As Nigeria cascade dangerously towards an uncertain destiny and all its implications for the health of the polity, the critical question here is: who is supposed to be more patriotic than the other? The child who dropped out of school because of the inability of the parents to pay his school fees, with no access to any governmental scholarship scheme; the little kid who hawks to get money to pay school fees and is still daily harassed by government officials; school teacher who treks to school daily, and stays under the sun and in the rain to impart knowledge to students because of decrepit infrastructure, and still not paid his meagre sum at the end of the month; individuals who provides everything for themselves ranging from water, power, road, security, school etc without government assistance; a widow that sold everything she had to train her children in school and is still suffering in old age because her children have been unemployed for years; about 75 million unemployed bereft of social security and have been turned to money making pawns by the same government that is supposed to cater for them; sick people that have opted to patronize spiritual homes because death, poor infrastructure and high bills are the only guarantees in Nigerian hospitals; the man that has lost lives and properties in Damaturu as a result of the inability of the government to provide security; the fisherman in Bonny whose river is polluted by oil; the oppressed farmer who hears about billions expended through government interventions in agriculture on the radio but has not felt it once; etc. These and many more has become part and parcel of Nigerian’s everyday experience. These consequences are caused by the cumulative actions of few in positions of authority who over the years, have engaged in acts that are antithetical to the Nigerian project. Yes! They have not demonstrated any will that can convince anyone to contemplate laying down his life for this country. So next time, when people perceive singing the National Anthem as a punishment and has no regard for the national symbols; when able bodied men prefer watching home movie to listening to national news; when people sit at home to play ludo instead of cleaning up their environment or going to vote during sanitation and election days; when many Nigerians prefer to die than parting a dime to any government official or parastatal in form of tax or levy; When you raised a debate about the choice of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari as the next president of Nigeria and somebody somewhere shouts: “It’s not my business who wins or lose”; Don’t be angry nor think they aren’t enlightened. They might be trying to tell you: “They don’t care! Why will I?”
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 07:52:13 +0000
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