Nigeria is waiting for you

CURRENCY, CURRENT SENSE AND CONTINENTAL EMBARRASSMENT AT 49

A madman once said that the difference between Nigeria and the United States of America is not currency but current sense. When he made this statement, all those around him just laughed at him scornfully but I took this statement so precious because I did made a rethink of this statement and soon realized that his statement made sense even out of pure madness.

Do you recall the Harvard saga? Though it’s a little bit long now but let me tell you of how governors under the ages of the Nigeria governor’s forum (NGF) wanted to go and acquire common sense, so they could know how to build roads, create jobs for ever increasing already over-populated unemployed graduate in Nigeria. They termed capacity training progamme (CTP) was the window intended to be used for this frivolous spending when Nigerian Universities are one of the worst in world ranking. It is so painful that even in a time of economic recession where, spending supposed to be cut down and much priority given to skill acquisition and small medium entrepreneurships (SMEs) progammes, they rather intend it for self development. This greatly shows their high emptiness, even with all the Harvard training, without vision nothing could as well be achieved.

Nigeria at 49 is a continental embarrassment, a monumental disgrace in country where millions are suffering in the midst of plenty. Situations were all Nigerian students are sitting at home, doing nothing. This is the worst independence ever, in fact Nigeria Student should morn for this country and should be ready to bury all PDP leaders that have made Nigeria a total bundle of misfit, unpatriotic and has thus, made Nigeria to be termed a failed state.

I would not joined words with others that do not see hope in Nigeria like Daniel Elombah that passionately sees no hope in this country. Instead of burning on the ills of our society like nepotism, corruptions by government officials at all levels, tribalism and so much more, I rather dwell on what we could start doing to make our country good.

Today, Nigeria is a disappointment and I have made a turnaround not to only criticize but to start doing because there is much work to be done, the future looks bleak, so very unclear but we can start taking water and detergent and make it clearer if for nothing else but for our yet unborn generation. There is hope even though currency has overtaken current sense. We have a lot of human, mineral and material resources but we either misuse or misapply them. Some say our leaders misplace priorities, but they are wrong; our leaders have NO priorities! I have a priorities to play my little part in the development of my community, my local government, my states and the country in general. What about you? Are you just sitting there criticizing?

Apart from oil, we are endowed with so many other things, yet poverty is still endemic and unemployment is everywhere. Yes this is because those of us who are aware of this have let our personal lives erodes our heart desire of making impact in the society. The fact still remains that Nigerians are still waiting for you to start breaking new grounds, to blaze new trails or have you not realized that you are God-sent to revive this country and set it on the part of greatness.

Nigeria earned N2.23tn from exports in the first six months of 2009. Out of the sum, crude oil, Nigeria’s main economic stay, fetched N1.83tn. The balance of N404.9bn came from other exported items such as gas, leather, sesamum seeds, raw pawpaw, cocoa, fat, so why are we not getting it right? Why do 70 percent of our people live on less than one dollar a day? These are questions that will never be answers if we choose to remain at the same level of criticizing. It will be surprising to note that quite a handful of Nigerians lack integrity with money, so what are we not saying. Let’s have a change of attitude and a renewed mind towards this country. We should not mind our leaders that are using the wealth of this country to enrich themselves because they will surely pay for it one way or the other.

Nigeria is so bedeviled by political instability which is a function of injustice in electoral matters, greed and corruption that it is sheer providence that has so far stopped the military from coming back to power. This is an obvious fact that if you ask a child of less than a year old can attest to this. What more can I say rather than to tell you that we need patriot who would fight through all means legally possible to outwit these evil leaders that have placed their person aggrandizement above national consciousness, we have to pledge to Nigeria again and again, not in the song but in action, in works. There is something we can do, no man is an empty vessel, God gave us something to offer to this country, just look inward, it might just be that thing you are passionate about, certainly it might be what Nigeria is looking for. You must not be a genius because most of our leaders are scholars but they all lack common sense and current sense, they are functioning with the wisdom of the devil rather than the wisdom given to them by God. It is only with the wisdom of the devil that will make you to steal public thereby betraying public trust, this wisdom of the devil makes you look like the “sharp guy” but the wisdom of God give you a popular public view of shear weakness or rather foolishness but the end will surely justify the means.

Only very few persons in the country today have a genuine sense of patriotism and only a few others are nationalistic in thought. Are you among one of these very few? It is a question you must answer and we must all answer if we are to move forward in order not for the struggle of heroes to be in futility. The declaration of amnesty in the Niger Delta has been converted into an opportunity to siphon wealth and get political leverage, so who bothers about the plight of Niger Deltans? I do my dear Nigerians, do you bother about the gully erosions in the east, do you care about the north fast becoming desert or the west with vast underdevelopment amidst flood of brains, what can you do? Is it only to criticize, do something, start something, no matter how little it is, just start doing something now and forget about what you see or hear, they can only give you wrong idea and wrong direction. Look into your heart and am sure it will give the direction that will make you to play your own part.

Our professionals have voted with their feet. Nigeria have the highest number of immigrant number of doctors in the United States, our doctors make the NHS in the UK famous and one of our engineers, Mr. Jude Igwemezie have just won a contract to design the Iraqi Railway while there are no rails in Nigeria; What we can do outside ,we cannot do it at home!
Yes this shows that we have the brains filled with innovations, but the problem is that we are not thinking not to talk of acting. Once we put out hands together, Nigeria is unstoppable and the sky will certainly be our stepping stone. I so much believe in you my friend, come join me and lets make Nigeria a better place.

We cannot afford to pay our lecturers a living wage so that ASUU will call of a never ending strike and return our children to the class room but we are happy to spend N4.7 billion yearly on our legislators or N40 Million monthly in wages and allowances.

This is no news anymore, we have all heard the heart breaking saga of Sam Egwu 120 million naira party, it is painful but we should start working, so we could have stories, good stories to tell our children. Egwu already has a good biography, what more can we ask for, when he foolishly said that he did not know that the ASSU strike will reach this stage, it is appalling for such a man in his age with his position not to have know the implication of stealing public money for personal pleasure, a onetime lecturer with an monthly wage of not more than 150 thousand naira staging a day party of 120 million Nigerians money.

We can only hope it get better from here, not from this PDP government but you. Start now, start right, start doing something, you can even organize people to clean up a street, drain water from a street road without minding the ever lookers.
May God continue to bless Delta State and the federal republic of Nigeria.