Opinion: Building a Dream Nigeria

Posted by admin Headlines Saturday, March 5th, 2011

At independence, the dream of our past leaders was to build a great and united nation devoid of ethnic and religious strives; an egalitarian and prosperous society that would be respected in the comity of nations; a land where everyone would be his brother’s keeper regardless of the inherent differences; and a people who would respect the laws of the land.

Fifty years on, we are farther from these dreams than we were at independence.

As a concerned citizen, who is tired of hearing the older generation tell the younger ones of an epoch of prosperity, peace, decency, transparency and accountability in our national life that many of them never knew, I’ll be dedicating this series to building the Nigeria of our dream.

Change is one of the most important elements in realising the Nigeria of our dream.

It is universally known that no one can be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. The only way to get a different result is by changing the approach.

If you don’t like the way Nigeria is, “just change it.” The power to do so lies within you and the change starts with you.

Nigeria is in a critical state where all that we desire now is nothing but a change. Up till now, it’s unfortunate that the more we need change, the more it eludes us, and the more we hope for it, the more we remain the same.

The kind of change that we need will not come from the North or from the South neither will it come from the East or from the West. It will only come from within.

If you think that the change will come from the political class, who are benefitting from the current rot, it’s certainly an illusion! Nobody benefits from a system and wants it to change.

We have been looking up to Aso Rock for too long for this change to come without exploiting the real instrument of change that lies within. Real and lasting change will not come from up to down; it will be forced from down to up.

People get the kind of leaders they produce and Nigeria is not an exemption. A leader is just a reflection of the society. A president does not start corruption as a president. Nobody starts stealing as a governor or a chairman of a local government. A chief executive officer (CEO) of a company does not develop the habit of inflating figures as a CEO and neither do others in the position of leadership. They all started long before they got to the exalted positions and offices. They started corruption, manipulation and stealing as ordinary citizens. A corrupt executive must have been living a corrupt life probably as a junior or senior officer or even as a cheating student.

If you are living a corrupt life today in your little world, who knows what tomorrow holds for you? A corrupt seed breeds a corrupt fruit. A corrupt student today will certainly become a corrupt leader tomorrow, unless he changes.

Every highly placed citizen once occupied a lower position; every top official was once an ordinary member of the society.

An inspector general of police convicted of corruption must have started as a bribe taking officer. Governors convicted of stealing state funds didn’t start stealing as governors, they must have started stealing as ordinary citizens.

A genuine change starts with you. If the people change, the office holders will also change.

You can change the system by changing yourself first. In the words of the United States President, Barack Obama, “Change will not come, if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

When you change yourself, you have initiated the process of changing the society. For everyone who changes from the corrupt way, the society becomes saner. When you change the way you do things, then start preaching them. By doing so, a new culture will begin and the evil culture will begin to die. The impact of small positive changes in different individuals in the society cannot be overemphasised.

When these positive acts are multiplied by several millions of people in the country, a whole transformational process has begun.

Until you start doing what is right, you have no right fighting for your right. And not until you are right that you can have your right. When you do the right thing in the society, you will not be at peace with people doing evil. Do the right thing to make Nigeria right!

It is your right to know what the government is doing; it’s your right to know how your money is being spent; it’s your right to demand accountability from the public office holder. It’s your right to demand that the civil servants do their work diligently and it’s your right to demand that your commonwealth is well spent and accounted for.

We must change this mindset so that we would be able to boldly ask for transparency and accountability from the authority and let the office holders know that they are not bigger than the electorate for who they hold the office in trust.

Oteniya can be reached on [email protected]wp_posts