I love Nigeria but we are a nation that has no staying power. We do not have the staying power to push through an issue or go through substance, our strength or determination to keep going until we reach the end of any matter is lacking. We are a people with short memory, preferring to largely forget very quickly from a point of learning slowly, we either never remember or we choose to totally forget.
Our deficit of staying power is deadly and often at the root of many of the problems we face.
Our case is like the Mocking bird accused of insulting the king, it asked how it would have time to insult the king, seeing that it must sing two hundred songs in the morning, two hundred in the afternoon and two hundred at night, mixing it all up with some frolicsome notes.
In the midst of it all, we are best battling each other along religious, ethnic and party lines. The divides, dichotomies and compartmentalization keep growing. Like the Mocking bird making unnecessary excuses and noise.
We are not able to grind something out until the desired outcome is achieved. We are brilliant at starting, but poor at seeing them through. A dramatic nation and her people full of dramatis personae, with knee jerk proportions reaction, snippier becomes a problem, we ban it, without looking at the issues. We are predictable, whether we are fighting corruption; political clothing is a see through determinant on the guilt or otherwise of the accused.
The foundation of quitters is made up of fear and doubt. They are the ones that can tell you endless stories of the “big one that got away.” They always blame something or someone for their poor track record. And this is our story, tell me one ex-governor and I would show you an unfinished tale. Show me a Nigerian leader and we would hold a long ‘hmmm’ -mouthed conversation about how he or she simply became a political office holder who had dreams that was never fulfilled.
Nigeria as a nation and her people has a poor persistence…the leadership and the people are birds of same plumage, there are reasons aplenty, excuses abound why this could not be done.
Let me end with this riddle; a man is wearing black, black shoes, socks, trousers and gloves. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him, its lights off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man? He saw the man because it was day time, when will it be day for Nigeria, her leaders and people to see through all our dramas and face the issues head on?
Prince Charles Dickson PhD