The Nigerian tragedy

Nigeria is a tragedy. While nationals of many other countries take pride in their citizenship, most Nigerians have regrets about their Nigerian roots. Many would willingly trade their Nigerian nationality for any other country if they had the chance. Many Nigerians stay awake all night praying to God to get them out of the country. Quite a number spend a fortune seeking the intervention of one shaman or the other in their bid to migrate to another country. Some hate their parents for being Nigerians and for transferring the same nationality to them. Many even curse the day they were born into the country. The general consensus of most Nigerians is that being a Nigerian is a tragedy.

But the tragedy of being a Nigerian is not really the corruption that pervades the nation and percolates from the leadership to the rest of the citizens, as bad as that is. Corruption has arrested Nigeria’s development; it has also impaired the wellbeing of most Nigerians. Corruption is so esteemed in Nigeria that the corrupt are celebrated while the honest are derided. In Nigeria, not many people target the clean dime; majority of the citizens go after the filthy lucre! But that is not the real tragedy.

The tragedy of Nigeria is not the poor infrastructure, as gnawing and annoying as that is. Most roads in the country are deplorable, the hospitals are awful, electricity provision is terrible and schools are in a horrible state. Although having all of these in good shape would have made life much better and living much easier for the generality of Nigerians, their absence is not the real tragedy of Nigeria.

The tragedy of Nigeria is not the low level thinking that rules the country’s ruling class. Unlike what happened in the pre-independence era and immediately after independence when many of the leaders were cerebral and, consequently, mostly selfless, the current crop of the country’s leadership is largely self-centered and self serving. Rather than planning to take Nigeria to heights hitherto unattained in the history of the country, they have reduced our native land, once described as the giant of Africa, to a minion.  Having dimwitted leaders is a disaster but that is not the real tragedy of the Nigerian nation.

The tragedy of being a Nigerian is that the average Nigerian cannot actualize his potential. As a result of the stifling environment, most Nigerians cannot thrive, so they barely manage to get by. Their talents cannot find expression, their potentials are largely unutilized, and their wings are clipped. Imagine an eagle, which was created to soar being forced to operate at the level of a fowl. That is the narrative of many Nigerians.

Every individual is a product of nature and nurture. Nature bestows on everyone certain attributes such as temperaments, talents and skills, which are the ingredients of success. However, these natural attributes do not, on their own, guarantee success. The real determinant of success is the role played by the environment in nurturing the attributes provided by nature. This results in the individual either blossoming or shriveling. While nature provides the ingredient, the final outcome is a function of the nurturing that goes into nature’s provision.

The Nigerian environment is anything but enabling. It is hostile, it is stifling, it is smothering. While most other countries make it possible for their citizens to maximize their potentialities, reverse is the case in Nigeria as the environment chokes the people. The Nigerian environment tames strength, dulls passion, dims stars and enervates creativity. This is evident in the countless number of Nigerians considered to be ants in their own country only to travel abroad to become giants.  Knowing you can be much better than you are if the environment were more enabling is a pain that will not go away no matter how much you try. It is a tragedy so real and a hurt so deep. Unfortunately, that is the story of many Nigerians. What a tragedy!

It is the hostility of the Nigerian environment, which has frustrated most Nigerians and has made it nearly impossible for them to realize their potentials, that is responsible for the rising poverty, pervading insecurity and the escalating criminality that the country is experiencing. The gap between the potentials of Nigerians and the reality that they face has turned most of the citizens against their motherland. An unrealized potential or vision gives vent to anger and frustration. Rather than cooperate to build a great nation, everyone is fighting the state and fellow citizens to eke out a living or achieve relevance. Such situation pushes a country into a freefall and all efforts to put an end to the resultant criminality would amount to naught until the fundamental issue of the frustration of the citizens as a consequence of unrealized dreams is addressed.

Law of reciprocity states that one good turn deserves another. If a country is interested in the wellbeing of its citizens, they reciprocate by working out their hearts to make the nation great. That is the secret of all the leading nations of the world. The citizens can go out on a foot for their countries because they know that their countries would stop at nothing to make them be their best.

Therefore, the best strategy to bring criminality in Nigeria under control and save the country from the brink is to develop a mechanism that allows the citizens to grow to be their best. Until the country leaders come up with a system that allows Nigerians to realize their potentials, the citizens’ war against the country would not end.

That is the real tragedy.

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