NIGERIA AT 53, A NATION BATTLING WITH DISABILITY! Nigeria at 53 has been attracting comments from Nigerians at home and abroad. While some say we have reasons to celebrate, others believe otherwise. But as my readers, do we as a nation have any reason to celebrate? Maybe the analogy I am going to provide here will help us answer the above question. Disability is either natural or unnatural. A man born blind for instance is said to suffer from natural disability while the one that goes blind through an accident is said to suffer from unnatural disability. When a man is involved in an accident and comes out alive with one form of disability or another, depending on the type of disability, he is either happy that he is alive or wishes he never survived if the disability renders him incapable of doing what he used to do. Some accidents may be natural occurrences because they are beyond our control but what cannot be termed natural is the way victims of such accidents are handled. When victims of accidents are handled with adequate care, disability may be avoided. One important thing to note however, about disability, is the fact that it can be temporal or permanent. It is worse if it is permanent. The level and nature of disability may determine the level of a man’s disposition to celebrations such as the Independence Day. For a man with natural disability situations around him remain the same. Except that as a human being he may sometimes wish he were like other men. But because of the burden placed on him by permanent disability, he may not bother. A man who loses any vital part of his body in an accident (unnatural means) may celebrate life but very much unlike the one whose body is complete or with natural disability. But what about those who by reason of accidents have simply become robots that they can no longer decide for themselves what to do, do they also celebrate? And if they do, how and in what manner! The Nigeria I knew and read about as a child was that of Pounds sterling and shillings and Naira and kobo. In this era, there were no unemployment, kidnapping and other social vices and life generally was interesting. Education then might not have been free at all levels and in every area, but everyone had equal opportunity to go to school. What merely dictated who went to school was willingness and level of income. There were no reasons for private schools. Where they existed, they were limited in scope. Transaction at whatever level was even. And when Nigeria became disabled following incidents (unnatural accidents) of bad governance (greed, ethnicity, corruption, dishonesty etc) coups and counter coups, by the various leaders, our penny and kobo which served not only as medium of exchange but also instruments of fairness and equity in transaction, disappeared giving way to disequilibrium in our exchange for goods and services. Pathetically enough, those who could never have passed the test of auxiliary nurses became the midwives of the accident Nigerian nation, thereby worsening her injury until she became disabled. Following the disability occasioned by the already mentioned factors, the Naira as our currency lost its value and the kobo that used to ease equal exchange fizzled out to the extent that whenever you engage in any transaction, you are sure to lose fractions of your hard earned money to someone who may have already made his profit from you leading to loss because our money is the only one in entire world with this deficiency/disability. There is no country in the world that does not spend her currency to its last denomination, except Nigeria. So many things expose us as a disabled nation. Education has collapsed, unemployment is everywhere, insecurity, kidnapping, infrastructural decay, and other satanic acts have found their way into the nation’s nomenclature. And these things happen with ease. These are situations we thought were temporal but have almost become permanent features that qualify us as a nation. How well have we coped with this disability? And what has been the effect? How long are we going to continue with this disability since this situation is unnatural and might have been caused by bad midwifery? Are we still able to do what we used to do as a nation? Can we actually live normal lives with this disability and still be happy? Maybe! This probably is the reason why we tolerate those things that make other nations stink and ignore certain basic issues as ASUU strike, youth unemployment, mismanagement of our common wealth, poverty among Nigerians, illiteracy and so on. But how satisfactorily can we celebrate Nigeria at 53 with this disability that is gradually becoming permanent? I leave the verdict to you. Happy independence!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:47:45 +0000
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