WakdokSamuelStephen.
The Nigerian project is becoming more of a charade by the day. Clearly it is now a sham, a mirage. Daily we loose track of what it takes to achieve the dream of an unashamed destiny. Nigeria is a like car moving at one hundred and eighty kilometers per hour. That is dangerously too high for any car to be driving at, yet that is not all. We are moving at this speed with our gear on reverse. Nigeria is moving backward and not forward. From agriculture to culture, education, health, water, housing, economy, security, health, governance and many more. We are eroding infrastructure and institutions alike. When we move a step forward, we take eleven steps backward.
Take the case of rice. We no longer have local rice along side the so called foreign rice in our markets. Definitely we are taking many rice farmers out of work by this trend.The bag of rice hitherto going for five thousand naira now goes for ten thousand naira and even more. Rice is just one aspect. We are fast loosing grip of hope in many other aspects. Years ago, eating rice was perceived to be a luxury. It was reserved for festivities and Sundays except for the rich. It was common to find tuwo, fufu, amala and other swallow on the table of the poor. This was because soup was cheaper back then. There were gardens and vegetations everywhere for vegetables and the likes used in making soup. Gradually, soup became more expensive because the gardens gave way to bungalows and stalls. Hoes have given way to shovels and hammers. Rice moved from luxury to become the staple food for the generality of Nigerians especially the urban dwellers. With rice, all a poor man needs is salt, oil, pepper and water, if he can afford maggi and Cray fish, then good. Interestingly now, the rice is getting out of reach again. What is the fate of the common man?
We are eroding infrastructure and institutions alike. When we move a step forward, we take eleven steps backward.
We can no longer offer hope to the average Nigerian that things are getting better. Hope is good for breakfast but very bad for dinner. When people can not afford to eat, clothe and have a roof over their heads, then this hope is very fallacious. The hope we are been given is a mistaken idea. It is a misplaced faith that majority of Nigerians now have.
We pay for food, medicine, education, and rent. We pay taxes, we buy pure water. We even beg to queue and buy fuel; we pay for light we do not get. The suya man uses generator to illuminate his suya spot. Churches use generators to power their sermon, hospitals need generators for surgeries. I am sure even prostitutes have torch lights in their hand bags to guide them on the streets at night. After all darkness is the electricity robbers need to operate at night. Imagine my feelings when I first saw a generator under the table in NEPA office. It was as if I saw charm on a church alter. For the sake of simple arithmetic ;if PHCN gave 12 hours of light daily, a child born in 1999 must have spent 5 years of his/her life in darkness. This would have been a very generous analysis because it is very illusionary. We pay for all and get nothing. All we get is the fallacy that someday things will get better. Some promises year in, year out.
We can no longer offer hope to the average Nigerian that things are getting better. Hope is good for breakfast but very bad for dinner
If we continue to obstinate, we will never make it in the future. If after wasting away the past we are not committed to a rebuilding process in the present, then I am sorry the hope of innocent Nigerians died yesterday. We can forgive the past, but if we keep stifling the present, certainly we have already murdered the future again. Every today was a yesterday killed and eventually every tomorrow may become a wasted today. The future is gloomy and daily we are confronted with problems that should not have arisen in the first place. From the Niger Delta crises to election riggings. From religious disturbances to strikes in various sectors.
If after wasting away the past we are not committed to a rebuilding process in the present, then I am sorry the hope of innocent Nigerians died yesterday. We can forgive the past, but if we keep stifling the present, certainly we have already murdered the future again. Every today was a yesterday killed and eventually every tomorrow may become a wasted today.
We are a blessed country but as a people we chose to curse ourselves. Or rather our leaders found it profitable to rape us; and afterwards call us harlots. This is a country that yearly budgets, rolling plans, development plans, visions and agenda have been sung and still been sung since flag independence was won in 1960.Yes, flag independence.
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