Time For Action And Not Lamentations

I cannot thank God Almighty, our Creator, enough for the wonderful gift of Nigeria; and for the opportunity I have had to serve the country in some capacities. I also wonder how to fully express my gratitude to this assembly of great Nigerians and concerned patriots who have come to support my enterprise and demonstrate solidarity with the spirit and philosophy that prompted the writing of SERVING MY FATHERLAND.

While a reading culture is still seriously in need of promotion in our society, we can at least attest to the publication of scores of books every year which tell of the Nigerian story or the dimensions of our national crisis. It is instructive that those of us who write are products of the disorder and various challenges that we prescribe for. As I look around here and also survey Nigeria out there, it is necessary to acknowledge the moral sensitivity of some of our leaders across the main political divides, their desires for perfection, their intolerance of the defects of the Nigerian society, their anxieties, their patriotism and the boundlessness of their faith in the possibilities of Nigeria.

It is appropriate on this occasion to once again openly express the concerns of some members of my generation. The national question remains unresolved and there does not seem to be sufficient nationwide concern as to the implications. Presently, nobody is sure whether the national restructuring and other reforms recommended during the 2014 National Conference will ever be processed and implemented. This leaves the principalities of power great latitude to ignore some basic political ideals and populate the political space with various people to operate within a framework yet to be fully defined and in dire need of redesigning. As a nation, it is imperative for us to unite in tackling issues of personal and national insecurity, the economic downturn and the contagious corruption that has long defined our polity.

In some states of the federation, many Nigerians are depressed by the crucible in which their world is being fused. Politicians are expected to be rainbows in the cloud and storms of the people, to lose themselves in the service of others. But when will Nigerian politicians acquire the largeness of heart to do this and make meaningful difference in the lives of Nigerians? Our destiny has been placed on a course that has left concerned Nigerians wondering what is happening and how it all started! I hope SERVING MY FATHERLAND has provided a glimpse. All of us – – friends, associates, relations and various co-travellers within the political class – – are guilty of acts of commission or omission, directly or vicariously.

From the beginning of the present Fourth Republic until now, some states have not had cause to be prominent within the pervasive presence of geo-ethnic or sub-ethnic militias and political formations agitating for one form of national redress or another. This implies that, from their worldview as ethnic or sub-ethnic groups, their political agenda within the Nigerian Federation is settled except, of course, the issue of abject poverty and destitution which they share with other Nigerians. What then is the problem? Why this political infamy, a season of anomie in which people are made to dance in celebration of political gloom and cataleptic existence?

An in-depth analysis of the prevailing condition shows that there is a strong disconnect between image and reality and between promise and performance. Some leaders have, consequently, taken it up as a bounden duty not to be held hostage within the rearguard of some ravaging political tricksters. It is, however, not the rhetorical invocation of mythical achievement that has accompanied flamboyant dictatorship and lack of accountability to the party and people that is the most worrisome of our state of affairs. We could summarize these into three: (i) In some states, Nigerians are being cowed and governed like a conquered people, slaves being capriciously ruled with calculated display of power sadism; (ii) the widespread idealization of masochism by the upcoming generation of political jobbers is deepening at an alarming rate; and (iii) in spite of the dignified life, heritage and legacies of some of the past leaders, those of today have been brought much ridicule and infamy while upcoming generations are being dangerously compromised, controlled with impunity and doomed.

For now, lamenting the present, wearing the clothes of anxiety and the shoes of unnecessary worry and stress is not the answer. Nigeria’s rubbished image has become part of an inglorious history that requires a holistic approach and the moral energy of all to redeem. If we get it right at critical local and state levels, it will have a spill-over effect on the growth of democracy and good governance in other parts of Nigeria. While we have no doubt been blessed by God with accomplished forebears in different areas of life, illustrious exemplars, visionaries with passion who excelled with dignity, we are still a people with fundamental challenges and with the possibility of an unfortunate regression. What has prompted the sudden evaporation of our sense of values (honesty, hardwork, freedom, honour and integrity), the quest for what is best and noble and the unredeeming delight in the breeding of predators? Patriots, not partisans, must come forward now and work together in the name of God, the interest of all our people and for the sake of future generations.
When we come together, without bitterness or rancour but with determination to work as brothers and sisters to rescue the various states from an unfolding calamity of totalitarianism, other states and zones will restore respect for the states concerned. They would become partners in redeeming Nigeria’s future nationwide. The youths of today deserve a decent future based on good breeding, functional education, job security and solid professions from where to make value addition to national service in various forms, including politics, business and other productive sectors. This is one channel for eradicating the consuming culture of lawlessness and impunity coupled with endemic corruption and being systematically indoctrinated into a life of violence and insecurity with such meaningless sloganeering as “Gbòsà…Gbòsà… Gbòsà… Gbagbaa – Gbùgbù…Gbugbuu – Gbàgbà” while the children of the political propagators and thuggish vendors are kept away from the disorienting propensity of such debasing and enslaving demagoguery.

