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What Nigeria means to me

By Reuben Abati
02 October 2016   |   3:58 am
It is partly the reason, therefore, why every Nigerian moving forward must ask the question: what does Nigerian mean to me? Too many compatriots relate to this country as an abstraction.
Reuben-Abati

Reuben-Abati

The various reactions on Independence Day yesterday can only compel us to ask one question: what does Nigeria mean to you or me? I had written a piece on Friday, September 30, in which I advised that Nigerians should embrace hope rather than despair and that in the long run, it shall be well with our country. I also recommended as part of the celebration, Timi Dakolo’s soul-inspiring and masterly song, “Great Nation”, hoping that special attention will be paid to its touching lyrics. But the reactions to my interventions did no more than further reinforce the fact that too many Nigerians are angry with Nigeria as an entity, they are angry with how Nigeria has been run and is being run, they are frustrated with the current situation in the country, and what the future holds for the entire country.

The last time Nigerians found themselves at this kind of crossroads was under the rule of General Sani Abacha. The issue was not just about General Abacha, however, but how military rule had led the country into a ditch, and the people wanted something different. The disappointment today is of a different form of extraction: some people raised the people’s hopes beyond the stratosphere: they assured them that the Nirvana that they wanted was at the door; they told them that to run Nigeria is easy, it was just that the wrong people were in charge. And now, all promises seem illusionary, the scales are falling off the people’s eyes and the people are transferring their anger unto every situation. The change agents who promised a revolution are in disarray, they are caught up in an atomistic war among themselves. The we-are-better-than-them-we-will-save-Nigeria crowd has suddenly discovered that there is a great gulf between election time propaganda and the real assignment of governance. Even the partisan clerics among them no longer know what to tell the congregation. They cannot afford to say that the God they worship speaks with two tongues.

Their nemesis and their hubris lie in a certain lack of understanding or a certain omission, or perhaps oversight. I maintain my earlier position that Nigeria is a complex entity and that it is not a country made for any Messiah, now or in the far future. Nowhere in the world is the age of the messiah real. There is no such thing. Every country must face its own destiny. It is the duty of leaders to manage that destiny, transform it and not destroy it. Nigeria’s destiny is to be great and successful. We only need to find the right combination of people. Note the emphasis on combination. We will never find the right combination if we remain divided by ethnicity, ego and religion.

It is partly the reason, therefore, why every Nigerian moving forward must ask the question: what does Nigerian mean to me? Too many compatriots relate to this country as an abstraction. When they hear Nigeria, the only thing they think of is their ethnic root. They don’t even have any attachment to the Nigerian passport. I bet we would all be shocked the day we take a census of all the Nigerians who have foreign passports and the millions who are still on the queue, begging to give up on this country. Nigeria is thus, regrettably today, a provider of important talents for other countries in all fields of human endeavour in the same manner in which Ireland sold out its talents at the turn of the 19th Century.

We have reached a point and that is perhaps one of the gains of democracy since May 2015, whereby every Nigerian, at home and abroad must ask himself or herself, that simple question: what does Nigeria mean to me? Does it mean incumbent government and its politics? Mere identity? A passport? Home? Association with my parents and old friends and so a homeland linked by blood? Or is Nigeria nothing, no more than a space for opportunities, or just an option, or at best, mere geography crashing into DNA? I guess no other country has such divided and scattered emotional brains like Nigeria. When the people decide individually and collectively that they want a country, may be that is when we can begin to talk of Nigeria. What does Nigeria mean to you? I urge you to answer this question as part of the national reflection process after our country’s 56th Independence Anniversary. I’ll start with what I believe.

I am a grateful Nigerian citizen. I went to primary school in this country at a time when teachers were very proud to be teachers. Our teachers worshipped our parents and vice versa. If your parent ever told you your teacher complained about you, you would feel like running away. Today, Nigerian parents go to schools and beat up teachers, and the teachers ask for bribe. The idea of being in loco parentis has since being destroyed. Something has gone terribly wrong. Quality education is now a matter of cash and class. It actually seems if you don’t have a lot of money, your children cannot make it in in life. In this same country, the children of ordinary people were the ones who had all the hopes because the system supported the poor. My father, God bless his soul, could afford to send me to any level, I was the first son of a second wife married at old age, and he was prepared for the choice he made, but the Nigerian system was behind him too. I pay tribute to those teachers who poured their lives into mine, who did everything to mould me, those selfless soldiers who gave what they had so that other people’s children could grow. That is what Nigeria means to me, Those indeed are the true Nigerians. What am I trying to say? I am saying that in those days in this country, you could make brave choices and the country will stand by you because it was a country that worked. We need to make Nigeria work again.

As a university student, our mattresses were made. There was regular water flow in the hostels. “Bush meats” were accorded due respect, and the “campus meats” were not badly treated either, and only the most brilliant boys were inducted into the campus cults. Everything was respectable. Food was cheap. Life was easy. Our libraries were well stocked. Lagos to Calabar by road was N15, by air it was N40 and for three months, we survived on N42, 500. I was a Federal Government University Merit Scholar. That means I went to university free of charge. My father insisted he would pay and he didn’t need government to send me to school. I used his money to buy books. That was how I started building a personal library that can only compete with that other one owned by the bibliophile called Odia Ofeimun. When I got to the University of Ibadan, I also ended up as a University Scholar. My father again insisted on paying his bills, but Nigeria insisted on training me. I consider myself a product of Nigeria. I got to wherever with my father and Nigeria competing to pay the bills. My father felt a sense of responsibility. Nigeria had a system that looked out of for people like me.. Once upon a time in this country, Nigeria looked out for people’s children and invested in them. I am one of those products. Standing on Nigeria’s investments, I have gone to so many other places in the world. Nigeria has given me a foundation that I could never imagine. And by some sheer accident of fate, I ended up as Presidential Spokesman at Nigeria’s highest level. Nigeria means a lot to me. I cannot give up on this country. No matter the travails, I believe that this country means a lot to so many of us: search your own history.

