Thinking about the Nigerian Dream

The dawn of a New Year provides individuals and organisations an occasion to review their activities and make projections for the ensuing year. This is the secret behind the success of many persons and groups. Failure to observe this is also responsible for the failing of many. Those who don’t embark on self-appraisal with a view to making amends where necessary remain stagnant for a while before the inevitable decline sets in. Those who assess themselves get better because they do new things that give them different results.

Nigerians are a religious lot. Consequently, when there are issues that demand taking the bull by the horns, our leaders wax religious and seek refuge in eliciting hope in the citizenry through the deployment of sweet words. But they forget that hope is not a strategy. It is when a strategy is in place that there can be hope for a change. But the irony of the Nigerian situation is that we have turned hope into a strategy. No situation has ever changed as a consequence of a people merely hoping for a change. All the changes the world has ever known happened because some people took decisive steps.

One area in which Nigeria needs to take action is with respect to carving a National Dream. I am fully persuaded that the divisive tendencies that seem to be our lot as a nation are a reaction to the lack of a dream to which we all can aspire. The agitation for the resuscitation of Biafra, the Southern Kaduna crisis, the threats by Niger Delta militants etc are not because of our ethnic or religious differences, they are a result of the absence of a National Dream. There is nothing that pulls the people to the nation; there is no national agenda that is greater than their tribal or religious affiliation. Since nature abhors vacuum, where there is no dream, there will be hallucination. So, they choose to give vent to something in their community that has been able to arrest their attention. This is why integration has become quite difficult in the country. The antidote to regional or religious agitation is a definite and definitive Nigerian Dream.

I have searched the archives but I have yet to find a document containing the Nigerian vision or dream. In Nigeria, there is no national vision. There is nothing known as ‘the Nigerian Dream.’ What this presupposes is that there is no specific goal that all Nigerians are working towards, no concerted effort to take the country to a pre-determined future, no definite activity to inculcate in the people certain beliefs that will engender the right kind of attitudes which will fast track our development as a country. I am aware that each government that we have had in the recent past came with specific things that it wanted to achieve; Obasanjo harped on economic reform, Yar’Adua’s focus was observing the rule of law, Jonathan was particular about transformation and President Muhammadu Buhari is telling us that change begins with us, but those are not qualified to be regarded as the national vision or goal; they are mere tags by which each of the leaders wanted to be identified. What will Nigerians be identified by that will have a positive effect on the country?

Whatever else President Buhari achieves, without working towards national integration, which is a consequence of carving a national dream, it will not amount to much. The hindrance to the manifestation of Nigeria’s greatness is the absence of a Nigerian Dream. So, he should get himself a conspicuous place in Nigeria’s history by ensuring the articulation of a Nigerian Dream before he leaves office. The best time to start is now.

The Nigerian Dream must be anchored on answers to the following questions among others; What do we want to be known for? What do we want as the hallmark of our nationhood? What values do we want to ingrain in our citizenry? It is when answers are provided to these questions and no effort is spared to make every Nigerian key into the answers that our journey to greatness will begin.

My golden bae

I am a very private person, hence I keep my personal issues off this column but I have to break that self-imposed restriction today. Reason? It’s my wife’s 50th birthday today.

Odunayo and I started as friends, we became lovers, got married and now we have become siblings. Ours is not a marriage made in heaven but it is a relationship focused on either party bringing the best out of the other. So, over the past 28 years that we have been married, she has not loved me in sickness but has loved me out of sickness. She has not loved me in poverty but has loved me out of poverty. I have become better as a consequence of our relationship.

That, to me, is the essence of any relationship.

My prayer for you, Odunayo, is that God will add life to your years as He adds years to your life. May He make you the joy of many generations.

Arike, I will love and cherish you till the day after forever. That is a promise you can take to the bank.

Happy birthday, my love.