To the fool, truth is what only they believe is true. To the wise, truth is that which is proved and known to be the truth. That which is truth may sometimes be largely subjective and self-defined, but there is a universally acceptable truth that will stand any fiery test of veracity and verity. Despite Nigeria’s failings and flailing, despite her challenges and myriads of troubles, and in spite of dimming hopes and faltering confidence of her citizens in a seemingly overwhelmingly malfunctioning system, very many Nigerians continue to believe that sooner rather than later, Nigeria will become great.
Nigerians may not know when and they may not know how; but many of them desire to see a great Nigeria. We were barraged with the doctrine of hope for greatness when I was a baby. We heard it in songs and anthems; and rehashed it in dramas in elementary and secondary schools. Pastors prophesy it in sermons and crusades to revive the spirit of their followers; Imams say it daily in their awakening prayers; and politicians sing it in rhetoric from prepared addresses. But an unrushed look into the wider spectrum of goings-on in our system spurts forth the question: Are we sincerely walking the path and truly working the work to greatness? Millions of Nigerians remain sceptical. There’s a distinctive line between reality and emotion. An emotional person tepidly goes through the motion of wishes and false hopes. A realist faces the onrushing headwind of what will be and works hard at achieving what must be. It is saner to be a realist.
Will Nigeria become great with Nigerians becoming sitting ducks in falsity, hoping for the emergence of greatness in a nation that has all it takes to be great? Self-deception is the mother of affliction. A nation that hopes to be great pursues greatness with all that she possesses to become great. Nigeria dug a dwelling place in poverty partly because over these many years, her leaders neglected the real weapons against hunger and squalour. From Adamawa to Bauchi, stretching down to Osun into Ekiti, and spiralling Eastward to Enugu and Abia, there’s no state in Nigeria that’s not gifted. The infantile dismissive rhetoric that one region is parasitic is only in the think-tank of the ignoramus. Every state is loaded with untapped natural resources. Dependence on crude oil has done more crude harm to Nigeria than good; it has distracted those who lead us from commonsense approach that can help put these natural endowments pro bono publico. Nations that do not possess a quarter of what Nigeria has in natural and human resources are sharing success stories. What is wrong with Nigeria for God’s sake? The Nigerian government has identified at least 37 mineral deposits across the land. But the courage to launch out a full exploration has always been lacking. A 2015 report reveals that Nigeria loses about N50tn from untapped resources that are tucked away in crevices of virtually every state of the country. Is this how a nation becomes great?
A nation that will be one day great does not cuddle greed and graft. Despite the clampdown of President Muhammadu Buhari on corruption and the corrupt, the vice still spreads like an inoperable metastatic cancer. Corruption and other malfeasances are growing wings and deepening roots. In developed nations of the world, corrupt men, miscreants, and people with criminal records are barred from public service. But why do characters such as these become presidents, governors, and lawmakers in Nigeria? Frenzied crisscrossing of politicians between political parties is on the rise. It is astonishing how senators and ex-governors who were once labelled Nigeria’s archangels of heavy duty corruption have today become shoulders to lean on for electoral victory. Have thieves who stole been immersed in the political purgatory of sort; and their days of thievery are now behind them? Or, are they just trying to wriggle out of the net of justifiable recompense that must follow a life of inimical iniquities?
Once upon a long time ago, it was an entrenched value in young Nigerians that stealing was an abomination. But these days, it is a prerequisite to receiving awards, mountain-top recognitions, and standing ovations in public places. Projects that cost the government millions of dollars, government people once earmarked billions for them. The contractors in collusion with politicians in power collected the funds, but projects were either never begun or completed. The same contracts would be re-awarded to the same people under different names as the cycle of crime pinwheels without stopping. How can a nation become great with such garroting greed? It is true that greatness can be a divine bequeath from our God, and an inheritance from bloodline. But a nation’s greatness is achieved through efforts of great minds who sit in the saddle of leadership and in the assembly lines of following.
According to a report by the International Poverty alleviation body, Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (otherwise known as OXFAM), “The five richest men in Nigeria could bring nearly all Nigerians out of extreme poverty for one year”. OXFAM also reports that the richest Nigerian man will take 42 years to spend all of his wealth at N1m per day. And in one day, the richest Nigerian man can earn from his wealth 8,000 times more than what the poorest 10 per cent of Nigerians spend on average in one year for their basic consumption. The combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest men which totals $29.9bn could end extreme poverty in the nation and jumpstart the country in her journey to greatness, the report further claims.
The requisite apparatuses for Nigeria to truly become great are etched in the nation’s spine. But within the same system are too many in-house enemies warring against Nigeria’s potential greatness. The words of the great Roman poet, philosopher, orator, lawyer and politician, Marcus Tullius Cicero, do ring true: “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gate is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not as a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
One good man as president, governor, minister, agency director, may not make a dent of a change in Nigeria. They’ll be choked up among thorns of greedy gluttonous blood suckers. We need patriots in bombarding, blitzing influxes into government positions. Patriots who are committed to the unfurling Nigerian story, not seekers of their own glory and greedy and gluttonous gerrymanders. After this; greatness will come.
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