I PLEDGE TO NIGERIA MY COUNTRY

I remember vividly my Primary School days and how each time we closed the morning assembly, we were made to recite The Nigerian National Pledge as we marched to our classrooms to begin the days’ learning.

Most of us were able to cram the pledge and recited it accurately, while a majority of us were more interested in mumbling the words to what we heard from the mouth of the elderly, hence, turning ‘TO SERVE NIGERIA WITH ALL MY STRENGTH’ to ‘TO SERVE NIGERIA IS NOT BY FORCE!’  

Little did we know that we were predicting the future of Nigeria, a time like this when there is a massive void between the Government and its' People. A grave disconnect, so much that a suggestion to study our National Constitutional Rights is met with vehement resistance from the people. The fear of a disintegrating country grips the heart of Nigerians and our neighboring countries, including the American Intelligence Unit (C.I.A). This is due to the fact that if a country of approximately 150 million people were become a 'failed state', the entire world will feel the aftermath. There will be massive migration and more devastating, there will be a great shortage in the supply of crude oil, with Nigeria being a major supplier of the commodity and today's world being so much energy dependent - the counter effect is unimaginable.

However, our current state of friction is not surprising at all, it has been long coming. Especially as we the ‘People’ have refused to overcome the burden that was placed upon us by our Colonial Masters, who amalgamated what they thought to be 3 ethnic groups into one Federal Country and named it Nigeria. But today, we all know that the supposed 3 ethnic groups are actually more than 250 minority clans. And now that we've got a stable Democractic Rule, every clan is yearning to have a voice in matters that concerns them, therefore, it's bound that we have agitations.

But as I tweeted during this week, “The reason for a buildings’ collapse is usually at its' foundation and not the roofing stage” --- if we are to get over the hurdle we’re currently faced with in Nigeria, then its necessary that we bring out our History road maps and ironically find our way forward by looking back, to learn from the founding fathers of our Independence. They of course were from different regions of the country, but they were able to get The British to leave Nigeria peacefully without any fracas arising, unlike what we witnessed happen in South Africa and other African countries, where blood was shed before they could gain their independence.

Our peaceful transition to independence, may be due to the fact that when the British arrived the shores of our country in late 1800’s – early 1900’s, they didn’t meet us as monkeys on trees. In fact, it is documented that there was evidence of civilization in the North, East and South of Nigeria when they arrived. The Sokoto Caliphate was in place, as formed by Caliph Mohammed Bello in the 1800's and they already had their own form of writing (Aljimi).

The East who were mainly Ibo’s, likewise ran their communities through clans/kinsmen before Lord Lugard established the ‘Eze’ system to aid an effective ‘Indirect Rule’ over the region as we could see from Chinua Achebe’s play write “Things Fall Apart”.

Yorubas’ already had Kings and slavery was popular amongst them. So, we can safely say that all of these structure made the colonial rule over us easy, with the Chiefs in each region ruling their people and returning taxes to the British.

Nigerian elites then resided in Calabar and Lagos colonies (with Lagos just cut out of then Gold Coast) and the youths were encouraged to go and study overseas.

This gave rise to people like Hebert Macaulay (Bishop Ajayi Crowther's grand-son), Chief Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Pa Anthony Enahoro and co. who got western education and were able to return to Nigeria with a ‘detribalized’ mindset and pragmatically formed political alliances to contest for control of Lagos colony from the British as early as 1923.

The yearning for self-rule continued for many years afterwards and was gained successfully in 1960; but not without a twist – The British ceded power to the minority in classic “Divide & Conquer” style, which Julius Caesar & Napoleon had deployed centuries before to dominate their subjects world over.

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 (Hutu vs. Tutsi) was brewed by this same Divide & Rule system. Likewise, major conflicts all over the African continent today are intertwined in this same web of minority vs. majority.

Back to us, Nigeria as a geographical space will be 100-yrs-old in 2014, and sadly up till today (97yrs) we are yet to overcome the ethnic, regional and religious barriers that divides us. Instead of uniting as ONE, we are getting divided by the day, with more clans asking to be made a STATE simply for recognition and politically inspired.