The change of political leadership in Nigeria is a lesson to all of us for which God, and God alone, deserves praises and adoration for his love for our dear country. As we set out presently on unmarked routes and paths hitherto unknown, nobody in and out of government or the corridors of power should be under the illusion that a meaningful change, an enduring transformation and a rewarding restoration could be achieved without fundamental sacrifices. I hope that people now know that there should be a limit to impunity, that playing god and making mini-gods of surrogates and charlatans is a policy with adverse consequences and that savage dismissal of alternative opinions and opposing views in governance and the administration of political parties is antithetical to democratic consolidation.

For those who might view SERVING MY FATHERLAND as largely a cry of anguish, so be it. But a time for atonement for the works of spoilsmen and spoilswomen should not necessarily arouse an era of cynicism even as the silenced cries of our youths for justice, equity and a secure future remain imperishable. Perhaps I need to also remind our youths that their claim to the mantle of tomorrow’s leadership would be illusory if they get stuck in the downward spiral that could become self-fulfilling prophesy. Our youths need a renewal of hope in themselves. They must become pro-active realists, abandon passivity on issues that concern their future, knock at every door of opportunity and reclaim self-esteem and a worthy future by rejecting servitude and the mortgaging of their future by political gangsters. They have a critical role to play in changing the perception and reality of political parties as anathema of internal democracy in Nigeria and the ruination of merit-based political appointment through the practice of power franchise to warlords who regularly prey on the national economy and politics.

To help the youths in developing a new and very positive perspective on national development, get them properly re-oriented and guided in shaping the Nigeria of tomorrow, we all need self-rediscovery, self-redefinition and self-repositioning. In this regard, it is instructive to remind ourselves that education has always been, and will forever remain, the path to the restoration of Nigeria’s moral, socio-economic and political credentials. Education is emancipation. To liberate a people you give them education. To enslave a people you deny them education by either taking it from them or keeping them away from it. The intellectual capital of relevant and quality education and the acquisition of appropriate skills are indispensable to meaningful development.

Moreover, our country’s avowed knowledge-based and technology-driven march to the future must mobilize resentment against a culture of mediocrity, endemic corruption and delusional obsession with running away from an ideological framework for national development. We must also face and resolve the challenge of the national question and, of course, the overriding ethos of a greater Nigerian nation.

We must now begin to think more about the coming generations and the future of Nigeria than about ourselves. It is time to appreciate the essence of rectitude and the need to change the perception of Nigeria as a looters’ paradise and land of ineptitude through widespread conscientization and unbiased prosecution of all culprits of looting of public funds. It is time to place on the front burner the fears and grievances of our youths who, through visionary governance and contagious dynamism, must become beneficiaries of compulsory mass and functional education, entrepreneurial skills as well as programmed and consistent empowerment. We must wean them away from the evils of unemployment, crude politicking, the disorienting culture of political guile, lack of respect for law and order and socio-political perfidy.

A genuine effort at human empowerment through education, the much needed transvaluation of values and the task of arresting the torment of body and soul of our youths are indeed part of the immediate challenges of our dear country. Fighting the scourge and perversities of Nigeria’s all-round development should begin with a clear identification of their nature, sources, dimensions and remedies. That, quite precisely, was the motivation for writing SERVING MY FATHERLAND.

God bless you all. God bless our fatherland, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
An address at the public presentation of SERVING MY FATHERLAND at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan by Prof. Adeniran KJW, OFR, FCPA on Monday 19 October, 2015.