In just one day, the year 2022 will be gone, and will not return forever. That’s one interesting thing about time. It waits for no one, no matter the circumstances.
The year 2023 has been described by many Nigerians in very different ways. Some see it as the one crucial year to make or mar Nigeria. Rightly so, many believe we cannot continue this way, if we really want to sustain this federation and continue as a nation.
We cannot, for example, expect anything different if we ignore all the factors staring us in the face to vote for the many half-baked products the political parties have displayed as candidates seeking different types of political offices.
In my own state of Kano, for example, the majority of the politicians seeking to be elected as members of the Federal House of Reps can neither write nor speak good English, if any at all.
And unlike the Kano State House of Assembly that conducts its proceedings in Hausa, the federal parliament conducts its business in English. And what this means is that any constituency that elects as parliamentarian a person that cannot communicate in English has as good as forfeited any representation at the federal legislature. Can my kinsmen of Kano do the right thing by rejecting these illiterates? We truly hope they do.
It is the tragic reality of our time that those with the requisite capacity and capabilities to represent us were shoved aside because many political leaders and godfathers at the the state level are themselves illiterates. And this is not limited to Kano State. It has become a Nigerian thing. They, therefore, prefer to have those they feel they can manipulate in office.
But what of the few that are truly competent? We can only hope that this time around the electorate will come to terms with the harsh reality of everyday life in this country and vote for those who have what it takes to represent and get the best deal for us at the national level.
At the presidential level, we have by now seen all the candidates seeking to take over the nation’s leadership from President Muhammadu Buhari in five months’ time. I am appaled that, less than two months from now, some Nigerians already complaining of bad leadership will use their own hands to vote for persons they know very clearly cannot and will not deliver on the job.
The physical incapacities of at least one presidential candidate are so glaring, but this same candidate is likely to get millions of votes from those of us complaining and, if these votes are enough, that same person may end up becoming our next President. Except we want to complain forever, we should, this time around, shove aside all sentimets and vote for only the best. And the best is there for all discerning eyes to see.
The other day, a frontline elder statesman expressed shock at the attitude of some Nigerians, asking whether they want God Himself to vote on their behalf, when the Lord has given them intellect and all faculties of reasoning to distinguish the right from wrong.
It remains to be seen whether the right choices are going to be made by us, Nigerians, in a matter of a few days or weeks. We surely will have ourselves to blame, if we cannot bring together those reasoning faculties to vote for the best at various levels, especially the presidential. Our resort to casting blame on foreign powers for our woes won’t have any meaning from the next election. Our destiny is in our hands. The choice is ours to make.
But what of we the citizens, I mean, are we ready to effect some necessary changes to help nurture our economy to fruition? The outgoing Buhari administration, for factors that in many cases are not its making, is going to bequeath a national economy in tatters.
Apart from the need to choose a president who is versed in the economy, what sacrifices are we ready to make, to fast-track the kind of development we deserve and desire?
There is this piece that has since gained serious traction in the social media, describing the typical attitude of the typical African as the one responsible for his or her woes. It goes thus:
The African in the morning wakes up, turns off his alarm clock made in CHINA, comes out of his bed sheets woven in INDIA, puts on his clothes made in BANGLADESH; shoes from ITALY, drinks his orange juice from SPAIN, puts milk made in FRANCE in his coffee produced in BRAZIL.
He jumps in his car made in JAPAN or in Germany to go to the TOTAL service station (FRANCE), he fills up and takes his KOREAN Samsung phone made in TAIWAN or iPhone (USA) and pays with MOBILE MONEY (Owned by foreign stakeholders).
At noon, he leaves his office, dressed in a nice 3-piece suit in the heat, in a Western dress code.
He joins his friend in an upscale restaurant serving Western specialties then smokes an AMERICAN cigarette or CUBAN cigar while sipping an Irish aperitif or Chilean wine. They eat CAMBODIAN or Taiwanese rice, drink a Cognac from France and come home to watch Barça vs Réal Madrid on Aa Samsung TV made in Korea without having spent a cent which will remain in Africa.