I have children who despite the difficulties are also not willing to throw away their Nigerian passports. Nigeria remains the home of my children and their great-grand children to come. Nigeria is the country that has given me all the opportunities I have had. It is the landscape of my joys and sorrows. It is your landscape too. What Nigeria means to me is a country that needs to be rescued from many years of abuse, from the locusts that eat things up, and the agents of the devil who turn a good country into a land of regrets. I am consoled by the realization that the people who love this country and who want to see it work and make progress possible are in the majority. Nigeria is a country not only of great potentials but also of great achievements. Let us take certain things seriously beyond satire and parody, and resolve that we all have a duty to make this country great.

I believe in this country because every opportunity that I have enjoyed came my way because in the long run, I am a Nigerian. The world is a competitive place. It is also a rational world. You can have the best CV in the world in any circumstance, but the people in charge of opportunities don’t just look at brilliance and genius, they consider so many other factors. What Nigeria means to me is a country that has given me many opportunities and opened many doors for me. I will confront those who want this country destroyed for false reasons and if ever given the opportunity, I will run this country and place it on the right path.

By now, you know where I stand. I am a grateful citizen who wants to rescue this country. My choice is a reformed and improved Nigeria that serves the interest of all citizens and mankind. What is your exact choice in this matter as we celebrate this 56th Independence Anniversary weekend? What does Nigeria mean to you?

9 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Our experiences of Nigeria and what the nation means to us are different. So no comment for now. I reserve the right to withhold my opinion, or not to hold any opinion. But I am pleased to know that Dr Abati is a true Malabite!

  • Author’s gravatar

    Dr. Abati, we cry when we remember the past. For a whole year my accommodation fee was ninety naira only, and a plate of food sold for eighty kobo. This was just in the recent past. I wonder if we will ever get there again.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Granted that you have elected to retain your Nigerianess,as an appreciative beneficiary, in reciprocity of its benefaction.Nigerians can allow you that inalienable right to so decide,however please ALLOW other Nigerians,who NEVER benefitted from government scholarship irrespective of their ingenuity, with divergent opinions about Nigeria to so decide their destiny and preference without prejudicial condemnation of their desires for SELF-DETERMINATION or love for another entity more than your beloved nigeria.That is the Democratic ideal.

  • Author’s gravatar

    “Great citizen who wants to rescue this country”? For four years you were part of those who ran and ruined this country with your senseless defence of your boss hauling invectives at those you called “children of anger.” Today, you are here with this bromide. Enough of these fake patriots who want to rescue Nigeria. You do not belong to this class. Are you now born again?

  • Author’s gravatar

    Nigeria means corruption and I am not proud of it.

    But I am very proud to be Igbo.

  • Author’s gravatar

    How I wish one could live the reality of a personage without condescending into meanness on account of ‘perceived material fulfilment’ when descent beacons. There’s more to a meal than just quench hunger

  • Author’s gravatar

    Well, let’s say that experiences are different. I can’t compare your experiences to that of my generation, because I’m younger. Maybe with your children. I don’t know, but I know this –

    Your claim that all will be well with Nigeria in the long term is a FALSE HOPE, similar to the eternal LIE that Jesus will return soon. I can say with some certainty, looking at trends, that India in 50 years will be a better place to live. I relate this hope to EVIDENCE on the ground, to things I can see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears when I’m in Mumbai or in the deepest village in Maharashta. Despite all the poverty, all the misplaced priorities, the inhumanity in India, I can see PROGRESS. Nigerians see it too, I accompany plane loads of them to India on their search for simple medical cures that Nigeria can’t provide with any reasonable expectation of good outcomes. Like cataract surgery. Not just Nigerians, Americans and Britons make the same journey to obtain good medical care at an affordable cost.

    The only man made creation that Nigeria has to offer the outside world is Nollywood movies. That’s it and their quality – and ideology – is another comment on what Nigerians have become. Take some time and do a census of what kinds of characters have TRIBAL NAMES in Nollywood movies, then compare them to the ones that have ENGLISH NAMES.

    India is only 12 years older than Nigeria in terms of flag independence. Both suffered Islamic & British conquest. There’s no excuse for Nigeria being the cesspool it is today. The cause is simple and basic – self hatred as expressed in their preference for FOREIGN RELIGION & CULTURE.

    Every other thing is just in addition to that. I hope you can understand what I mean. Nigerians are generally obtuse when it comes to some of these basic things. The normal riposte is “well, chloroquine is a foreign creation, should we reject it?” Errrr, religion is a MENTAL CREATION with no proof, chloroquine is proven to cure malaria, at the time of its discovery. You people are sick in the head, for real.

    Have a good day.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The big party contractor that just won a mega contract, the newly appointed crony commissioner,the politician that just rigged his way into a state assembly…all would swear by their grandfathers openly that nigeria is the great nation of lore.But the unemployed graduate thinks otherwise, the unpaid teacher has just developed a cynical philosophy inimical to patriotic nationhood and the politician that really did fail an election freely and fairly thinks it is time to check out. Now where will these discordant vectors centrally resolve their parallelogram of forces. ? I mean is this a problem of the nigerian structural systems or the disoriented nigerian psychology or the case of theoretical and intellectual rationalization of reality at the expense of practical show of character as these erudite analysis above might psychoanalytically portray sometimes perhaps or all the above? Where is the simple spirited,true nigrtian? Have you tried to research and find out whats the matter with the nation?