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State of Nigeria
at 48
Let me start by congratulating Nigerians
on the 48th birthday of our great nation, I know someone will ask
what for, to these group of people there is nothing to show in terms
achievements that warrant congratulating the citizens. But I must
tell you the truth that there is every reason to congratulate
Nigerians even if it is just for being able to keep the nation
together for 48 years despite threat from different angles.
I heard an elder statesman on a national medium recounting the
achievements of Nigeria as a nation from independence to date, he
mentioned so many things among which were education, infrastructural
development, improved civil service, improved military and law
enforcement agencies, creation of more states and many more. In his
words he said before the independence, Nigeria can only boast of one
university, but now we have 95, the military then there were no
Airforce, and the Navy but today we have all these. According to
him, we have more educated people, better and improve
infrastructure, improve civil service, better trained and more
equipped police compare to the pre-independence era and we are now
masters of ourselves.
But the truth is that these achievement recounted by this elder
statesman are the problems of the pre-independence time. Today’s
problems are quite different from yesterday’s problems and our
founding fathers rise to the occasion and ensure that all these were
met, that is why somebody can sit today and attribute all these
achievements to the pre-independence nationalists who fought
earnestly for the independence of our land.
But the truth is that today’s leaders have not been able to meet the
expectations of Nigerians, successive government have come with
their different programmes that seem viable at introduction, but
when it comes to implementation it becomes flop, one wonder why is
it that programmes and policies that work in other countries hardly
yield positive result in Nigerian, we have had series of programmes
by different administration, but with little or no result.
The present sets of leaders should borrow a leaf from our founding
fathers, in these people you see dedication, sincerity,
determination, commitment, transparency, patriotism, when you are
looking for leaders that have rendered selfless service, people who
have risked their lives for the development and survival of this
great country, leaders that have the love of the followers at heart,
sincere people, leaders who hold on to the truth and stand and work
by it, people of vision, purpose, these are people who stood their
ground to ensure that we gain our independence from our colonial
masters.
The likes of Sir Ahmadu Bello (The Sardauna of Sokoto), Chief Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, these are
people with foresight, leaders that are purpose-driven, who had
rendered selfless services and as a result has written their names
in the annals of this nation. In fact most of the structures put in
place by these people are yet to be beaten. This is because they
were focused and had clear vision which they followed, and were not
carried away by any personal and selfish interest. Leaders who were
not corrupt but responsible and able to account for their
stewardship to the nation.
What is lacking in today’s leaders is vision, purpose, today’s
leaders are not dedicated to the service of this country, in fact a
lot is lacking in our leaders, most of our political officer holders
lack commitment, sincerity, patriotism, they lack clear vision and
most of them have the problem of short sightedness, they don’t see
beyond today, they run for political office for their personal
aggrandizement and to use public funds for their self enrichment.
Little wonder our economy is in shambles, our power sector in
comatose, education is relegated to the background, sports is left
in the hand of those who are out to destroyed it rather than
developed it, not to talk of our law enforcement agencies, where a
police officer hardly communicate very well in English language.
Corruption is gradually becoming synonymous to leadership in this
country. It is only in Nigeria that you see a local government
chairman building mansion and buying fleet of cars at resumption of
office. We pay lip service to the development of agriculture, which
was the chief foreign exchange earners then. is now left in the
hands of the peasant famers. today, we have problems in the
Niger-Delta because we neglected our agricultural sector that fed
the nation so well before and now shifted attention to the money
gotten from our liquid gold, it is very shameful to hear that we
import palm oil from Ghana to supplement the little one we produce
here, what Malaysia came here to take from us years back and today
they are one of the leading producers of palm produce in the world,
I know you will be surprise if not embarrassed to here that we have
less than 20 metric tones of grain reserves, what if something
happen today. All these and many more are the problems staring us in
our face in this country.
We must all rise to the occasion, let us wake up to the challenges
that are facing our country, I am not pessimistic but optimistic
that we are going to move forward, we have a leader who is ready to
take us there, but until we are ready to change, both the leadership
and followers must be sincere, dedicated and committed to the
development and survival of Nigeria, we must shun corruption, which
has militated against our development, we must promote unity and
forget sectionalism, tribalism and religious sentiment, we must see
ourselves as one, let Nigeria be the one Nigeria we are chanting
everyday, let everybody contribute his quota to nation building,
every Nigerian in a stakeholder, it is not the responsibility of the
leaders alone, but for all of us. let us put heads together tomove
our country forward in our own little ways. let us do the right
thing, because it is only the right thing that can achieve the right
result.
We must study the past to enable us get better understanding of
present and intelligently predict the future. Posterity will not
forgive us if we fail this nation, the Sardaunas, the Awos, Ziks
have done their part and today they are remembered for good, do you
want to be remembered for good or bad? Nigeria can be what we want
it to be if we are sincere, focus, dedicated, determined, and ready
to work hard to achieve the 7-ponits agenda of President Umaru Musa
Yar’adua, the vision 2020 and many development plans of the
government of the federation.
Long live federal republic of Nigeria.
NASIRU is of No 1b Rimi Road off Rimi Drive,
Ungwan Rimi, Kaduna.
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