by Jude ‘Feranmi

Let us gather round ourselves and seek solutions to our problems and go after it till we achieve it.

Amidst all the troubles and all the “jagajaga” that we have been witnessing in our beloved country Nigeria, one question comes to mind. Will we ever witness the reality of the Nigeria we all dream about? Is it going to even ever happen, that we would have the Nigeria where there’s at least a glimpse of hope for our own generation and the generation unborn? My father will say, his own generation has failed Nigeria and he prays that mine doesn’t. The implied info from that statement is not only that his generation failed to do what is it that was expected of them to do but also that they have succeeded in destroying the hope of a beautiful Nigeria for us, the next generation. Most young adults now have the answers to the above questions and it is a resounding NO and the only thing you expect  from such a specie of the homo sapiens family, is to adapt. Adapting to the situation on ground, is now to find a way of benefitting from the status quo, enriching one’s self in the process and just making sure that no matter what Nigeria is, one must make it.

That is obviously a reasonable position to take, but we have all failed to see the extreme of that position. Now, people who had benefitted from the calamity that continues to eat us up have refused to leave there, Even now, that we are ready, “so to say” to regain what it is we did not lose. These cankerworms have tabernacle(d) on this spot that enriches them and have refused to leave. The issue now becomes a fight to stay in this condition because a sudden change that favors the improvement of this sector is a directly proportional negative impact on what is it they are exploiting.  That sounds extreme! ! Let’s bring it home. The average Nigerian is concerned about what it is he will eat and drink and wear and  then how he will fare in the society. Give him a job that takes care of the basic things he need and then you can ride the average Nigerian like a horse, bullying him to every other entitlement he deserves.

Every graduate wants to just get a job. No solutions are being proposed. The same old tricks to the new problems and the new challenges we face today. The die hard mentality which has been passed down to our African blood by our forefathers have indeed proved to be worthwhile. Only it now serves its negative turn. The average Nigerian will make sure to find a way in which no matter what the government brings, he’ll survive. We die hard. As much as this is supposedly a compliment, it appears to have been detrimental to the state of our well being as a people and the state of our nation. We sit down and lament, argue, discuss, create blogs and write about these things, criticize and wait for the next hot newspaper headline so we can start the whole cycle all over again. We have refused to be pushed to the wall. We die hard!

SOLUTION

When a tree produces bad fruits and bad leaves, the farmers don’t cut the fruits and the branches and expect the new set of leaves and fruits to be good. It’s not done. As a country, that’s what we’ve been doing. Our sectors are bad, unemployment  rates is very high and it’s getting higher by the day, infrastructure levels are pathetic, security of lives and properties is nothing to write home about. Yet, all we do as Nigerians, is to first, lament , secondly, look for an alternative, thirdly, leave the problem and settle with the alternative. Will there always be an alternative? Unfortunately enough, in this part of the continent, there will always be an alternative. The die hard syndrome will always find one alternative. But, the problem still remains unsolved. Do we actually have the capacity to solve these problems? Do we have people with the intellectual capacity and the right upbringing to solve these issues? We do! And that’s the irony of the whole story. We do! We do! Only that these set of people prefer the status quo to risking their time and intellectual property all in the name of serving their motherland. That said, the cabals in charge will not even allow such an happening under their nostrils. We lack solutions in the midst of answers! Ironical!

3000 years before the advent of Christ, Plato said, “ the punishment we suffer for not taking interest in the matters of government is to suffer the government by the worse set of people”.

Matters of polity are determinants to the kind and quality of life we live, and if we refuse to take interest in these matters, then we will suffer the fate that is placed in our hands by the worst set of people in the country. We all yearn for a change, or say a miracle, an overnight turn around. I’m not saying that there is a problem  with this yearn and call for change. I am saying there is a problem when we expect change from the same set of people who have brought about and sustained the malady that torments our hopes of a better country. We should be interested in a campaigning for a change. We should be interested in participating in issues that leads to the path where the glimpse of hope is clearer than where we are now, we should be interested in finding solutions and working the solutions and not just lamenting and complaining both outdoors amidst our colleagues and in our closets. We should not settle for whatever it is we are been given when there is an almost eternal possibility of a better offer.

We should yearn for freedom from the shackles of doggedness that has held us down amidst our very own prosperity. We should rise up and desire the better life that awaits us as a nation when we reach for it. It is almost impossible if we refuse to go for it, we should not just sit down in our houses and our offices and hope for a messiah because a messiah will never show up. We should not just lament the state of our hospitals and our public schools in barbers’ shops or in the clubs when we can rise and do something. We should be interested in matters of polity.

We should not just leave our institutions as graduates and join the ever increased unemployed labor force when there are possibilities of getting gainfully employed only if the government will wake to reason, we should not leave the matters that determine the quality of life that we leave, the legacies we leave for the generation unborn, the impressions and the perceptions of our fellow African brothers and the continent at large, the esteem accorded to us in the international stage not only in the media but also in the university classes abroad where we have the Nigerian and the foreigner, matters that determine the fulfillment of life as a whole and the entire purpose of our nation at large amongst all others, we should not leave these matters to people without substance and content. We should not leave these matters to people who are only driven by desperation and ambition.

We should not leave these matters to people who have no idea of what it is to be the Nigerian behind the public scenes and the spotlight. We should not leave these matters to incompetent folks. We should not allow nepotism and greed eat up the progress that will be within our grasp when we decide to follow it. We should leave our pseudo-comfort zones  and act, we should leave our very own closets and follow madly after the realization of our Nigerian dream.

Not only will we be truly free from all our problems and issues, we will also have achieved relevance amidst the nations. We would have set in motion a legacy for our unborn generations we would have lived a life of accomplishment, a life of true purpose, a life of impact. We would have contributed immensely to the true change that we desire, because the true change is that which affects the very low Nigerians that we do not see around the public hemisphere. The true change is that which spans across the whole nation as a whole to the inner suburbs of our country, the places presidential and governorship candidates do not visit during campaign. The true change spans across these places where we do not have on our maps. . . to the villages where there are no primary schools, the places where you have to travel to the next local government before you make a call or buy a recharge card. The true change is what we would have achieved if we all leave our pseudo-comfort zones and take interest in matters of polity.

The revolution and the change that we seek in our beloved country is not a one-man revolution, it’s an every-man revolution. It’s not a revolution that can be brought about by a tough president or a thinking one nor can it be brought about by a supposedly learned and experienced politician, no matter how much he knows or how much he’s experienced. We need to join hands together, under one umbrella with one accord, with one purpose and one vision. We need to come together and reason together as a nation, we need to drive this train together. We need all hands irrespective of our tribes, ethnic groups, relations , language or ideology. We need a one purpose team. We do not need the ever increasing political non governmental organizations that hope to get grants in achieving their aims, which is still another form of surviving the status quo and adapting to the situation. The change we seek, the change we desire is a change we can only achieve if we are together.

Life has a habit of giving to man most times only what he demands and not what he deserves. In fact, life has it that you only deserve something when you demand for it. The change we desire, we’ll only get when we demand for it. Let us cause a change. Let us come together under one umbrella and campaign for change. Let us gather round ourselves and seek solutions to our problems and go after it till we achieve it. Let us draft a reform program, let us find out what it is that is our issues and ways to tackle it. Let us draft strategies to tackling our political problems and let us follow through.

Until we have the majority on our side, then, we are ready to cause change. We cannot afford to scatter around when we have the same purpose. We are what we do! Every other thing is TALK!

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.