But the reactions to my
interventions did no more than further reinforce the fact that too many
Nigerians are angry with Nigeria as an entity, they are angry with how Nigeria
has been run and is being run, they are frustrated with the current situation
in the country, and what the future holds for the entire country.
The last time Nigerians found themselves at this kind of crossroads was
under the rule of General Sani Abacha. The issue was not just about General
Abacha, however, but how military rule had led the country into a ditch, and
the people wanted something different. The disappointment today is of a
different form of extraction: some people raised the people’s hopes beyond the
stratosphere: they assured them that the Nirvana that they wanted was at the door;
they told them that to run Nigeria is easy, it was just that the wrong people
were in charge. And now, all promises
seem illusionary, the scales are falling off the people’s eyes and the people
are transferring their anger unto every situation. The change agents who
promised a revolution are in disarray, they are caught up in an atomistic war
among themselves. The
we-are-better-than-them-we-wil
Their nemesis and their hubris lie in a certain lack of understanding or
a certain omission, or perhaps oversight. I maintain my earlier position that
Nigeria is a complex entity and that it is not a country made for any Messiah,
now or in the far future. Nowhere in the world is the age of the messiah real.
There is no such thing. Every country must face its own destiny. It is the duty
of leaders to manage that destiny, transform it and not destroy it. Nigeria’s
destiny is to be great and successful. We only need to find the right
combination of people. Note the emphasis on combination. We will never find the
right combination if we remain divided by ethnicity, ego and religion.
It is partly the reason, therefore, why every Nigerian moving forward
must ask the question: what does Nigerian mean to me? Too many compatriots
relate to this country as an abstraction. When they hear Nigeria, the only
thing they think of is their ethnic root. They don’t even have any attachment
to the Nigerian passport. I bet we would all be shocked the day we take a
census of all the Nigerians who have foreign passports and the millions who are
still on the queue, begging to give up on this country. Nigeria is thus,
regrettably today, a provider of important talents for other countries in all fields
of human endeavour in the same manner in which Ireland sold out its talents at
the turn of the 19th Century.
We
have reached a point and that is perhaps one of the gains of democracy since
May 2015, whereby every Nigerian, at home and abroad must ask himself or
herself, that simple question: what does Nigeria mean to me? Does it mean
incumbent government and its politics? Mere identity? A passport? Home?
Association with my parents and old friends and so a homeland linked by blood?
Or is Nigeria nothing, no more than a space for opportunities, or just an
option, or at best, mere geography crashing into DNA? I guess no other country
has such divided and scattered emotional brains like Nigeria. When the people
decide individually and collectively that they want a country, may be that is
when we can begin to talk of Nigeria. What does Nigeria mean to you? I urge you
to answer this question as part of the national reflection process after our
country’s 56th Independence Anniversary. I’ll start with what I
believe.
I
am a grateful Nigerian citizen. I went to primary school in this country at a
time when teachers were very proud to be teachers. Our teachers worshipped our
parents and vice versa. If your parent ever told you your teacher complained
about you, you would feel like running away. Today, Nigerian parents go to
schools and beat up teachers, and the teachers ask for bribe. The idea of being
in loco parentis has since being
destroyed. Something has gone terribly wrong.
Quality education is now a matter of cash and class. It actually seems if you
don’t have a lot of money, your children cannot make it in in life. In this
same country, the children of ordinary people were the ones who had all the
hopes because the system supported the poor. My father, God bless his soul,
could afford to send me to any level, I was the first son of a second wife married
at old age, and he was prepared for the choice he made, but the Nigerian system
was behind him too. I pay tribute to those teachers who poured their lives into
mine, who did everything to mould me, those selfless soldiers who gave what
they had so that other people’s children could grow. That is what Nigeria means
to me, Those indeed are the true Nigerians. What am I trying to say? I am
saying that in those days in this country, you could make brave choices and the
country will stand by you because it was a country that worked. We need to make
Nigeria work again.
As a university student, our mattresses were made. There was regular
water flow in the hostels. “Bush meats” were accorded due respect, and the
“campus meats” were not badly treated either, and only the most brilliant boys
were inducted into the campus cults. Everything was respectable. Food was
cheap. Life was easy. Our libraries were well stocked. Lagos to Calabar by road
was N15, by air it was N40 and for three months, we survived on N42, 500. I was
a Federal Government University Merit Scholar. That means I went to university
free of charge. My father insisted he would pay and he didn’t need government
to send me to school. I used his money to buy books. That was how I started
building a personal library that can only compete with that other one owned by
the bibliophile called Odia Ofeimun. When I got to the University of Ibadan, I
also ended up as a University Scholar. My father again insisted on paying his
bills, but Nigeria insisted on training me. I consider myself a product of
Nigeria. I got to wherever with my father and Nigeria competing to pay the
bills. My father felt a sense of responsibility. Nigeria had a system that looked
out of for people like me.. Once upon a time in this country, Nigeria looked
out for people’s children and invested in them. I am one of those products.
Standing on Nigeria’s investments, I have gone to so many other places in the world. Nigeria has given me a foundation that I
could never imagine. And by some sheer accident of fate, I ended up as
Presidential Spokesman at Nigeria’s highest level. Nigeria means a lot to me. I cannot give up on
this country. No matter the travails, I believe that this country means a lot
to so many of us: search your own history.
I have children who despite the
difficulties are also not willing to throw away their Nigerian passports.
Nigeria remains the home of my children and their great-grand children to come.
Nigeria is the country that has given me all the opportunities I have had. It
is the landscape of my joys and sorrows. It is your landscape too. What Nigeria
means to me is a country that needs to be rescued from many years of abuse,
from the locusts that eat things up, and the agents of the devil who turn a
good country into a land of regrets. I am consoled by the realization that the people
who love this country and who want to see it work and make progress possible are
in the majority. Nigeria is a country not only of great potentials but also of
great achievements. Let us take certain
things seriously beyond satire and parody, and resolve that we all have a duty
to make this country great.
I
believe in this country because every opportunity that I have enjoyed came my
way because in the long run, I am a Nigerian. The world is a competitive place.
It is also a rational world. You can have the best CV in the world in any
circumstance, but the people in charge of opportunities don’t just look at
brilliance and genius, they consider so many other factors. What Nigeria means
to me is a country that has given me many opportunities and opened many doors
for me. I will confront those who want this country destroyed for false reasons
and if ever given the opportunity, I will run this country and place it on the
right path.
By now, you know where I stand. I am a
grateful citizen who wants to rescue this country. My choice is a reformed and
improved Nigeria that serves the interest of all citizens and mankind. What is
your exact choice in this matter as we celebrate this 56th Independence
Anniversary weekend? What does Nigeria mean to you?
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