The Nigeria of my dream

Earlier today, I had a heated argument with my colleagues at the BCH Nigerian forum that focused on the comity of our country Nigeria. The controversy stemmed from last year's END SARS protests that were said to have led to the massacre of promising young men by military men. The debate was so intense that almost all participants were angry at being Nigerian.

But how did we get here? What went wrong that Nigeria as a nation is now so widely regarded by its citizens for ridicule?

Nigeria is currently undergoing several societal issues that are tarnishing the country's image in the eyes of the international community. One of the most serious issues is that of corruption, inflation, and insecurity. Solving these issues has become an urgent necessity. The issue of using public office for private gain has become the usual norm and practice.

Corruption has become a contentious topic on a global scale. Bribery, extortion, embezzlement, tax evasion, black money, and other forms of corruption have been very frequent in recent years. Nigeria is the only place I have seen where the police arrive an hour after a crime has been committed. where delivery of Pizza arrives faster than an ambulance.

Corruption is a termite that wreaks havoc on the environment. Our public life has been tainted by corruption on all levels. Officers work for their greed at the police offices, tax departments, and even the so-called Economic and financial crime commission EFCC. A person must spend a huge amount of money to lobby higher officials to obtain a government job. Nigeria has corrupt diseases like cancer that fail to heal. Everyone aspires to get wealthy in a short time. Greed, materialistic ambitions, a lack of fear of the law, a lack of role models, power and authority abuse, peer and societal pressure, and so on are a few of the incidence of corruption in Nigeria.

Corruption can be eliminated only if the public and government work together. It will be necessary to awaken and enlighten the people. Laws must be created that is both strong and rigorous. No one must be above the law.

Other anti-corruption measures include increased surveillance, exemplary punishment for criminals, parental counseling, and the installation of values in the mind of our teeming youths.

Inflation is another issue that is too hard to bear in Nigeria at the moment. Inflation can be defined as an increase in the price of basic commodities. It entails a steady rise in the cost of goods and services. Every other day, we hear that the cost of necessary goods such as cooking gas, petrol, diesel, food products such as rice, vegetables, and so on has increased. Due to the skyrocketing prices, it has become extremely difficult for the average family to survive in Nigeria.

While the poor are having a hard time struggling to get two square meals a day, the central banking authority and the federal government keep increasing the costs of living past sensible cutoff points. On one hand, they are embezzling the money and storing it in foreign bank accounts, while the poor citizens are starving.

They send their kids to foreign countries for schooling, while the poor citizens are left with no option except to send their kids to the dilapidated school building for learning. Their kids were born with a silver spoon and have a great vehicle ride directly from youth; Other kids who are brought into the world to poor parents who have no money to move out of their stricken Single room apartment at Oshodi, Agege, and other slum areas sees this dichotomy annoying. A single room apartment currently costs around 60,000 NGR a year. A bag of rice of 50 kg is sold at 55,000 NGR, a bag of beans goes up to 120k NGR. Indeed, even vegetables, for example, tomatoes and potatoes, and onions cost are now too costly for the struggling poor to afford. Transport fares have likewise gone up due to consistently rising costs of petrol and diesel. A liter of petrol now costs between 165 to 200NGR depending on the area you live in the country. There is pain and anger in the land.

Any government must cater to its citizens especially the poor by providing them their necessities at reasonable costs. Government-subsidized food stores ought to be opened in designated locations, especially for rural dwellers. Hoarders of public goods should be severely dealt with.

The height of insecurity in Nigeria today is alarming. Herdsmen have taken over several local communities, ransacking and killing innocent people. Raping and maiming women and young girls. Farmers now go to the farm with their lives in their hands. Additionally, kidnapping has become the order of the day as if it's now a legal business. No single day passes without an incident of one adduction or the other within the country. To travel and return in safety is now a big deal in Nigeria.

To make matter worse, agitation for secession are mounting pressure on the government. The indigenous people of Biafran IPOB in the east want a nation of their own, the Arewa in the northern part of the country want their nation, the Oduduwa in the middle Bert also ask for their nation. No wonder a bill was moved by a legislature to rename the country to Africa united republic AUR.

There's tension in the land. And as I write this, there's a remembrance mixed with anger in several quarters, reminiscent of the event of last year END SARS protest that lead to several fatalities and lost of lives in the hands of supposed military force. This incidence has remained inked in the hearts of Nigerians especially the youths who now see the nation as a blood thirsty land, and a damage beyond repair. But should we continue in this way?

In my opinion, the problems bedeviled our nation Nigeria is not entirely in the hand of the government. The citizens have contributed to the degeneration of our nation. We have all allow greed to blindfold us all. We have abused our collective national pride and destroy the spirit of brotherhood. If we truly want solutions to the many problems facing Nigeria, we should first stop the blame game and look inward. All hands are needed to save the country from the hands of a few wicked individuals who are sponsors of these evils in the land.

We should join hands with our administration in any little way we can to control these issues and to help the country in these trying times. We have no other country, Nigeria is ours, together we can change the narratives of our country for a better tomorrow. As a law-abiding citizen of your country, it is your entitlement to oppose any act of injustice in your locality and stand for peace. Consequently, your little contribution to national peace will be of help to our administration in discovering answers to address the situations on the ground.

The youths were said to be the leaders of tommorow, and I believe that tommorow they talk about is now. But how can the youths lead when we are not prepared? And , the time that we have to prepare in silence we use it to fight each other, causing ourselves on social media. The Igbo man says it's the Fulani, the Fulani says it's the Yoruba, the Yoruba says it's the Calabar, the name calling continue and at the end we all come back to sit at the feet of those bad leaders we all said they are the problem of the country, and allow ourselves to be use by them again and again, because to them the youths are not serious and cannot be given the leadership Mantle. Let them lead themselves first they say!

This is where we must all look inward, we have tried to change the government by force but failed because they have the power. Now, let use our intellectual properties to change the government. Those who canvassed the freedom of the nation from the hands of the European didn't do so with force power but with intellectual capacities, and they were youths.

I look forward to a better Nigeria. Let love lead. Peace.