Then they debate to know why there is neither work nor money in the country and on our continent.
And with that, they conclude that their problems are other people’s make…”
Another challenge facing us as a nation is that of security. A group places Nigerians as the first in inflicting mortal wounds on our national psyche. If we are not engaging in all sorts of crimes directly, many of us are advertently or inadvertently supporting and encouraging the forces of evil attacking and killing us.
When we use our phones to share false or negative stories on our armed forces, we are indirectly lowering their morale and thereby helping our collective enemies. Some of us make the mistake of thinking that support for our armed forces aggregates to support for the government of the day. But that is completely erroneous because, as an example, President Buhari will exit power in a matter of five months maximum, but the armed forces are going to outlive him and in fact outlive all of us. They will remain there till the end of time.
So it behoves on us as compatriots to show them some love and support, even if only to encourage them to continue to stake their precious lives for us the citizens to live.
Their type of job is such that they can be killed the next minute. And in fact thousands of these gallant forces of ours have lost their lives like play, leaving behind young children whose future could well be in jeopardy.
And you know what? Helping the security forces, and especially the intelligence personnel with timely information on criminals and criminality is akin to putting more money in our pockets.
When the information you pass results in less expenditure on security, the monies can be directed to such things as construction of quality roads that will save your car and make the purchase of brake pad or shock absorver unnecessary.
It also allows government to invest more in education, health and agriculture. That will make private schools a matter of choice, as public schols will be restored to what they used to be, centres of excellence in the good old days.
Same with healthcare. We won’t need to embark on medical tourism if, by our cooperation with security services, we free more resources that government can deploy towards primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare.
Presently, there is serious hunger in Nigeria as cost of foodstuffs has hit the roof and is beyond the reach of most ordinary Nigerians. The National Bureau of Statistics put the number of poor Nigerians at 133 million.
At a time, China had more than four times the population of Nigeria ranking as very poor. But one of the things the Chinese society did to remove over 90 percent of its people from poverty is deepening of mechanised agriculture, which does not come cheap.
Chinese citizens also opted to be peaceful and law-abiding, unlike many of us here. With that, their government can afford to spend less on security and concentrate scarce resources on other areas needing urgent attention.
The list of what good can happen to us as individuals and collectively as Nigerians can go on and on, and the beauty of it is that we all know them. What is therefore required is the will to drop our bad habits and replace them with new positive ones, in this new year 2023 and beyond. We all owe ourselves this duty even if only for our survival.
In concluding this piece, permit me to quote from a piece said to have been authored by Lt-General Lamidi Adeosun, one of the finest officers that the General Tukur Buratai era has produced.
For those who see Nigeria as a failed state, he opined to the contrary, saying “this country is not finished nor has it failed. We Nigerians are the finished and broken people who have failed our country with our insatiable greed, inordinate ambitions, unhealthy competitions that have forced us to live above our means and destroy the system in order to steal or be in control to be able to have access to the government or our organisation’s fund to fuel our greed.
“There is enough for every Nigerian but not enough to satisfy our greed and unsustainable living. Our vain cravings have condemned us to a country of angry, bitter and broken souls spitting nothing but venom and foolishness at a system that is our creation and our mirror image.
“Before next you talk about any leader or government that is enslaving you, first free your own mind from the enslavement of insatiable greed, unhealthy competition and living above your means which is destroying your life and the country.
Before next you talk about any tribe enslaving you, first free your own mind from superstitious ignorance, primitive sentiments, dubious contrived emotions, bigotry and ethnic chauvinism.”
So you see what I have been saying? More than ever before in our history as a nation, we urgently need a positive change of attitide, to finally get it right and enlist our beloved country Nigeria in the league of great nations across the globe.
May the year 2023 be resoundingly successful for us all.