Nigeria, the land of unique skin colours never darkened by the harshness of her whether, diverse tongues, cultures, artifacts and traditional regalia, a people endowed by God himself with a powerful economy, with so much brains of inventors and leaders. Africans are the most powerful people in the world, argumentatively acknowledged by all countries of the world. Her long-time of existence and common pursuit revealed hope in purpose, not until the quest for selfish power tore us apart. Even the white men knew that we were stronger together and God knew it too with the tower of Babel.
Nothing could stop a nation like Nigeria, consisting of resilient people; to achieve whatever they set their mind to achieving underneath the sun or rain. We are too powerful a force and not even the melt down of the economy can dissuade us from our goals. The land is not the problem, the term ‘Nigeria’ is not the downfall of this nation but the individual ideologies and paradigms constitute the downfall of this great conglomeration.
Over the years, the once peaceful and purposeful people have been bedevilled by crisis, sprung from social, economic, religious, political, ethnic and tribal rivalry. We no longer envisage the visions of the hero’s past. A country united by a single purpose. Nigeria is just a name, the inhabitants of this space makes it a nation and gives purpose to the name. It is pensive to view this nation in a sorry state, a condition that frightens brothers to sleep in the same room with our eyes closed in safety. The voice of our heroes past cries in the open E PLURIBUS UNUM’ meaning ‘we are one’.
Politicians crave for power, not with the burden of the people like the Biblical Nehemiah, for just leadership but for selfish gains. How much is the worth of one man’s life compared to the thousands in detriment! They get to that position of authority, forgetting the hands that placed them there, feeding their belly’s to its brim and the poor man cries in their gates for no food to eat, nor carter for his family. the poor man is foist to encourage the wrong notion and desires power too, that he may fill his pocket. It becomes a state of ‘chop make I chop’. Our schools are in deplorable situations and he sleeps calmly at night, not mindful of the ordeal of the ordinary child subsist in the four walls of a decorated prison called school and frustrations of the lecturers to been underpaid for their labour. He is neither perturbed because his children school and live overseas. We preach a different sermon to the masses and do different things, when the ordinary man follows in that path of the leader he is punished for not abiding by the law. The poor man labours in his hustle in discomforting circumstances and weather he eats little or nay his sleep is sweet, yet he is underpaid for his hustle.
Meanwhile another man sleeps in his office, seats in comfort and ideas comes to him without his effort and is paid beyond imagination. He goes to the choicest places because he can afford it. When the ordinary man takes to the street, he is harassed and labelled a hoodlum.
Getting employment is not for the prayerful but for the ethnically biased individual, for as long as you can play card. The employer does not want to employ the Nigerian student, because he has labelled them incapable without even giving them a chance, and the so-called yanki students are deemed qualified for just leaving the circumference of a nation called Nigeria. Would it hurt for the government of the day to make our schools the new London; that others may come to learn from her. When those who sit at high tables are travelling the world and the most dedicated worker is stuck to his desk without any form of motivation. They tell the ordinary man to be dedicated. No compensations, no trainings, no allowances, only living at the mercy of meagre salary and it is expected of the ordinary man not to think like a criminal, when he has too little to carter for his personal needs, family, in-laws, old parents, relatives, bills, and transportation to work every day of the years, including his sick days. The ground is ever ready to accommodate a man going through the traumas and ills of living in Nigeria. the youths rather jump into the ocean that may hopefully lead them to somewhere different from Nigeria. It has become unbearable for the youth to breath freely without substance in their hands. Without something to do, the nation labels them irresponsible. Is he expected to hang himself before anyone could lend a helping hand? A Yoruba man, wants all his workers to be Yoruba’s, he fears for been duped, gossiped or side-lined by another from a different tribe. The Igbo man is afraid of his daughter or son marrying from the west because he is not at peace with their tradition. A rich man feels he is above the law and the law honours him like a puppet, the ordinary man for no justifiable cost is beaten and arraigned as a criminal; sentenced for living. You have the money, you marry another with money, the ordinary man is scared for his future because he has no evidence. You labour behind close doors for the well-nourished men and get little or nothing to take back home. A graduate finishing from the university is in a state of ‘heebies jeebies’ fear of worries. Where do I start from is his next question? No one wants to help and no one to understand.
Every graduate is expected to have handiwork, forgetting that not all were created for handiwork, some were created to be inventors and not executors. Some were created to use the brains to do exploit and another with the hand to materialize those efforts. The child whose father is capable, might have the dreams and the talent and most evidently, the money to realize those dreams and through valid connections, he is set on the podium of life. The ordinary graduate, runs from pillar to post and is taken advantage of for his plight.
The so called ethnic groups in Nigeria fear to see each other as brothers for no justifiable course, than the long seed of discord that transcends from generation to generation. Even people from the same ethnic group are petrified to interact and inter marry with one another, for their conflicting opinions. The man from Ogun doesn’t like the Ibadan people, the Irobo man has an issue with the Bayalsa men.
An Anambra man, would not like an Owerri man. Where is the E PLURIBUS UNUM? We cannot love a nation we do not want to be part of, we cannot speak positively of a nation we don’t view in positive light. Nigeria is not the problem, change yourself. Until we begin to see the uniqueness in each other, help each other, care for each other, strengthen each other’s hand; we cannot but be the problem of Nigeria.
Written by Goodness Ginika Roberts, from Enugu State. A graduate from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University where she studied History and International relations. Reading, writing and meeting people is one of her passion. The second child amid three siblings.
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