The Under-dog Approach: Rounding-up for change. 1. We must not give in to cynicism nor surrender to despair just because our yesterdays and yesteryears were painfully distorted by a troop of organised saboteurs within and outside our country that has relentlessly and ambitiously pinned down our nations full-potential and our childrens creativity, all these years; for to give in, would mean to abuse(misuse) our cosmic genius and surrender our courageous spirit to fight back at that which seek to kick us into unproductive retrogression, while ambushing and destroying our collective humanity. 2. Just like we are told to dream big in the times of ordinary challenges, Im of the opinion that we must learn and endeavour to dream even bigger-dreams in the days of extraordinary circumstances that threaten our national survival. For it is only with clear vision and coordinated actions we as a people can end the half-a-century old subversion of our nations emergence and development. 3. It is extremely important we charge ourselves to relevance and stir our country men to greater heights, and pioneer goals to confront our deepest fears by endorsing a wide range of decisive and proportionate policy-actions to defeat those things that held our nations emergence and total development to the dust. 4. Lest you draw conclusion that Im naïve about historical precedence and the Nigerian question. Let me make this clear, from the pre-colonial era of loose, separate and independent ethnic nationalities that now make up what is this day referred to as Nigeria, to the overwhelming period of colonial-invasion, the first being Portuguese across the Bright of Benin and Biafra in the 14th century to the exploitative trade-deals, colonial expansion, ambiguous treatise, and illegal occupation of the British government in this part of the world that started as far back as the 17th century to the time of pseudo-independence in 1960 and the divisive politics, the Nigerian civil-war (an avoidable war that left vast and painful scars in the heart of the nation) and a measure of unhealthy political gimmicks that followed to this day. 5. Historically speaking, I recognised the wave of distrust and suspicion if not impossible cynicism that have been unleashed on the mind of average Nigerian as a result of decades of visionless-based mismanagement, wastage and embezzlement of our national reserve and the unprecedented looting of our countrys treasury by disgruntled politicians and successive military governments. 6. To be honest, Im neither surprised at such level of suspicious cynicism nor shocked at the size of distrust that accompany it. In fact I expect Nigerians to have such level of distrust; for no citizens can trust a government that institutionalised a culture of corruption and encourage a climate of impunity against her own citizenry. 7. Secondly Im not unaware of the level of poisons, some self-seeking elites have been unleashing in the wake of growing instability in Nigeria for the past 20years in the name of ethnic and regional agitations. While some of this agitation may be genuine and borne out of rational concern for the collective future of the Nigerian people, it can not be said that some of the methods and approaches that have been suggested and adopted to address this concern have been truly rational, considerate and inclusive. 8. At this junction let be clearly stated that, it is the aforementioned chronological antecedents that have accumulated and climaxed into what is today referred to as the Nigerian question. Knowing quite well that no question can be answered convincingly unless it is first understood; I now seek to recruit and employ the next set of paragraphs to shed certain light on what the Nigerian question means, the vast issues its raises and possible policy-focus that can be used to address this question. 9. From my own perspective, the Nigerian question can be said to be a rough combination of ethnic, religious and regional questions. From another perspective it can be strictly seen as a constitutional and political system problem as regards the constitutional and political origins of Nigeria, and the constitutional and political system that now dictates its existence and experience. 10. Taking the first and second perspectives into close consideration, rational evaluation and critical analysis, it can be seen that the entire question is the direct reflection of the actions and opinions of people regardless how active or passive such words and deeds may appeared. Be it ethnic agitation, religious up-rising, regional insurgence and constitutional discrepancies, and the other forms this question takes, they are all product of human activities at various level of governance and society. 11. Hence, if we must provide a meaningful and long-lasting solution to the various elements that constitute and make-up the Nigerian question, we must first start by strategically getting the people involved in the issues of governance and national development. What this strategy should be, its components, how it gets the people on board to drive change in all spheres of our national life is what this post seek to provide. ..To be continue...
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 04:49:17 +0000
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