NIGERIA: A COUNTRY LIVING IN DENIAL AND DECEPTION

So much has been said and nothing has been said about the present state of affairs of our dear country Nigeria. Particularly, I am not envious of President Buhari job at this material time. It is the best and the worst job in the world. Running and governing over the affairs of multi-ethnic and ethnoreligious state like Nigeria is not a child play considering the diverse centripetal and centrifugal forces that the President has to contend with. 

It is easy to sit down in the comfort of our homes, offices and public spaces to cast aspersion on the person and office of the President for his deeds and misdeeds. The fact as it has always been is that uneasy lies the head that wear the crown. The Nigeria state is a very peculiar State that requires a lot of hard work, due diligence, and divine grace to govern; and it is in this regard, one who have expected that those who desire the number one seat must be people of competence and character. 

It is on this basis, that the seeming condemnation of President Muhamodu Buhari is justifiable and warranted having been there before and has been aspiring for this Office over a decade before the mercy of God and grace actually smiled on him. 

Sincerely, it is extremely disturbing and appalling that a person who seeks for power and position over a decade will get there and appears overwhelmed by the demand of the job. Unfortunately, this is the state we have found ourselves today. 

This is the irony of our country: while there is a consensus that this country is not working or not moving at the pace it ought to move, the fact, however, is that we appear helpless and handicap to do something about it. Every problem we face today, name it- unemployment, corruption, food insecurity, epileptic power supply, acute infrastructures, moribund school systems and hospital facilities have been dissected by scholars and opinion molders at various times; unfortunately, little or nothing has been done about it. 

For instance, a vast proportion of the elites believe in restructuring yet our movement in this direction is motion without movement. It worries me and sometimes I feel like weeping for this political and economy maladies we found ourselves, but am quickly reminded that what we need as a country are not self-pity but self-introspection and concrete actions. 

Nobody is exempted in this horrible state we found ourselves. We are all guilty - the leaders and the followers. If we are going to move forward as a people, we all have a role to play. At present, voters registration is ongoing, how many of the armchair social critics have gone ahead to register for their Permanent Voter's Card?

Parents who procure examination results for their wards and children expect that those children will end up becoming better citizens and future leaders. Nope, it cannot happen. 

Life is garbage in, garbage out. We cannot plant maize and expect to harvest plantain in the coming days. General Election is coming, for instance, the question is not so much about what the candidates have to offer but more about where the candidates come from. It is about religion and nepotism. The time to ask the right question is now if we want a nation we will all be proud of.  

Indeed, we cannot do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. This brings me to the question of the analog and digital generation. There seems to be two divergence stand on this issue - some believe it is the time the older generation leaves the stage for the new generation. Some, however, believe that the youths are not prepared for the job at hand. This school of thought believes that the youths must grow with the old. They should be integrated gradually.

In Latin words: non est enim potestas data est sublatus - power is not given, it is taken, but the youths of this country appears to have been sought out of the equation economically and politically.

While there are few youths who have taken their destinies into their hands, the truth, however, is that majority are not finding it easy. Yet and despite this precarious moment, the time we are in is the best of times and the worst of times depending on what we do. We either get it right and move forward as a people and as a nation; and or fail and remain in the abyss of poverty and underdevelopment. The ball is in our court.