by Agbonmagbe Kazeem
These are indeed very distressing and trying times for Nigerians. We have found ourselves as a people stranded on the highways with seemingly no help in sight. Our political choices in the kind of leadership we have foisted on ourselves have not really paid off. On the contrary, we are inundated on a daily basis with harrowing tales of murder, kidnapping and bloodshed, with some of our leaders doing practically nothing to halt the tide. The level of unemployment continues to soar, as young people, ravaged by the epidemic of hopelessness and helplessness in the face of an expired political leadership bereft of vision, are giving themselves willingly to slavery by risking death through the Mediterranean just to get to Europe. The recent return of hundreds of stranded young Nigerians from South Africa. This is certainly not the vision of the founding fathers of our nation, and I am sure that they will all be crying in their graves about what we have made of the hopes, aspirations and dreams that gave birth to modern Nigeria.
I have followed the concerns of young Nigerians on social media as far as the happenings in our nation are concerned. The feeling of betrayal on the part of some leaders is all too palpable, so is the level of angst among the young generation. Many young people want a nation that gives hope and inspires greatness; they want to live in Nigeria and realise their potentials. They do not want to spend their lives in exile trying to make a living. But it seems that the more they try to make a living in Nigeria, they are frustrated by the skewed and suffocating political system that is wired to destroy dreams and burn out vision. We are surely not going to change Nigeria by simply sitting in the comfort of our rooms and churning out insults against those who rule us and against one another. Young people defending politicians who have colluded to squander our commonwealth and those who are manifestly against the corrupt political system are those to whom the future of Nigeria belongs. The upper stratum of Nigeria’s political elite is fading out. What we will do when leadership falls upon us is yet to be seen in the attitude of young people towards leadership and public service.
We need new ideas in politics as well as a new kind of politics. It is these new ideas that will inspire the new kind of politics that we desperately need. As 2027 draws near, we have a duty to collectively interrogate all those who put themselves forward for political leadership. By now we should all be tired of wolves that come to us in sheep’s clothing asking to be voted into power. What we need are men and women who embody the right kind of values that are central to nation building. We all know what these values are. Other nations in Africa and elsewhere have done it. There is nothing that says that Nigerians cannot do it. Nigeria can be great (again!). Leadership is not rocket science. We have the intellectual, political and economic resources to pull this country out of the graveyard of despair and catastrophe. We cannot afford to wait for too long. Nigerians are dying on a daily basis. If human life means anything to us, our first concern should be to restore dignity to a battered nation and its battered people. This is the most important value we all have lost in the maze of politics bereft of morality. The first task of a new kind of politics is to give Nigerians dignity and make Nigerian lives matter. Once this is established, every other thing can follow. Once we reclaim our lost dignity, we can start to ask for bread, not as beggars in need of charity and philanthropy, but as citizens demanding their just rights to survive and to thrive in their own country.
I realise that nation building is a painful process that requires a lot of sacrifice, commitment, and dedication.
Nigerian have to imbibe those values that make for justice, reconciliation and peace. We have an important role to play in nation building. If we are able to mobilize and harness the intellectual, moral, ethical, cultural, and spiritual resources of our faith, we can turn around the fortunes of this country.
But there is also an important message for our leaders, perhaps a warning. The warning is that they stop deceiving themselves by thinking that they are working for the people and conscientiously begin to do what is right and just in God’s sight. The vast majority of Nigerians know that most of our politicians are in power for their own selfish interests. Very few of them embody the patriotic spirit that leaders who put their nation and its citizens over and above petty considerations live by. The corruption in government is all too evident for the blind to see.
“THE HISTORIAN”
AGBONMAGBE REMILEKUN KAZEEM
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