If a fool at 40 is a fool forever, what then should be said of a fool at 59? Whilst we still revel in the euphoric jubilee of the moment, permit me to reveal some salient truths, albeit already known to us. Nigeria clocked 59 years of age, yet with absolutely nothing to show for it but white elephants that many ministers acclaim to themselves in sheer mediocrity.
Our roads are still deathtraps, our economy is still in a shambles; people still live below one dollar per day, our electricity supply is still worse than epileptic; I still bear with the noise and fumes coming from my neighbour’s industrial generator, our educational system is still a mess, our currency is a write-off and oh yes, fraud is still very much our household name.
It’s been 59 years of woes and struggle, insecurity, bloodshed, lack and strife, flagrant breach of democracy and rule of law. With each passing year, rather than adding a feather to our cap, we simply top up our can of woes waiting till it gets full.
Senate increases 2020 budget from N10.002 trillion to N10.729 trillion
What then should be celebrated in an independence day of recession, poverty, marked by hunger and starvation; an independence day that daily still watches tons of educated youths rot under the curse of unemployment?
What should be celebrated of an independence day that sees to the maiming of innocent lives and pillaging of settlements all in the name of some religious fanatical dogma?
Should we then close our eyes to this myriad of woes and clad ourselves in colorful attire in celebration? Such shouldn’t be marked with feasting or merriment. It shouldn’t be celebrated amidst pomp and circumstance. It should be marked with mournful dirges and sorrowful processions. Our leaders should cloak themselves in sack clothes and bury their heads in the ashes of shame from the rubble of their greed.
We would be living in a fool’s paradise if we call this a celebration of independence. No! This is the celebration of its opposite. It is the celebration of a ‘cake-less’ birthday, the celebration of years of rot, lawless and irresponsible leadership, the celebration of corruption and indiscipline. It is the celebration of a facade.
Before we can claim the status of ‘Independence’, we must first emancipate ourselves from our mental slavery. An elephant tied to a spot for donkey years would still remain in that spot even when it is freed! Until we can stand tall and hold our shoulders high in pride of our identity as Nigerians in foreign lands, until we are free from the mercy of foreign exportation, until we stop being shameless beggars and borrowers from the International Monetary Fund, until the American dollar bows to the value of naira, until our youths begin to return to their homeland for the greener pastures they seek, until our government sees the life of every Nigerian as worth ten times the life of any other citizen in the world, then and only then would we be the real icing on the cake of our nation’s freedom. Then and only then can we truly wave our flags high in the air and chant in reverent jubilee
Olonade John O,
johnolonade21@gmail.com
and then