CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY

 

CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY

Beloved, as we are about to mark the 61st anniversary of Nigeria's Independence, does the scorecard show a positive change in the standard of living of the average Nigerian over the years ? Many of us who are privileged to witness from inception, the over 60 years of nationhood do not have a positive answer to that question.

My educational career started in the same year as our Independence and within the past more than sixty years i have lived within the polity called Nigeria - going through primary, secondary, tertiary institutions and exposed to professional training as a chartered accountant with some rudiments of training as a banker. I'm therefore in a position to assess the socio-economic and political climate of the nation today.

Though very young, I witnessed the economy when it was booming. The era of the groundnut pyramids in the North, the booming trade in cocoa, rubber,palm oil cotton, textiles and other products from different parts of the country.  Life was not so difficult then, and many of our parents/guardians were able to send us to schools established by our erstwhile colonial masters as well as the missionaries who came with them.

Then came the period of oil boom with the discovery of oil in 1958 (just before Independence). One would have thought that this would usher in an increase in earning capacity.accompaned by economic growth and improvement in the standard of living of the masses. But alas, the greed of our political elite and the erosion of our value standards has worked against the prosperity of our land, turning the "oil boom to oil doom".

What we have witnessed is the divisive mentality of tribal, ethnic, religious and social stratification that has impeded the progress of the polity and is almost tearing it to pieces now. 

Nepotism is the ideology of the current leadership as evidenced in the allocation of about 85% of key positions in the security agencies and National Assembly to Northern Muslims. We have witnessed the ethnic domination of the North for the greater part of Independence, a situation that in the early stages plunged us into a civil war and is currently about to tear the nation apart with the other regions calling for restructuring or total separation along tribal and ethnic divides..

In our younger days, there were no cases of kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, insurgency, cultism which are now prevalent. Most of the youth did not indulge in examination malpractices, drug abuse, cultism, prostitution and other vices.that are common today.  There has been a complete 'devaluation' of moral and educational standards accompanied by devaluation of our once powerful currency.

A graduate in the early stages of Independence could compare to any graduate worldwide.  A graduate could afford to own a car and rent a  3-bedroom apartment after graduation. But today many graduates can not write a simple application letter and the economy is awash with millions of graduates seeking non-existent jobs.

The polity has been witnessing one-step forward three-steps backwards due to the incompetence of the political elite most of who were military men who changed from""uniforms" to "muftis" accompanied by fraudulent civilians in their bid to continue the plundering of the economic resources of the nation where the colonialists left off.

We the citizens remain çomplacent and allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by politicians who are self-centered and have no plans for the improvement of our welfare, but in feathering their own nests and taking care of only their kith and kin.

How long will this continue ? We the citizens of this country need to wake up and shake away the mantle of docility which is self-adorned. We need to cry out and take a stand against ethnic and elitist oppression and domination by a segment of the society. NIGERIA IS NOT A FEUDALIST STATE. We need to cry "Enough is Enough"

The Post-Covid 19 era is bound to be very challenging, hence we need to strive for change. There is an urgent need to move away from the way we've carried on in order to get different results. The recycling of political elites must stop. Once an individual has been given an opportunity to serve he/she should create  room for others. Afterall, why should less than 2% of a population of about 200million continue to hold political office for up to 60 years in a country that is blessed with abundant, available and enlightened human capital? 

The political structure as inherited from our colonial masters must be restructured to take cognizance of our diverse tribal, ethnic and religious background. There should be devolution of power with no region in the polity holding absolute power. The wrong notion that politics and religion should be totally separated should be corrected. Both spheres of life are interelated especially in Africa.

This is why as a messenger to OLODUMARE I'm calling on the masses to ensure that the political Elites irrespective of their political party, retire to a two-bedroom apartment in their villages (on  or before midnight on the 31st August 2021)until they are proved innocent of   misappropriation of public funds.

Shalom

God Bless Nigeria

God Bless Africa

Kindly Visit https://ayoogunjobi.blogspot.com

Elder Ayodeji Ogunjobi (Deja Vu) a.k.a. ORUÑMILA Messenger to OLODUMARE

Please Circulate Widely for Ripple Effect.

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