(An overview of a letter shared with a Friend on the Issue of Spiritual Revolution for National Development)

Dear Mr. John Jones,

Also, this institution serves as the engine room of a nation where characters, beliefs, and orientations of people are shaped, and all these are critical to a national revolution. Perhaps, the government can play a regulatory role in this institution without bias or sentiment, to check unethical practices of some sycophants who tarnish the sacred profession, not only in one religion, but in all other acclaimed ones. If this can be achieved, the institution will take its rightful place in shaping the moral character of the citizens. The religious institution is the soul of the nation and the engine room where the needs of national values, moral character, and virtues are instilled.

Yes, the state has failed because it has refused to uphold the tenets of laws, social justice, and equality, but it is not a failure yet. This nation will utterly become a failure if her citizens refuse to rise and speak against the vices that are ongoing now. This nation will become a failure if no one dares to call a spade a spade without the fear of those who can only kill the body, but not the soul.

The real patriots of Nigeria are not those who have never been touched by the failures of her political actors, but rather those who have experienced it all. Despite the fading hope and bleak future, they still find something to hang their faith on and are willing to take a daring step to break loose from the shackles of oppression. They will never choose the option of silence.

I apologise once again for boring you with my views. Instead, you have sparked a fire within me, and I am consumed by your ideology and charisma to trailblaze and inspire our generation to positive action, at least to no longer remain silent. As you once said, “Is it accidental that nobody in my generation has acquired the capacity to speak as the men in my hero’s generation? I think not. I believe that we are all products of the environment that nurtures us, and Professor’s generation was imbued with a sense of purpose that seems completely obliterated in my own generation. Professor’s generation had a surplus of men with the capacity to dream, idealists who had big dreams for the Nigeria state. The first “coupists,” Kaduna Nzeogwu et al., FelaAnikulapo, GaniFawehinmi— that generation had several dreamers and original thinkers.

My own generation, on the other hand, is replete with survivalists; peopled with men and women who have become experts in existential living; the art of compromises, even with their own consciences, and the pursuit of personal wealth at the expense of corporate poverty.

• Tishegunfunmi AdeÁDEGBESAN is the founder of DPartakers Kingdom. www.dpartakerskingdom.org