We all need Nigeria’s Forgiveness

I grew up in the 70s and the 80s. These were very good years by my reckoning; very good indeed, I tell you. My father tells me his time was good too, and he bemoans my time as not so good.  I have younger associates who grew up in the 90s, and they also say the same thing about how good their time was also even though I think that what they called good about the Nigeria of their time is a time when Nigeria was like a fast ripening plantain, soon to go bad.  It’s surprising though that almost everyone agrees that Nigeria was good in their own days. It was never at its best, but it was pretty good.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that the young people living in today’s Nigeria can say the country is good. I don’t even think that anyone can say Nigeria is good anymore, young or old. Everywhere you go, ‘country is tough’ is what you consistently hear; a tough place to live, to work, or even to raise children.  Even those who run the country agrees to the general sentiment that things have long stopped being at ease with the country.  It is not certain, however, if they are incapable of making changes, if they are disinterested in making those changes or if they are simply overwhelmed.

We are spiralling out of control, and no one seems to know what to do, or want to do what needs to be done. Everyone is complaining; every is offering solutions but no one is actually working these solutions, or any solution at that. We seem to think the job has to be done by someone else. We think someone else has to step in to clear the mess.

This is where I disagree. We are all part of the problem. We all created the mess in our own little or big way. Tell yourself you are not part of the problem, and you lie. I am part of the problem. We let Nigeria down either with our active participation in its ruin, or by our passive complacence as we watched things go awry. We have all let Nigeria down, and we all need to beg for her forgiveness and start to make restitutions.

Drive around neighbourhoods, and you will see garrisons for buildings, with very tall fences completely covering the houses within. I didn’t grow up that way. Most of us didn’t either. Our houses had no fences. Where there were, they were either low concrete fences or made with shrubs.

As a young man, I would drive from Port Harcourt to Ilorin or from Lagos to Kaduna, and the only thing I would worry about is if I will get there with 2 full tanks of petrol instead of one. Nothing else worried me; no armed robbers, no irate custom officers, no desperate police officers looking for anything to hang on you to make you cough out money, no kidnappers. Now, all these worries paralyse us or force us to take more expensive but secure alternatives.

I remember walking with my friends to and from school as a boy. You will see kids from all sides of the wealth divide all over the streets, walking home after school, regardless of their parent’s status in the society. Today, many kids still walk home from school, but I am sure you know what sort of parents those kids have. Whose rich child will you find walking him or busing it home?

I remember also that way back, almost everyone had something to do; factory workers, dock workers, menial labourers etc. There were not many layabouts. Today, there is an army of employed youth who are almost becoming a major threat to those of us who have some form of employment; idle and redundant people milling around. At stop lights all over the nation, you will be amazed at the number of people selling stuff on our highways, and if you add the number just begging for alms, you will just be flabbergasted! This is a time bomb waiting to explode!

As I said earlier, we all need to be part of the solution. Running away is selling-out, even though it is an attraction that is sometimes too powerful to ignore. If where you are running to didn’t solve their own problems, you will not have them to run to in the first place. Also, doing nothing but complain has not helped us solve the problems, rather, it has instead created a lot more. So we need to stop complaining and start to do something. Do something, no matter how little. Make a small change here and there; begin to influence your immediate cycle.

In reality, we don’t need a massive change to make things work in this country. What we need to do is to have millions of little changes being made by millions of citizens one at a time. Start by doing your jobs with integrity and honesty; observe known rules; don’t cut corners; think Nigeria, not self, clan or tribe; live right, and correct wrong doings starting with yours and then other people’s. Stand up for the truth. More importantly, think about legacies; both personal and national. What would you like to leave behind that will live after you, aside ill-gotten monumental wealth or monstrosities called buildings? What kind of country would you like to bequeath to your children? Think about your business practices also; would you be proud to handover these practices to your children in the future when they are ready to take over the control of your business? If the Nigeria of today worries you, the time to start changing things is now. Tomorrow may be too late!