governance. This is manifestly impossible. We the youths should start thinking of how we could make Nigeria a better place on earth rather than cursing ourselves because we are of different ethnicities or religions. We should stand up and tell these politicians, that do not see us until the election day when they would be distributing rice, clothes and token amount of money because they need our votes, that enough is enough. The days of taking us for granted are over. Let us see ourselves as Nigerian, not as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Christian or Muslim.
Posterity will not forgive us as it would not forgive those that are ruining us today. Let us avoid violence. Let us stop being used by these politicians. Let us start voting with our mind and heart and stop voting with our hand only. The time is not later. It is now that we must act urgently to save Nigeria. Let us be objective in our analysis of national issues. Let us see ourselves as brothers and sisters not as “aboki,” “omo una,” “ngbati ngbati” Muslim, Christian. Let us start believing in Nigeria. Together we can make Nigeria great again. Together we can make Nigeria live up to her name, “Giant of Africa”. Together we can vote for merit and together we would enjoy the fruit of our labour. Together we can live to the National Pledge of Nigeria-
I pledge to Nigeria my country
To be faithful, loyal and honest
To serve Nigeria with all my strength
To defend her unity
And uphold and honor her glory
So help me God
Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Wasiu Raji writes from Edmonton, Canada
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