A nation blessed with brains and beauty, a giant that should be roaring and crushing lesser mortals, created and birthed as a child of circumstance, continuously raped by the those that should have taken good care of her. I have always wondered where Nigeria started getting it all wrong, the mindset at Independence?
A country that had unity, yet divisive mindset. The regions worked they said, but I wasn't born yet, how can I be sure it worked. With the suspicions, backstabbing and schemings that greeted that era. A country that would have been a great giant got blinded by sectionalism , ethnicity and religious fights and fanatism bordering on stupidity. Welcome to Nigeria, a country that is a child of circumstance, carefully failing all who believed she was made to be great. Is the independence to blame for the woes of this great nation? Independence was supposed to usher in expansive living, constructive and positive thinking, growth and development, research, breakthroughs, wealth creation and the building of a great mature and leading nation. But alas!,she stumbled and staggered, everyone became agitated, a civil war that could have been avoided.
Do we blame the war? What of the oil that was discovered? Some call it the cursed black gold, cursed eh? This same oil that has transformed deserts like Dubai and turned places that goggle would not been able to map as economically viable regions. We are in Nigeria, the pride of Africa, a country where wealth and poverty share boundary, with each consciously and jealously guarding their territory. A fusion of greed, avarice and lack of patriotism gave rise to conscienceless looting of what belongs to all by a few privileged heartless people who were supposed to lead and direct the affairs of a great nation such as ours.
Some blame the military, I strongly disagree, show me who I any of the past republics who genuinely put the affairs of the nation above regional politics, self elevation, class creation and elitist existence. The military committed blunders and set development backwards, but they were weaned and trained by the experts who were supposed civilians. I blame our fathers and even this generation because when a country breeds a generation of docile people, the country is in trouble. I cringe when I see the number of people jostling for international passports at immigration offices spread round the country, I see the faces of youths who have lost hope, who believe that their future lie outside these shores because the have been waiting to become the leaders of tomorrow, a tomorrow that seems not to even be in the nearest future because the reins of power still lie firmly in the hands that held them before their mothers were married.
The worst that happened to us as a nation was entrusting our future to conscienceless leadership.We have been paying the price of docility, a price that seems to become costlier at each turn and twist, a price we may not finish paying in our lifetime if we do not wake up and realize that we owe no debt. I wish those days will come back, those days that now seem like fables, when my father told me that they were on scholarships to school, had rooms in the university, had allowances paid to them, had dining halls where food was served, had jobs after graduation, where you could make a choice as regards the appointment to take up, when no godfather was required to land a juicy appointment and things were evenly distributed on merit. I can on and on, and I will. I will because my heart is heavy and I have fears.
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