Nigeria @ 60 : A Mixed Feeling.

 

A patriot whether living or dead who have seen by futuristic perception the decay this great nation  will and has been subjected  will definitely experience like me a love-hate relationship for it. Love, in the sense that the blood of Nigeria flows in your veins and you feel a sense of duty to do good by it whether by enlisting in the office of Jeremaid lamentators or actively getting involved in the running of it if the odds favour you. The flip side also is the garment of didain and ridicule that the flag of Nigeria or its passport earn from other nations who have subscribed to the popular assumption that Nigeria is synonymous with corruption.

If you take a listen to Country Hard the musical video by Eedris Abdulkareem featuring Sound Sultan. You find in it the lamentation of the present condition of Nigeria via the level of corruption in high and low places. Poverty, the spate of incessant terrorism in the Northeast, the insincerity of the people at the helms of affairs and most importantly too, the ineptitude of its citizenry.

All of us, whether as a leader or as a follower are culpable in whatever state our dear country is in. Failure in doing what you have been paid or employed to do because no one is monitoring you, the quick and insincere urge to take advantage of scarcity to inflate prices of products and services and the misguided orientation that material wealth irrespective of the way it is gotten is an applaud from the society are some of the pointer to the kind of people we are. This goes further to show that the leaders of Nigeria are a true reflection of the kind of people in the land.

The chorus of the song despite attesting to the difficulty associated with being a Nigerian and living in Nigeria, still preaches hope:

        Country hard o but we go overcome

        Forget your sorrow but we go overcome

        Ojoro don dey ojoro don dey

        But we go overcome.

Hope then is like an opium that enables one to see past the present ugliness to a beautiful future. Both the rich and the poor are eternally intwined. One can't do without the other. The following lines says it all:

             If the poor no go fit sleep,

            I swear the rich no go fit sleep.

       

This is not a threat but the stark reality that  the uneasiness of the poor is equal to the fear of the rich. It is like the Yoruba saying: irorun ìgi ni irorun ẹyẹ (The peace of the tree is also the peace of the bird). Anything short of this is bound to bring chaos.

Another point equally important is in the following lines:

            Dem say you be  lazy youth 

           Election time dem go use you.

 

Even the aspirant for political office still need the youth that they describe as lazy to actualize their mandate whether during campaign or the actual election for violence as they see fit. This is wisdom for the youths to make the most of their lives rather than becoming tools in the hands of the politicians who will use and dump them.

What is there to celebrate? How do we explain a country endowed with both human and natural resources but stuck in the mud of retrogression? Is there something to be joyous about when the things that should be a blessing to us; our oil, our diversity are the very things tearing us farther and farther apart? What is that thing that we can point to that we have achieved in our '60' years of existence as a federation? Is there just one thing that you can be proud of that you are a Nigerian? Is there something we can hold unto that will be for  us a signifier of better things to come?

Other school of thought might say that there are quite a lot of things to celebrate. Someone might say that we are still occuping the entity known as Nigeria. No part has seceded. We are still growing as a nation. Another might say that what we are experiencing are the birth pangs of a new Nigeria about to be born. Yet another might  say that there is hope even though the reality on ground is a far cry from the beautiful picture of the future in the mind of the optimistic Nigerian.

Whichever way we look at it, we still need to hang unto hope. But hope alone will not bring the desired change. Hope alone will not get the job done. We must get to work if you and I want to see the Nigeria of our dreams. Happy Independence Nigeria!