The Nigeria Of My Dream

By Femi Onasanya

I grew up to know a Nigeria that used to be great. Sadly enough, even till now, we are yet to get to our promised land. Our dear country is a stage for international melodrama and drama of various sorts, including comedy, tragedy and tragi-comedy. These may not really be to viewers’ delight, but to their dismay and our shame as a nation.

I began to ask myself: when and where was the era of greatness Nigeria had ever witnessed? In fact, I’m still looking for an answer despite my knowledge of history during my university days.

Should we talk about the decade after independence – 1960 to 1970, which was characterised by three bloody coup d’état as well as civil war during which at least one million Nigerians were said to have lost their lives. Or should we x-ray the 1970 to 1980 era which witnessed two different coups that cannot be described as an improvement on the previous decade, though it led to an eventual hand-over of power to a civilian government in 1979.

I can aptly call it a decade of oil boom, but with no economic roadmap for the nation. Myles Munroe, the wise Bahamas citizen, once said, “When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable”.

From 1980 to 1990 was another era of unrest and frequent power tussle at the federal level, leading to change of power at two occasions. This decade, to me, can best be described as a period corruption was enthroned to its peak in Nigeria.

The next decade came with a ray of hope, as the then head of state promised to hand over power to a democratically-elected president. With this hope, millions of Nigerians went out en masse to elect Chief Moshood Abiola at the polls on June 12, 1993. But our joy was truncated with whatever reason that made the man at the helm of affairs to annul the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria. As no one would like to be robbed in broad-day light, the acclaimed winner took to the streets, fighting for his mandate.

The acclaimed winner, M.K.O. Abiola was eventually arrested in 1994 and he died in detention on July 7, 1998. The gory acts of man’s inhumanity to man witnessed in this decade resulted in numerous arrests of human rights activists, journalists and numerous others who dared the head of state, now the late General Sani Abacha. It is hard to forget the then serving military personnel, including the Chief of General Staff(CGS), Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya, among others, as well as former head of state, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who were left for dead in prison. Notwithstanding, the sudden death of Abacha could be described as a mythical elephant which till date mean different things to different people. But whatever its meaning, it marked the beginning of Fourth Republic for us as a nation, as General Abdulsalami Abubakar chose to relinquish power after 11 months in office on May 29, 1999 to Obasanjo, who was later succeeded after eight years in office by Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007.

Unfortunately, death did not allow Yar’Adua to complete his four-year tenure, as his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took over the mantle of leadership on May 6, 2009 before winning at 2011 polls.

No doubt, the journey since 1999 has given us a ray of hope to believe in a better Nigeria. We have been through the ugly, the unpalatable and unpleasant, yet we are still standing as a nation. Of a truth, it calls for commendation to all Nigerians. But I keep asking myself when we are going to get to our dream land despite our 53rd independence anniversary and the forth-coming celebration of our centenary (100 years) of existence as a nation. Several vices had bedevilled our democracy  which are a far cry from what is obtained in an ideal society. Yet, we keep encouraging ourselves with words like, ‘it is well’, ‘it can only get better’, ‘God is in charge’, and several other statements with religious connotations. We are fond of nailing leadership as our major problem while it is hard to hear an average Nigerian chastise followers and tell them to their face how they had also impacted this country.

John F. Kennedy, the 36th president of the United States of America, was fond of saying, “Don’t think of what your nation can do for you; think of what you can do for your nation.” I wish we have a forum where followers at levels hold a regular business meeting on the state of the nation and fine-tune the way forward without having to castigate any leader or pick holes in anyone.

The likes of Malaysia used to be behind Nigeria economically before the 1960s, but the distance which they are ahead of us today is obvious to the eyes. We are blessed with human resources as a nation. We have men who can turn the tide of things around for better in all sectors. But it is pathetic that instead of going for the best hands, we always resort to re-cycling tired legs who have one godfather or another, or someone who has the financial wherewithal and gimmicks to buy his way through.

Government at all levels should stop playing politics when it comes to choosing capable hands who can help salvage our economy, electricity supply, health, petroleum industry, among others.

However, uneasy, they say, lies the head that wears the crown. It is not wrong for a leader to be criticised. But it would be out of place if a leader allows those criticisms to distract him from what he is elected to do. On the other hand, criticisms could also be a way of sampling public opinions that would help in making the government perform better.

The in-thing in Nigeria today is letter writing which has changed the tempo of the on-going drama in a completely different dimension. Our leaders should desist from responding to criticisms. Not responding may not mean that the men handling the media for the Presidency are not up to the task. ‘Silence’, they say, ‘is golden’, especially in the interest of the nation.

It’s high time we came together to sue for peace and pursued national interest at the expense of sectoral, regional or cultural interest. United, they say, we stand; divided we fall. The likes of United States, as big as it is, could not have gone this far had they forgotten that there is unity in diversity. Our size, religions, political backgrounds and multicultural traits should not be to our disadvantage; we can turn them into strength and harp on them as enviable advantages. Boko Haram, Niger Delta crisis, pipeline vandalism, electoral fraud as well as kidnapping, political thuggery, killings, maiming, among others would not have gone out of hand if the leadership and followers had seen things same way in the interest of the nation.

I desire a Nigeria devoid of celebrated corruption; a nation with responsive and responsible leadership; a country with diligent and committed followers and a country that detests unnecessary call for hurray when it is not yet uhuru.

My dream is to see a country that conducts free and fair election; a country that does not see assumption of political office as a do-or-die affair. I dream of a nation that would not be a paper tiger, but an actively great one in all ramifications. This cannot be possible if all hands were not on deck to make Nigeria great!

•Onasanya wrote in from Abeokuta, Ogun State via [email protected](08036170135)