NIGERIA AT 52 - HOW FAR SO FAR?
52 years old as a sovereign nation, Nigeria has indeed grown to be an elder in the committee of nations.
A gargantuan nation blessed with unimaginable human and mineral resources, Nigeria is indeed a force to reckon with both in Africa and around the world!
The founding fathers of this great nation had done an extremely great job bringing together diverse but excellent and noble men and women to form a nation that is widely known as the most populous black nation in the world!
But where are we today fellow Nigerians? Have we lived up to the aspirations of our founding fathers? Is this the Nigeria the likes of Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, Anthony Enahoro, etc fought and won independence for?!
Alas! The founding fathers of Nigeria gave us political independence not as an end but a means to an end! But economically, socially, scientifically, educationally, medically and agriculturally, how well have we performed?
At 52 our beloved country deserved better than we've got! We have so much food but starving and so much wealth but lacking!
Infrastructural degradation, insecurity of lives and property, monstrous corrupt practices, crimes of unimaginable magnitude, gruesome and excruciating poverty and destitution, favouritism and godfatherism, leadership failure and manipulation of votes, political incompetence and administrative recklessness, epileptic power supply, highway turned abattoir of human souls, destructive environmental pollution, maladministration and misappropriation, to mention but few, have been the order of the day and have made the nation's atmosphere very unconducive for the vast majority of the people!
Yet I believe that from the hottest furnace of fire comes the best matchet in the workshop of a blacksmith. Nigeria is blessed and no political moron or any enemy of progress can stop us from getting to the great height our founding fathers had prepared us for!
This is a wake-up call to all progressive Nigerians. Let us rise and pray, work and serve Nigeria with all our hearts. You can make a difference if you do your own bit well. Take care of your neighbours, friends, families and all those who depend on you to the best of your ability and be fair and just to all who come to you irrespective of tribe or religion and in so doing we shall be unknowingly spreading a culture of general excellence and responsibility which in no long a time will take Nigeria even beyond the height marked by its founding fathers.
Long live great Nigerians! Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Barr. Alilu Aminu Kayode
Abuja, Nigeria.