WHICH WAY NIGERIA?

The uncertainty hovering over our head as a nation is as thick as much as it has ever been. The intensity of our insanity is thicker now and you could almost sense that a knife can pierce through it even if it’s invisible to the naked eyes. Sonny Okosun, of blessed memories,

sang the song “Which Way Nigeria” and in his fateful words asked at what point are we going to reach that obviously blissful future inherent in our potentials but mired in a mirage of leadership ineptitude and quagmire.

In one of the verses, Okosun cried “Let’s save Nigeria so that Nigeria won’t DIE” but it looks more like our leaders are working in concerted effort towards dividing the country by its Niger River. The malfeasance in government circle is so magnanimous you can almost smell the stench from outside planet earth. Their plans and counter-plans all muddled up into one giant cycle of pain and disillusion to citizens and onlookers. No wonder a puppet came out to say to hell with the Nigerian project, give me Oduduwa Republic. Is that a viable solution?

Are we going to be ruled by angels in Oduduwa republic? Is not the same leaders with gargantuan access to public wealth and unhindered resources that will rule us in our uhuru Oduduwa? Will it not be the Tinubu’s (owner of The Nation Newspaper, Television Continental TV and Radio, Shareholder in American British Tobacco, Shareholder in Oando, owners of refineries inside and outside of the country, shareholders in Telecommunications, owner of Oriental Hotel and other major player in the hospitality industry, King of Bourdillon, etc *you get where the gist is going*)

Will it not be this same people that will lead us in this purported Oduduwa Republic? Will they not insist on keeping the poor poor and the ones loyal to them rich? Will they not increase school fees like mad men and damn every and any consequences as soon as their grip on power is threatened?

Which way Nigeria? Unpatriotic elements now parade the seat of power and they are bent on infiltrating our psychic as a nation. They want to distabilise us and because they have failed as leaders, they have a single solution; DIVIDE THE SPOILS. Okosun said in the song “Inefficiency and indiscipline is ruining the country now, corruption here there and everywhere, inflation is souring high” and this was a song done in 1984 when a De Rica (local measurement for grain food) of beans was less than 1 naira and my father bought a new car for ten thousand naira from his printing business.

Which way Nigeria? Which way to go? Okosun later berated the country for the oil boom which he claims that has caused serious headache for the country because few got super rich while many remained in abject poverty. What country forfeits agriculture for non-edibles like crude oil? Of course such country with little or no recourse to futuristic plans or well laid out pattern of continuity. Is that not why we are where we are right now? Fighting insurgencies, corruption, lack of vision, nepotism, etc when all the wealth made from the early 90’s if properly channeled would have created jobs and wealth for the over fifty something million youths in the country today and would have created a proper welfare system that will cater for the less privilege. Rather what we have is a mammoth number of disillusioned youth properly prepped as tools in the hands of evil wreckers.

We can’t pray our sins away if we are not ready to have a paradigm shift through a holistic approach. We can’t hope and wish Boko Haram and Niger Delta militancy away because what they do seem bad and unNigerianistic; as much as that is what we all want, it is never going to happen. I hope the NatConf that has been extended will really approach this matter with great caution and the advice given will be accepted in good faith. The farther down we are as a nation should be the propelling thrust to even greater heights; China against all odds did it, Singapore, Austrialia, they all did it. 

I believe in One Nation, One Nigeria project and even if the leaders we trusted and placed in a position of high propensity could make a turn around after sucking us dry, we remain undying in our love for this great dysfunctional, not because I love it the way it is but because I love what I see in its future. What these many potentials can eventually turn out and like my people always say; inu ikoko dudu leko funfun tin jade (from a very black pot comes the very white corn porridge)

I am done crying, on to the next article please! ARRRRRRRRRRRHGGGGGG!

Oh, lest I forget, you can click on the sonny okosun song to listen; that is if you care!