THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US ALL
Nigeria stands at a crucial epoch. An epoch that will usher us into a greater future as envisaged by great minds. An epoch marked by development in diverse facet of our national life.
Development is a challenging process hence only the noble and strong at heart can dare to travel the road of self development, self development that overflows into our national life.
Development is also a product of the times, the collective aspiration of the people, the cherished ideal and value, the consent it gives the leadership structure piloting the society and the circumstances surrounding the people.
Circumstances. Today we as a nation suffer deep leadership challenges, though when we say leadership,the general perspective is for us to look at the political herd as the leaders that drive the nation. But that may not be very right. Each of us are leaders in our own capacity, each has a role to play in the great scheme of things, each can influence history from our inner wealth of wisdom, understanding and capability. When we individual operate from this perspective then we will realise how inconsequential political leadership can be. Political leaders have alot to learn from individual constituting the nation, also political leadership has its power in the consent of the people. The consent of what the people tolerate, accept, cherish and love.
Now a vital question to ask is, ? At this stage of our development or at this stage in global advancement, what can we offer ourselves and or what can we offer the globe.
Education is a process of learning from experience, challenges and learning something of value from those we have been in contact with. Then i ask,why after over 100yrs of living together as a nation, ?why cant we stay together peacefully,
?why is it everything we can say about other is negative,
?why do we have love as the foundation of our religious life yet hatred for each other overflows from us like a spring feeding an ocean,
?why do we suspect each other at every turn,
?why has an average graduate has nothing to offer the nation,
?why are we so tribalistic
? Have we not built a road map to sucex.
?why do we think its by dividing Nigeria that our problems will be solved.
? Why have we not started thinking of what we can do for 9igeria.
?why does everybody think only of what 9igeria can do for him.
Is that how we are going to build a heriatage for posterity.
A pot of soup contains
Egusi
Oil
Meat
Fish
Onion
Salt
Cryfish
Water
And many more.
Each of these ingredients alone cannot make a good soup but when mixed under high temprature, it becomes a soup which is palatable.
The solution to the challenges facing us is not and can never be found in division but like the pot of soup, when we all bring our strength to the table then we will make a better soup than our ‘individual ingredients.
If we take s simple clue from America, she started with 13 states but today she has 50 states. One key to this greatness is that a greater percentage of Americans think of what they can do to better America and not what America will do for them.
Somebody may say i should not use America as an example because they have been for centuries. You are right but at the same time, it’s disheartening that we living in this quantum age have not arrived at the mental attitude the American arrived at over 400 yrs ago. This makes me ask, ‘when are we going to wake up’ when are we going to start seeing the world around us and ‘learn’ from them. If a white man calls us monkey, we say he is being insultive but the reality is that there is a reason he called us that and one of such is that we have not developed to that extent where we can build ourselves as a society, our primitive instinctual defense mechanism still rules us even when we are no longer in the bush fighting nature.
It is not by saying that the white man is insulting us, it is by showing him what stuff we can be….practically so he understands that we can even be greater than he is.
Nigeria I believe can be a greater nation, if only we can choose to build that future with integrity.
?What do you think
ELEAS sTANLEY