Nigeria, a country made up of around 250 ethnic groups with a current population of about 201 million people who were combined and brought together as one by British colonialists in 1914, is engulfed in an “existential crisis” unlike any other.
Apart from the north, it appears that everyone else wants to leave. Chief Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba rights leader, is leading the call for the Republic of Oduduwa to be established. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has long stated its desire to free the Nd’Igbo from Nigeria’s “zoo.” Militants in the Niger Delta also have their own ideas.
What hope are we keeping alive you may ask? Why are we keeping it alive? Let us just divide the nation and everyone go their way. This looks like it is the logical thing to do but have you thought of how it is going to be when we are divided, how many parts are we going to be divided into, are we still going to be having intertribal fights, are there going to be a group of people that will feel left out, what becomes of those who are in the other states that have either established their lives there or are married there?
What happens with the diverse religious groups? What happens to those that have intermarried in those factions do they get to go back to see their families or they are lost forever? What happens to those in diaspora? Who then do they identify as or do they lose their identity? What becomes of children whose parents are from two different ethnic groups.
The truth is it looks like dividing might be the way but really it really might not.
Unfortunately, Nigerians being a product of political mismanagement and elite manipulation seem to be stuck. Yes! It is true that the educational sector is a mess, I mean schools (tertiary institutions under ASUU) have been on and off of strike for almost a year now. The doctors have also been on and off of strike for a while as well. The health sector is struggling from lack of sufficient amenities. Businesses have been struggling with the current exchange rate rising at every waking day with its current rate at about N650 to $1. Naira has also been losing its value. People are working and not being paid yet the rate of borrowing has been increasing and has gotten to a point that we have began to beg our creditors to overlook our debt and it appears to be bad, very bad!
But can Nigeria be great, yes it can! It has been, I remember times that my parents said the economy worked where stealing was a taboo, where corruption was not heard of, where people finished school and immediately got employed. At that time, Nigeria was the cynosure of Africa. Right after independence in 1960 and even throughout the 1970s and 1980s, dominating the continent’s economic, social, and political scene. Yes in the early 70s and 80s things worked and they can still work. If there is anything we all know, it is that our political and economic conditions are not yet right.
Keeping hope alive?
Some people might want to point to religion and ethnicity as the cause of the Nigerian problem but the truth is our diversity should be our strength with everyone working together in their various strength to make the Nation great.
Everyone needs to know that they have a part to play. Everyone needs to be morally responsible, the truth is that trouble the nation started when little issues started plaguing the nation, and nothing was done to address those issues, till they became a menace where everything gets amplified including corruption. Nigerians must recognize, accept, and tolerate socio-cultural differences, as well as create new organizations and methods to peacefully solve poverty, tax allocation, and other national challenges.
The government should truly be concerned about the nation and truly committed to fight corruption. Honesty should be rewarded and all forms of corruption should be publicly punished.
An end also should come to godfatherism in the country as it has a stronghold on the country. The government should be purged of corrupt leaders and those found guilty should be punished. They should also show commitment to punishing all those who are corrupt as this will serve as a warning to others.
At 61 we shouldn’t still be struggling, we have land resources, we have mineral resources, we also have human resources. We have a lot of potential. We really just need to make maximum use of it under good leadership.
We should as a nation transform our potential into success, Nigerians should be empowered and mobilized to go into manufacturing instead of being a consumer country as this will transform the society from a consumer society to a manufacturing and exporting powerhouse.
For Nigeria to know true freedom, we need to come together and work together to address our problems, to get rid of the common thief, to chase away the common vision-less leaders, and to pursue a shared bright future much as was done in forcing the British colonialists to relinquish power six decades ago.
