By Prince Charles Dickson
Just as the year ends many thing comes to my mind but top of the list is the question of Nigeria, a nation so blessed yet in too much peril, that one begins to wonder what really is the problem, what really did or have we done wrong…there are so many questions to little answers. As I reflect on the nation, I beg to take us back a bit in the next few lines.
Today more than ever despite all the sing song of unity, why is Nigeria so divided, there is hardly an online forum, group that has been able to discuss a matter for an hour without the ethnic and religious question propping up. What is the matter with us, why do we hate ourselves so much, are we really a nation?
Where is the Nigeria in which the patriots stood, I recall the smell, better put the crisp aroma of those green, white, green flags that we waved at the Tafawa Balewa Square during Independence Celebrations, or match past on May Day. There used to be these feeling of ‘this is my nation’s flag, this is my nation’, where went that feeling?
Even then leadership stole, maybe we could argue, they stole small, or stole with conscience or the then the days were not so tough that we did not notice that they were stealing. Today in public buildings and institutions, I see torn flags of the nation, in other cases they are flying at half mast not by purpose but because the other half is missing.
Our kids can sing all sorts of nursery rhymes from ‘old roger is dead’ to ‘my mother’, and sadly they can hardly get the nation’s anthem. At their tender age they are taught that they are from Isialangwa in agwa local government area of Agwa state, in Nigeria, they are Michika, Ibo, Fulani Yoruba and they must not forget that.
In our confused state we refuse to teach them the native tongue, they are taught English, the attend Montessori, kindergarten, ACE and they move abroad for their ‘big’ education, and they come back strangers. Is Nigeria a true story, a sad fairy tale or fiction?
When was the last time most of us prayed for this nation…many would conclude a waste of time and in fact waste of prayers. I know Nigerians that pray for America, I have seen Nigerians give testimony, organize thanksgiving because they managed to secure a Russian Visa, not to talk about those that won VISA lottery…for that, it is almost like heaven assured.
Where is the Nigeria I know that Nigerians despite the Lord Lugard lopsided nature of our creation where their brothers’ keeper. The Nigeria that existed inspite of the civil war, there was that Nigeria that did not need EFCC because even from home there was EFCC.
Then when as kids we came back home from the football field with a ball, or footwear that was not ours, Almighty Allah help you, you get the beating of your life and return same to the owner. Today the story is of girls barely 16years that come home with Nokia phone worth N30thousand and the parents admired it and keep mute.
This nation has become one that everything goes; the normal is disdained, while abnormality is rewarded.
In the last ten years I have lost count of the number of days that Universities have closed from rational reasons to the most mundane. There is hardly any State of the federation that has not owed over five months of teachers’ salaries at one point or the other, in fact in my State it was for over a year.
So where is the Nigeria that had a school teacher with the short knickers, white shirt and tie, he was paid very little but he was content, he could take a piece of egg a day on his take home pay. Then we admired them, we feared them, many of them molded us. We farmed, we did those yam experiments, made candles and shoe polish, learnt typewriting and short hand, and we were many a time in the carpentry shed when not at the school piggery or poultry.
We talk about corruption in high places, ‘wilbros, wilsis, Siemens, and seewomens’ in millions and billions, in Naira and dollars, pounds and Euros, how about in low places, how about the lives that have been lost to a mere N20 gate take by a police man, how about the N200 before your file appears after it disappears?
Has anyone found it strange that in most urban centers kids would not show you the direction to place without gratification, those that worry us that our children, now lie by practice, do we care how they feel when they see old men and women fight on television and it is not a wrestling bout.
I could not imagine not passing my exams in whatever colors, but then to think that my parents would pay to have me get the papers before the exam, abomination, taboo, inexplicable, impossible, the thought itself…a sacrilege. But today, parents discuss the buying of exam papers, invigilators, lecturers with pride in beer parlours.
Would my kids, I mean would our kids be honored to travel by train again, the way we did with the old reliable Nigerian Railways, would we ever read that old copy of Daily Times Newspaper.
In a conference I attended the question that sparked debate was how old was Nigeria, the arguments were instructive, as we threw tantrums on was there a Nigeria n 1913, was Nigeria really a Nigeria in 1960, are we a nation, or a collection, is our problem leadership, followership, both or none, who is a Nigerian, an indigene, settler, and it was all baseless, especially in the light of the truth.
The truth if you ask me is that amongst many things we are not a nation yet, we have no vision regarding what we want as a people, we still find shelter in the Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani, Igbo agenda. Many things we are yet to understand.
Every day I ask if there would be a Nigeria, the way we are going, we would be able to transform, the sour tale to a fairy tale or we just remain a fiction, despite the best of intentions we are witnesses as everything Obasanjo is crumbling, we are witnesses that the Uncle Anti-Corruption may have painfully mid wife an era that may soon be known only for corruption in high and low places.
I end by saying that it is not about just the problems or the solutions but that we may have lost it, we need to find it. The fact I am trying to make is that if we think we have lost nothing we get nothing back, if we also think we have lost something and we do not look for it we equally get nothing.
In many States there would be a re-run of elections, in Plateau its six in the State House of Assembly, two out of three Senators, while we celebrate, and I believe it is good but can someone wake up and realize that we are spending millions of Naira in these elections, something we could have got right once and for all.
We need to get that point when if we see the Jeep they ride, we know it was our borehole, their SUV’s our education, the mansions they live in, could have been our hospitals. The monies they spray in parties, our taxes, they increase we pay and they spend. If it ever stops we can get back to the true story. Nigeria, just an area, a people, or just a gathering, only Almighty Allah can help us, but not without our consent.
Prince Charles Dickson is the Assistant Editor/ Jos Bureau Head for Leadership Newspapers Group and wrote from Jos, Plateau.
