Nigerian is reminiscent of someone
destined to be king, but becomes a slave in the king’s palace. The nation’s situation
chronicles the life of Wazobia: a boy destined to be a lawyer, but grows up to
become a roadside mechanic. Wazobia is blessed with the qualities of a legal
luminary. He is a smooth-talker, provides a well-articulated defense, good at
arguments, and his favorite colors are white and black. These qualities manifests
so much that people nicknamed him “D law”. Despite Wazobia’s abilities, the
truth remains that he is a mechanic, not a lawyer. Why is Wazobia a roadside mechanic
despite his potentials?
Wazobia’s parent may be illiterates
who neither value education nor make effort to get him schooled. His parents
may have the will, but lack the wherewithal. Wazobia may have lost his parents
and got nurtured by an uncaring guardian. Life may have been so unfair to
Wazobia that he had no opportunity to become a lawyer. But that is not the
case.
Wazobia failed to discover himself
and underutilized his potentials. He has all it takes to be a lawyer, but had mismanaged
his life, time and resources. He lavished his school fees on show-offs and
spent his time partying, snap-chatting and twittering, when his mates were
studying. Sadly, Wazobia is not the only one suffering for his misdeeds and lack
of foresight. The people he should be defending as a lawyer are being
disrespected, cheated and jailed. His entire household that should be enjoying
are terribly suffering. Of what gain is Wazobia? He has failed. The character Wazobia
is the Nigerian State.
Nigeria is blessed with enormous
human and natural resources, but majority of her population suffers amidst
surplus. The oil rich nation cannot boast of any meaningful achievement after
58 years of independence. Successive leaders were visionless, clueless and unbothered
about development. They built personal empires instead of infrastructure. Basic
amenities are either unavailable or dysfunctional. In the 21st century,
Nigerian campaign manifestos are still based on promises of providing the essentials
when other nations are making giant strides in technology and inventions.
Nigerians are forced to seek greener
pastures in nations that once ran to them for help. The then apartheid ridden
South-Africa that Nigeria assisted is now better off. Nigerians now go there to
hustle at the risk of losing their lives to xenophobic attacks. Sometimes ago,
Nigerians said “Ghana must go”, but today, a significant portion of our
population are leaving Nigeria to seek opportunities in Ghana. Prominent
figures such as Dele Momodu lives in Ghana. Asari Dokubo is a naturalized
Beninese.
Malaysia’s economy was on the verge
of collapse after Singapore seceded decades ago. The nation had almost nothing.
Malaysians had to come to Nigeria to negotiate the importation of palm seedling
to their country. Malaysia is now making substantial earnings from the
exportation of crude and processed palm-oil, while the Nigerian agricultural
sector is unyielding. Front to back, Nigerians are now trooping into Malaysia
for tourism and study. Nigerian Government spends millions of dollars - under
the Tertiary Education Trust (TET) Fund scheme – sponsoring her lecturers to
study in Malaysia.
Sadly, the Nigerian education sector
remains undeveloped, underfunded, and runs archaic curriculums that produces
unemployable graduates. Even the firms that could have hired the graduates and youths
are either collapsed or nonexistent. What is being Nigerian to students unable
to study because of strike, while the children of politicians are studying at
the best universities abroad?
Look at yourself and look around you.
The only stumbling block to some person’s progress is being Nigerian. People
are configured to fail by default. There is no pathway to success and the
system is unrewarding. Famous political thug, MC Oluomo is living large and
well-connected than most Professors. Inventions and brilliancy do not often get
patronized or celebrated. Frustration has turned many university graduates into
motorcycle riders, prostitutes, kidnappers and fraudsters. The billions of
dollars government failed to invest on the youths is now being used to fight
crimes committed by the youths. The ruling elites’ greed and incompetence is
impeding national growth, crushing creativities, burying potentials, and changing
destinies.
Oh poverty and underdevelopment, why
hast thou made Nigeria thy dwelling place? Pastors have cast and bind thee,
Imams have recited the Quran against thee, Herbalists have cast out thy spirit,
but thou hath refused to depart Nigeria. This is because thy antidote is not
prayer. Other nations conquered thee by properly utilizing their human,
material and natural resources. We are praying rather than working, when the
principles of success says work (first) and pray.
The gap between the rulers and the
ruled in Nigeria is as wide as that between the ground and the sky. The ruling
elites live like they are more Nigerian than we the masses. They are under
heavy security, we are insecure. We die on bad roads, they fly in the sky. They
waste food and resources, we are starving. They have all, we have nothing. Yet
we are not united. We allow them set us against ourselves and divide us along
political, ethnic and religious lines. They feast on our disunity. Our pain is
their gain.
Other nations are progressing while
Nigeria is retrogressing. Why is our yesterday better than today? Some years
ago, electricity was constant than it is now, the roads were better, foreign
exchange rate was lower, and getting a visa was easier than it is now. Bombing
was alien to us, kidnapping was a taboo, and Nigerians were more united.
