Nigeria: Land of a broken dream?
Guided by their fates and united in common front for collective destiny towards self-rule, our independence strugglers, having suppressed their tribal, sectional and religious interests successfully forced their way through on October 1st 1960. The colonial masters, against all odds, left the land intact and gave Nigerians political and economic independence. Today, quite a number […]
Guided by their fates and united in common front for collective destiny towards self-rule, our independence strugglers, having suppressed their tribal, sectional and religious interests successfully forced their way through on October 1st 1960. The colonial masters, against all odds, left the land intact and gave Nigerians political and economic independence. Today, quite a number of Nigerians have excelled in various fields of endeavours: Medicine, Education, Engineering, Security formations and Information and Communication Technology among others. Not only are they shining stars at home but also abroad in Europe, Asia, Middle East, and the Americas.
With all those developments, Nigerians seemed to be playing into the hands of colonizers who only had interest in our abundant mineral resources. We know how we are being treated in foreign lands. Do we also acknowledge that we are naturally exploitative, owing to what they claimed that nothing works with Afrikaans in Africa? Otherwise, under what guise, are we experiencing these unending skirmishes, killings and bombings of our people by our people in our lands which seem to have defied our varied home grown military measures and solutions by our own governments?
We need to be wary of global 5th columnists, looking at the fate of our close neighbours where total atmosphere of peace cannot be found, whether in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Somalia, or in Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Sudan and of recent Mali and Guinea-Bissau, just to mention a few.
A situation that has not only posed some threats to the continuous co-existence of the Nigerian State, a land believed to be a major player in World economy and as most black populated and due to its potentials in agriculture, globally rated to be a twentieth economy in the world by 2020. In that respect, President Jonathan has since been rolling out a well thought out 4 year transformation programme of leaping the land from sub or regional force to become the twentieth global economy.
In as much as terrorism on a daily basis is being perpetuated in almost all the lands, in fact even the 2011 elections of President Jonathan appeared to have aggravated the nation’s security challenge. Nigerians, who have lived for ages in states like Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Gombe, Bauchi, Kaduna and Kano, flee those areas as hardly a day passes without an incidence of attacks or clashes between sect-members and security personnel, innocent civilians or public figures. The endemic corruption is also rampant at all levels of authority due to bad governance in all tiers and arms of government.
Despite the way Sudan ended up as land of broken dreams, Nigeria seems to be on threshold of history whether the present leadership might be fated the same way, since Nigeria’s President was sometimes last year, a guest at Sudan break-off ceremony in Khartoum. Like in any other country, the President is always the Symbol of Power and Authority and as Man of the Moment, serves lastly as Instrument of guaranteed Protection of both lives and property of Nigerians anywhere they reside. But in recent times, the President unprecedentedly admitted the infiltration of his government by presumably the dreaded terrorists group, called “Boko Haram”.
Who have been fingered as main culprits behind daily bombings of Offices, places of worship, barracks as well as shootings and killings of innocent people in their private residences and Marketplaces? Worried by this unabated heinous crimes, the Nigerian government went ahead to impose dusk to dawn curfew in some select states and LGAs following declaration of state of emergency by President Jonathan in December last year. Is that not an indication that Nigeria that has come that far, now drifts under President Jonathan who many believed to have thrown in the towel against the dreams of our founding fathers. Even the curfew according to some has escalated the general break down of law and order in the entire north and some states in the federation.
This, they said had now not only in the affected states brought about an uneasy calm and general apathy amongst residents who on daily basis complained of harassment and unnecessary detours due to check points or diversions by the members of the JTF across some highways in the nation.
Finally, President Jonathan should heed the calls of his fellow compatriots so that he cannot fall on the bad side of history. Therefore, to prove wrong Campbell et al prediction of 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan should look inward with a view to correcting injustices in the land. The government should implement the federal character principles where it does not relegate merit to the background. Nigerians should also have the right to claim all rights in any state they choose for residency, therefore abolishing parochial indigene-ship policy. This would ensure access to scholarship, medication and employment in every state of their choice.
While security agencies intensify efforts to control the excesses of the Boko Haram, traditional rulers and religious leaders must also be in the forefront in cajoling militants to sheath their swords and embrace peace. Our national discourse should eschew tribalism, ethnicity and religious intolerance but promote peaceful coexistence and the spirit of being our brothers’ keepers. Only by then, to some extent can the nation guarantee ending religious insurgency in the country by June 2015 as President Goodluck Jonathan promised.
Adam wrote from Abacha Road, Mararaba, FCT