The life of a Nigerian citizen is played out in an absurd existential
theatre where what he does not want overshadows and occludes what he wants. The
forces that govern and administer what he does not want dominate and define his
existence. Then the Nigerian hopes and hopes. He looks for solution, not by
fighting the darkness of what he does not want that controls his life, but by
finding a leeway, even if it is a temporary one. He seeks to sneak out and run
as far as his legs can carry him physically or psychologically, and lately,
there has been a lot of flaunting of spiritual escape route too. Most times,
the disenchanted Nigerian combines the three strategies to escape the
suffocating powers that are determined to make his existence worthless and
ultimately send him to an early grave.
The forces that govern and administer the contrary of needs of the
Nigerian have stripped him of his pride, his food, his clothing, his right to a
decent life and hope that has kept him going since independence. The hope of a
Nigerian for good governance, for a decent homeland to be proud of, for decent
living like every other civilized person on the planet has become a ball on the
pitch of corrupt and rudderless politics between the ruling party and the
opposition. These two teams wearing the same jerseys, switch sides at random
and kick the ball around without purpose while the referee without his whistle also
kicks the ball in any direction that takes his fancy. The poor Nigerian is reduced to the state of
Orwellian’s surrealism when the animals cannot different the pigs from humans.
PDP becomes APC, APC becomes PDP formerly of APC, now of PDP, then again
presently of APC. President Obasanjo writes a scathing letter to President
Buhari in Nigeria, then they laugh over it in Addis. It is impossible to know
who stands for what in Nigerian politics.
The hapless Nigerian watches in horror from the stands as his hope for
electricity supply, for good roads, quality education for his children,
employment, functional and quality health service and other social amenities is
being murderously kicked about by the forces that govern his existence. The
poor Nigerian has been dispossessed of his hope and he has no clue whatsoever
on how to recover his hope from these dark and primitive forces.
And these dark ruling and opposition forces, whose antics, logic,
comportment and utterances represent an antithesis of all the qualities
expected in leadership tout themselves as leaders of the country! In his short treatise titled “The
Trouble with Nigeria” published in 1983, Chinua Achebe wrote, “The trouble
with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing
basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the
Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else”. This statement is partially true. It is true
that there is nothing wrong with Nigerian land, however, in order for something
to fail in its functions (in this case leadership), it must first exist. The
problem with Nigeria is that leadership has never existed in this country. What
we have always had under different names, shapes and brands are the same political
and economic marauders, whose sole objective is to strip us to the bones and
take away our hope. There is no cohesive and coherent vision for the country.
There is no goal. There is no Project Nigeria.
It is the role of leadership to formulate a collective vision and it is
from this vision that patriotism derives. Vision is the soul of a group or of a
country. It is what unites. Different administrations, civil or military may
have different strategies to move the country towards the vision, but the
vision should remain the same for the country.
Unfortunately, this has not been the case for Nigeria. There is no
collective vision. Successive regimes or administrations that have been in
charge of governing this country since independence tend to outdo each other in
bad governance and stripping the Nigerian of all dimensions of hope. Faced with
a situation of moving from frying pan to fire to oven and back to frying pan
with each successive regime, the Nigerian develops a false memory. When in the
fire, he romanticizes life in the frying pan, and when in the oven, he
remembers with fondness his life in the fire.
Enter the Nigerian youth! Dazed by daily news of embezzlement, lack of
basic services, high cost of living and their hopeless situation of
unemployment, the contemporary Nigerian youth, devoid of hope seeks to
literally disappear from the scene. There are many escape routes for the
Nigerian youth – the most favoured is leaving the shores of Nigeria, far away
from their tormentors. It can be safely assumed that every Nigerian youth at
one point or the other, either by himself or through the instigation of parents
has contemplated leaving the country. Some embark on their journeys through
Sahara Desert and others manage to get visas to their destinations in the West.
To legitimize their stay, they apply for asylum; they put their most creative
literary talents to work to invent stories of persecution in Nigeria. Some of
the stories will pass for absurd fiction. Some of those that are stuck here
find solace in vice, and many across all categories choose to fight the robbers
of their hopes in spiritual realm. And many dream to join the robbers of hope
too.
The contemporary Nigerian Youth does not constitute a force; neither does
it have any vision. The powers that be today, who came into power in their
youths have ensured that the current youths remain visionless (just like them)
as far as Project Nigeria is concerned and that they are disunited. And a small
number of youths that have been absorbed into the dark forces either through
parental influence or political affiliations have been trained to nurse the
darkest intentions against their contemporaries.
What is the way forward in this hopeless situation?
Firstly, Nigerian youths need to work together, despite the current
odds, to develop a Project Nigeria. They need to formulate a vision with short,
medium and long term objectives and develop strategies to achieve the objectives.
The project should be a common reference and guiding document for all youths
from all parts of Nigeria including the diaspora.
Secondly, as a strategy, youths need to altruistically and in total
compliance with the principles of the Project Nigeria participate in the
political and civil society process in order for the project to gain a foothold
in the minds of politicians and the populace.
Thirdly, also as a strategy, demand for accountability in all aspects of
political and social life as regards Project Nigeria should be a non-negotiable
minimum to save Nigeria and restore hope.
