When national life is taken over by social sins, the citizens pursue wealth without knowledge, without character, pleasure without sacrifice and commitment.
The recent presidential election results and the challenges provides an opportunity to ask ourselves question on the extent to which we have sustained the aspirations of our founding fathers. Where did we do the right things?
Are we on course? If not where did we stray and how can we remedy and retrace our steps?”
The focus of this article is on the need for value reorientation in Nigeria as a vehicle for sustainable national development. Particularly, as we search through our conscience with the determination of honest appraisals. It may appear that one of the biggest challenges Nigeria faces is her youths.
I disagree because I believe there’s a bigger challenge for Nigeria than her youths, a challenge that engulfs all her children, and that’s the orientation/mentality of Nigerians.
Even our so called elders ain’t taking the back position. They are at the forefront of sowing discord, disunity, tribal chauvinism, ethnical jingoism and religious intolerance as exemplified by some so-called men of religion and “statesmen” some of us were emphatically opposed to these people. In particular, the Labour party candidate Peter Obi whom powerful supporters like Olusegun Obasanjo an 86 years old man destroyed this country Nigeria and have prevented the emergence of purposeful leadership in Nigeria for their personal aggrandizement and benefits.
Most of the supposedly ‘Statesmen’ are now in their 80s and 90s determine to sow confusion, mislead our children the way they did us, and we say God forbid. What I see now is a continuation of what has always been since the first election in Nigeria; vote, count and dispute the results. Sadly, a country like that would not be attractive to genuine and serious investors. Hence the reasons why we would always have in our midst what the Yorubas called “ARIJE NI’BI MADARU” – those who feed from chaos posing as patriots.
However, we seek to build bridges of hope, freedom and the social contract with the Nigerian people and not with individual. Simply put, the 2023 elections in Nigeria are bringing with them hopes and fears, expectations, and optimism for a better future. Notwithstanding the tension that is building in their minds of our citizens which needs serious attention, re-oreintation and mind restructuring. Ultimately, Nigeria must be peaceful.
I am personally pained that the so-called youths are increasingly unanalytical and oblivious of the idiosycratic characteristics of the entity they have been born and bred in. They see and expect a magical political transformation and transfiguration which has never occurred in history. It is always a courageous insider that has turned against his tribe (as in GREEK TRIBE, I mean) to turn things around. No magic can make it work regardless of what was packaged as a messianic product.
Therefore, the strength, determination and courage of the President-elect Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu through his period of, what I can only define, as tribulation, has impressed me and he looks like the “positive Judas” that would betray the likes of Obasanjo and his tribesmen and women, again as in GREEK TRIBE. However, time would tell.
Let us hope that we have our own Oliver Cromwell moment. To change and reorientate Nigeria would be rough, tough and complex, but this next eight years might lay the foundation. It is important to note that the activities of some clerics preaching divisiveness points to only one thing: there is no antichrist coming from anywhere, the antichrist they so much fear is right in their midst…..Their false prophet GOs (Merchants of faith) who call for war to fulfill their fake prophesies.
In lieu of the above, rewriting the pages of our beautifully imperfect lives matter more than anything else. Therefore, the National Orientation Agency in Nigeria has a lot of work to do but it needs to wake up from its slumber first. Sadly, some divisive thinking are so entrenched, Nigeria cannot be left to the whims of fate. NIGERIA
