Sunday is usually a day of rest for a huge number of us irrespective of our religious affiliations; but it is also a day adults prepare for the new week ahead while the children get ready for another school week. Whatsoever today means to either one of us, I’m sure we can always make out a little time for ourselves on individual basis.
As I have my own “Me” time by putting down my thoughts first on paper , I cannot help but reminisce about the countless FB posts I've put up in the past calling on the urgent need for change in virtually all areas of our lives.
Change is something that occurs daily in our lives; it isn't tangible but is visible and experienced; today you are employed, tomorrow you are redundant- situational change; one minute you are awake, the next you are asleep- positional change. Whatever form you experience, whether good or bad, whether liked or not, it is an aspect of our lives we cannot do away with; it is here to stay and woe betides anyone who thinks he or she can become a success story without passing through a form of refinement which is change itself.
We are natives of the most populous country in Black Africa; we inhabit a country filled with Milk and Honey but lack brotherly love, morals, good leadership, religious and ethnic tolerance amongst many others; in their stead, we exhibit so many negative traits. Without borrowing much from my last post,
1)How can a country like ours’, blessed with so much human and natural resources, located in different regions, be in the position it’s in today?
2)How can we have the likes of our fallen heroes and comrades: ‘The Maestro’ Fela Anikulakpo Kuti, ‘our own Mandela’ Gani Fawehimi, Ken Saro- Wiwa of The Ogoni Fame and other notable figures like Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, Sir Emeka Anyaoku amongst many and yet we seemed to have lost our footing along the way?
3)What in the Good Lord’s name is wrong with the different forms of leadership we’ve adopted?
Instead of electing credible leaders, the right and freedom to do such have been taken away from us, and we end up with selected leaders. Oh Lord, please where have we gone wrong?
1)Don’t these people listen to the voices of reason?
2)Don’t they care about the yearnings and aspirations of the people they lead especially the man on the street without a voice to speak for him?
If our leaders lack consideration for the masses, then no one should be surprised about the State of the Nation today and all the chaos therein. It’s in times like these that I cannot help but remember certain parts of history: Our fallen heroes like The Biafran Warlord, Ikemba Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu and the reasons for the war he supported; I also recall the fight for the emancipation of the Niger Delta by MEND, Boko Haram and until recently the killing of over 80 police officers in Nasarawa and Borno by the Omatse cult and so on. Why all these commotions?
A Black American friend of an uncle once told him that Nigeria has what it takes to be as great as the United States of America BUT it has serious management/leadership issues to sort out.
I wonder the following:
1)How can or why should we complain of so much Insecurity when people are hungry, unemployed, lack affordable and decent housing or have neither, cannot pay bills or send their children and wards to school?
2)How can we complain of all the above when parents spend their lives’ savings to train their children to whatever level that they can afford to, only to see them graduate and roam the streets in a never-ending pursuit of non-existing or meagre jobs just to keep body and soul?
3)How can our leaders complain about insecurity and expect sympathy from you or I, when citizens (rebels et al) take up arms to fight for selfless or selfish reasons when we all have eyes to see the way public coffers are pilfered for personal or family enrichment; how our leaders neglect duties and wash and air their dirty linen for all and sundry to see; how funds meant for projects for communal enhancement are diverted and justice perverted? Haba! Onye bu Mugu?
Henry Ford said, “If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.”
We seem to forget that we are tenants in this world and one day, we all would bid it farewell. There is enough wealth to go round a large portion of Nigerians but instead greed and moral negligence set in thus people are neglected especially when not from the dominant tribe of a region.
(Pidgin & Normal English and Igbo): Enyi m biko unu (please my friend), with all these negativity being shown, how chaos no go waka enter we country? In fact chaos is too mild a word, how won’t there be MADNESS everywhere? Na only for this country wey traffic warden go say, “STOP”, Naija man go move; na only for we country wey amputee or mad man(onye ara)go raise hand for us to je brake and quick quick we march am before spit go land us for face. Sometimes e good say make we siddon for back seat take survey we area well well make we no follow land for one psychiatric ward one day.
One Engr. William Olabode Adebisi of Coldcare Nigeria Limited back in 2006 said,
“My father used to say, “The day a mad man says, “I will not be mad again,” that day he will be well.”
Pardon my language but corruption in this country is a huge pain in the b**t and causes a sane man to become insane (sickness), destitution (hunger inclusive) as well as students and parents resorting to exam malpractices so as to gain admission etc. These students who become tomorrow’s leaders; how story no go get k-leg? These corruptive behaviours was said to have emanated at the end of the Civil war in the late 1960s often causing violence of different proportions. We don’t need another war when many still alive are yet to recover from then past civil war.
Like Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” All we need are selfless leaders, past and present, to own up and admit we have serious issues to contend with and initiate pertinent reforms from top to bottom, North to South, West to East. Perhaps when this is done, then discipline and moral uprightness can be upheld and Nigeria can be set on the road to victory.
A NEW DAWN
The Horizon looms out
With the promise of a new dawn,
A dawn filled with hunger and thirst;
For what you might ask,
For change,
Change for the present,
Change for the future.
Come to think of it,
We all talk about change,
Change in our everyday lives
Especially change in leadership;
But from where do we begin?
From within I tell you;
For there CANNOT be change
Without sober reflections.
For it is in time of such reflections
We purge ourselves from within
Thus giving birth to a new dawn;
One filled with Hope and Certainty
For the much sought – after change,
A change for the good of all mankind
Here’s to a happy and productive week my friends.
