Nigeria must survive

How can you say something as awful as that? That was the response I got when I declared to my friends, what I believed then to be true, that Nigeria is on the highway to state failure. It was on a typical “idle” afternoon in Angola hall, OAU and we were involved in the universal pastime of Angola boys – “blind, directionless and intense debate. I was a fresher, like my “co-brawlers” but I was clearly the youngest and maybe a little too green when it comes to life experiences. This obviously implies that my views were simplistic, idealistic and just plain naïve. (If by chance, you are/were a resident of Angola hall, please take note of the last sentence in this paragraph)

The problem was not because of what I said. Rather, it was the fact that I had the guts to say it aloud....i think!. I pray “the angel that grants prayers” (angeli ti n se amin! amin!) was not around that day. History has taught us (at least I have learnt) that no political contraption, regardless of its might, is eternal. Except what we believe happened with Rome, Greece, Arabia, Persia and the other great empires/states all through human history were all lies, I can say boldly that even the United States of America has a countdown timer on its existence. Don’t ask me for the time limit, only God knows. At least there are people alive who knew when China was just a nation filled with short, white people with slit eyes who speak funny, now they are a full fledged world power

What I really should have said that day is that Nigerians are busy at work fast tracking our countdown to the ‘D­-day’. Having a president who appears unable to distinguish his left from right but is still able to hold on to power seems to me a guaranteed promise of state failure. A myopic national Labour union that only responds to fuel price hike but has turned a blind eye to an industrial action which has, in all appearances, paralysed the nation’s university education. Lecturers have now taken to the streets partaking in “Aluta” like undergraduate students. The NYSC just released another batch of graduates of which a good number of them will increase the ranks of unemployed and under-employed citizens. A political class who are unable or unwilling to make forward thinking decisions and make progressive decisions.

I’m no doom watcher; it’s just that as time goes by, it becomes more difficult for me to see the dim flicker at the end of Nigeria’s present tunnel. I am well aware of the positive developments that raise the banner of hope and fly the flag of faith in Nigeria’s brighter future. A question I’d like each of us to answer and ask others is “how have I made improvements in my immediate society and how can I make further improvements?” I frimly believe that the moment we (Nigerians)get the right answer to this question, that moment is the moment we start making real and solid progress towards the ‘promised land’

N.B- I don’t have an exact idea of what our promised land should be but it must include the following:- free fair and credible elections that will bring in people of integrity who have the brains and commitment to lead well; affordable quality education; plenty of food; properly industrialized economy; poverty being defined as inability to afford luxuries e.g. >1 cars and not inability to afford necessities e.g. food; Nigeria being a real leader on the international scene.