Disheartening, we are now more dependent than we were during independence. We
cherish anything west; commend them as original while Aba made goods are derided
as artificial.
Successive Nigerian rulers were bad
managers and the current set of politicians in the ruling and main opposition
party are middlebrow men. They lack the ideas and commitment to move Nigeria
forward. US President Donald Trump allegedly called President Buhari “lifeless”
not because he is old. Trump too is a septuagenarian. His comment is apparently
based on President Buhari’s inability to stand up to him during diplomatic
talks. While that is unfortunate for Nigeria, there is really no single way of
measuring intelligence. In effect, Trump’s intelligence assessment is based on
the extent of his own intelligence. One may also rate Trump as unintelligent because
he speaks uncouthly.
But if truth be told, most Nigerian
leaders lack foresight and intellectual insight. The drastic turnaround the
nation needs is not within their faculty. Their major concern is retaining or
regaining power; the efficient running of the country is secondary. The only
barrier between most people and their success is being Nigerian. Else, why do
Nigerians fail at home but succeed abroad? Being Nigerian is nothing other than
a misfortune to many. You may be one of the few privileged individuals not so
affected, but before you discard this, think: What is being Nigerian to those
pushed into the sea while migrating to Europe and those being sold as slaves in
Libya because of their nationality?
What is being Nigerian to the
agrarian Ogoni populace whose land and marines have been degraded by oil
spills, denied resource control, and abandoned by the government? What is being
Nigerian to the fallen soldiers whose government failed to provide adequate
weapons to fight Boko-Haram, but paid the terrorists to ceasefire and release
abductees?
What is being Nigerian to citizens
whose government spent $16billion on providing power, but still lives in
darkness? What is being Nigerian to the poor and uninfluential persons being
harassed, extorted, maimed and unjustly killed by the police, but never gets
justice?
Does Ibrahim El Zakzaky – the Shia
Muslim cleric who was granted bail, but detained by government - feels
fortunate to be the citizen of a country that violates human rights, disregard
the rule of law, and disobey court orders? What is being Nigerian to MKO Abiola
who won a free and fair presidential election, but denied the right to rule by
the Babangida led military regime? Buhari recently honored Abiola and
apologized on behalf of Nigeria, but with their irrecoverable loss, can the
Abiola family ever feel fortunate being Nigerians?
What is being Nigerian to the unarmed
IPOB members that were declared terrorists and killed for demanding secession
while murderous Fulani herdsmen operate unchecked? What is being Nigerian to
citizens whose government vows to fight corruption, but protects corrupt
politicians working for the President’s reelection?
What is being Nigerian to poor honest
persons when then President Jonathan said stealing is not corruption? What is
being Nigerian to the hardworking youths seeking opportunities abroad when
President Buhari told world leaders that they are lazy? Which country will
issue visa, scholarships or employ youths confirmed lazy by their President?
What is being Nigerian to Sambo
Dasuki, the former national security adviser who was arraigned for mismanaging
public funds, granted bail by several courts, but still being denied freedom by
government? Does Dasuki and millions of people whose rights are being violated
daily feels fortunate to be a Nigerian?
Be that as it may, Nigeria is not all
about misfortune and downs. There are quite a number of things and people that
still makes one proud of being a Nigerian. World Heavyweight Boxing Champion,
Anthony Joshua is making many proud of being Nigerian. Welterweight Boxing
Champion, Larry Ekundayo is also making Nigeria proud. Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, a
Nigerian, who delivered the baby that was born twice in the United States made
us proud. Olutoye removed the baby from her mother’s womb at 23 weeks,
performed an operation, returned her to the womb, and delivered her at 36 weeks
without any complication.
Five students from Regina Pacis Model
Secondary School, Anambra State also made Nigeria proud by winning the 2018 Global
Technology Challenge in the US. Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and
Novelist Chimamanda Adiche have also projected Nigeria positively to the world.
While these persons signify that Nigerians are blessed and a blessing to
nations, it is unfortunate that the Nigerian government virtually contributed
nothing to their success. Most of them fought their way to the top
independently. What is being Nigerian to the son of a taxi driver who is losing
the fight to become a doctor because he could not afford the school fees or get
an education loan? For every Soyinka you see, thousands of similar potentials has
been wasted.
God has been kind to Nigeria, but Nigerians
are a problem to themselves. The nation’s problems are man-made. Nigeria is not
troubled by natural disasters such as earthquake, volcanic eruption, cyclonic
storm, avalanche or tsunami. The flood we’re experiencing is the aftereffect of
an inefficient waste disposal mechanism. The nation became the world poverty
capital on account of the leaders’ mismanagement and corruption. PDP squandered
the treasury while the APC that promised change changed the promise after
winning election. It is a misfortune that a blessed nation like Nigeria has
been successively led by middlebrow men. Nigeria keeps falling because the
leaders keep failing. The electorates need to stop reinforcing failure with
their votes. Nigerians would work for all when the leaders lead well and the citizens
act right.
*Contributed by Omoshola Deji, a political and
public affairs analyst via moshdeji@yahoo.com
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