Building a nation is a collective responsibility of the citizens because what you are today will define what your children would be in the future. You may, however, not be there to witness the developments. It takes collective interest to build a nation, a robust economy and a long-lasting sustainable environment, free of terrorism of any form.
Nigeria as an entity has been battling with a series of known calamities ranging from insurgency, unemployment and underemployment, high dropout rate and corrupt politicians among others. The nation since independence is rumbling and ruffling with an unstable power supply, bad roads, bribery and other vices which have become the order of the day while Nigerians are trying their best to select the best among the sheaf of politicians in an electoral process that has long been archaic.
Nothing, I mean nothing can work here as a nation until we think and rethink; trace and retrace our steps. We cannot continue to be wicked to ourselves and be clamouring for a better change that won’t come. No change would come to the present situation that we are in. We praise-sing our politicians, drum support for them for personal interests and we turn ourselves to a group of fanboys – hard to call the government to order or charge for checks and balances, they are our men.
Good governance, no doubt, is the only way to go for a nation that would want to compete among the best in the world. I think Nigerians are the ones to charge for good governance as poverty doesn’t have a political party. If you are poor, you will remain poor, unless you demand good governance, investment in schools, hospitals and infrastructures. It won’t be good to remain poor while the politicians you support become richer and their kids study abroad.
Political affiliation should not prevail over the call for good governance as politics is different from governance. While the two are always together, we should not be beclouded to letting political play shred us off the chance for good governance and positive change.
Development was universal because the conditions leading to economic expansion were universal. Everywhere, a man was faced with the task of survival by meeting fundamental material needs; and better tools were a consequence of the interplay between human beings and nature as part of the struggle for survival.
Sad to say, in Nigeria, we are experiencing a ‘brain drain’. Our best brains are leaving to European countries – this is to say, professionals, technicians, high-level administrators and skilled workers are exiting their homes in search of greener pasture, leaving Nigeria as an undeveloped nation.
Nigeria’s problems are not beyond Nigerians, if we charge ourselves individually, I don’t see reasons why good governance is hard to achieve. Let’s start by knowing our civil rights and responsibilities – payment of taxes at when due, obeying of traffic rules, not giving and accept bribes, fair judgement without favouritism or ethnic colouration, voting out of corrupt politicians to mention but a few.
If actually, we are ready to walk the path of greatness in this nation, we should forget the ideology of private citizens; all hands must be on the deck and no stone must be left unturned till our pains get healed.
Abdulwahab Tajudeen,
Ilorin.
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