On the 16^th of April 2011, Nigeria yet witnessed another election that was largely compared to the June 12, 1993 election won by Late Chief M.K.O Abiola, which was annulled by then Military Head of State (Rtd. Gen.)Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (I.B.B).

And just to digress a bit, is it moral for same IBB to come back 18 years on and ask the people for their civil vote? similarly (Rtd Gen.) Buhari who trauncated our democracy in 1983? I know they have a civic right to contest elections, but as human beings, is it moral? I will leave that to you to answer.

Now, no matter how much spin people want to put on it, I believe this year’s April 16 election was won fair and square by Goodluck E. Jonathan (GEJ) as the exit polls garnered on the same day where overwhelmingly in his favor. But should there be any dissatisfaction on the election results, there’s surely a civil way to approach redress under a Democratic rule, which is through the judicial systems.

But we must bear in mind that such court actions will only continue to cause more unrest within our polity, because sincerely our discussions by now should be far away from clarifying election results, and rather focused on how we can get our economy running again, so that the ‘People’ who participated largely in the elections by casting their votes, can start reaping the dividends of the democractic rule they've long awaited. 

 

We should be thinking of how to get Small & Medium Businesses moving in our country, as this sector has been known to employ up to 40% of the labor force in other thriving economies of the world.

Showbiz is already flourishing in Nigeria as it would in any civilized country, and by getting banks to operate beyond mere ‘thrift associations’ and to start financing budding young Nigeria Entrepreneurs, by helping them get their business moduls off the ground, it won’t be long before we will witness indigenous businesses spring out from all corners of Nigeria to compete on a global level as the Chinese are doing today.

Going back to the issue of governance - Our Local Governments, State Governments, Members of House of Representatives and Senators, are all getting away with mass murder, while we the people direct all our agitations towards the Federal Government.


The FG is far away in ABUJA and may not even be responsible for those things we are agitating for, and we conveniently walk pass our Local Government’s Office on our way to work everyday without even bothering to stop by and ask them what their plans for the LG are, and how far they have gone into actualizing the plans. These people receive huge salaries from your State Government and they collect state revenue from offices operating within the locality and from oil companies for those in the oil rich zones.

With our numerous agitation on Twitter, I couldn’t help but conclude that if our President wasn’t available on Twitter and Facebook to speak with us, we would have simply just gone back to our normal ways of discussing these matters that burdens us at drinking bars and other social centers, where ofcourse, our discussions yields nothing meaningful. 

I don’t see any other government office holder on State or LG level engaging with us on social media like the President does, which informs why we don't mount due pressure on them to do their jobs according to their responsibilities.

Recently, I witnessed Tweeps calling on The President to attend to the recent Ibadan Flood; for goodness sake, before the President who is miles away, there is a Governor in the State of Oyo, there is a Local Government Chairman in that locality, a Senator, a House of Representative Member all responsible for the people’s welfare! These office holders are the first point of call? Also organizations are being funded by the government to take care of matters of this kind, which were present to hand first aid treatments to the victioms and making arrangements to get them to safety.

Don't get me wrong, I know the President is answerable to everyone and I want him to attend urgently to matters too; but we must also find out what the responsibilities of all our public officer holders are, we can know exactly who to hold accountable at any given time and situation!

We must be free thinkers and analyze issues thoroughly by ourself and understand clearly what we’re agitating for. Members of terrorist sects worldwide are convinced that they are fighting a just cause – but we can see how wrong they are! They refused to analyse the issue themselves, and chose to listen to someone else's interpretation of it, which is why they are where they are today.

 

We’re first Nigerians before any political party or religion. Try reciting The National Pledge right now and see if you can still accurately recollect the six lines of your oath to The Federation. If you do, meditate on the words, and allow them to fill every vein running through your body. As you do that, take in a deep breath; and upon exhalation, push out every venom of hate, pain and anger that has held you back from giving your best to your country.

The way you see yourself and present yourself, is the way others will relate to you. Let this sink deep into your soul, and as you go about your livelihood on the surface of Nigeria, remember to "uphold her Honour and Glory! So help you God...

God bless you and God bless Nigeria.