Let Nigeria be Nigeria again!
A score year ago, Nigeria returned to democratic rule after 33years of primarily military rule. This transition promised a joyous dawn to end the long night of our incarceration. However, this dawn was eclipsed by the moon of unspeakable vices. This evinced that our professed democracy is either not the perfect lock to the door of our problem or it really is; if it is the one known as: "Government of the people, by the people, for the people"; if who we had been voting for were truly leaders and if we, the citizens, truly played our rightful role.
There once lived a Nigeria, where 2 naira equals 1 pound; where chickens are not eaten only in festive periods; where youths engage themselves in "get your hands dirty" jobs; where education is the best legacy; where the pride of the economy is the fertile green land; where the joy of the ladies is rooted in their moderation and sound attitude and not nudity; where officials of institutions of learning do not see imparting knowledge as a medium to amass wealth; where government parastatals god-fearingly discharge their duties; where love is the sermon of every religion. Where is this Nigeria?
Today, democracy is much sought after, as if it is the solution to all of our problems, it is high time we acknowledged that democracy is not a perfect system of governance but the least evil of all possible government. Democracy is not void of injustice and serious social problems. But these
problems were ones of incomplete implementation of the twin principles of liberty and equality on which modern democracy is founded.
We give undue weight to election period, and we are of the mentality that it is only a good leader that can change this country, when we never stop being the opposite of good followers, please, if there has not been any good leader among those we have been voting, when will the good one come? And moreover, who exactly is the good one? We are distracted by the goodies of democracy and we neglect our duties and responsibilities - all we want is a change from above.
We were so much awake in the precolonial, colonial and military era, but we have permitted the danger of the peaceful breeze of democracy to lure us to bed. Our freedom and liberty have caused us more harm than our bondage.
Our land has now become the metaphor of corruption. our religion is now the realities of hypocrisy. our politics is now a game for the dirty minds. our education is now a center for grooming malpractices. We fail to admit that democracy begins with us not only when we vote, but when we exercise every of the franchise expected of us as a patriotic citizen of this great country. We stay conscious of every government but unconscious of our self, we rebuke and curse our leaders and never check our faults.
This piece is a clarion call to all and sundry to let Nigeria be indeed Nigeria again looking intently at the acts of our forefathers of time past imprinted boldly on our successes of time present, guiding us now along the path of dignity, integrity and faithfulness.
Let Nigeria be Nigeria again, so that the labours of our heroes past shall indeed not be in vain.
Kwame Nkrumah once said that Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought. We should stop focusing on what government can do for us, but on what we can do for our suffocating country. For we are the change our country needs!
O God we pray! Cause the wind of change to blow across the terrain of every corrupt mind struggling to shake off the rectitude of the true Nigeria.
© Olayiwola Tayelolu Ayobami
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