Saturday, October 2, 2010

Nigeria at 50: Never celebrate; neither Jubilate, but appreciate

I am more than disappointed in people for the mere fact that everybody or most persons will ask, what is there to celebrate? Yes, I was also force to ask that question.

On the eve of the Jubilee celebration, I waited till it was around 12.30am and I checked my mtn account balance is the same 12kobo, I rushed to insert my Glo line and it’s the same old story, on my zain line, their was no network as usual. Even the three major telecommunication networks gave us nothing to celebrate. I sluggishly walked to my bed, downcast and disappointed.

In the early hours of the morning, I repeated the action, but the same old story. I inserted my multilinks internet modem into my Laptop (Because the airtime had long being exhausted and money to recharge is more than abundant), yet no nothing to celebrate. Currently, I don’t operate a bank account, all I operate is a pocket account but even the pocket account isn’t speaking anything positive. To be frank nothing with you, there is nothing to celebrate.

The issue my breakfast for the day had long being settled. The usual spoon in the pocket room to room visitation, after all Yorubas will say, it is the person that loves you that will eat your meal. Of course on campus we don’t call it begging, it is communal living and a well encouraged spirit of brotherhood. Ask me what I ate on Jubilee day celebration. I started with two spoons of garri, followed closely with four spoons of rice, and another two spoons of corn pap, half a piece of yam socked in palm oil, a cut of bread and mayonnaise, and 5 spoons of bean. Not forgetting to remember a sip of tea. All these from persons I was meeting probably for the first time. I was so lucky that no caring lady asked me took for breakfast because that would have being catastrophically disastrous. I should be the person to say that there is nothing to celebrate.

The light was off in the early hours of the morning in OAU but was restored around 11am or probably it was the university rickety and terribly comatose generator that was employed again. I cannot blame the University Management for using a one hundred and ninety eight years old donkey to pull a 5, 000 kilogram weigh load, after all, it is what you have that you will utilize.

All evidence shows that only an abnormally normal man or probably a normally abnormal man can say that Nigeria at 50 is what celebrating. This jubilee celebration should be and must be a time of reflection. We should appreciate some things about our country. We should appreciate the potentiality of Nigeria as a country. They huge human resources, the innumerable discovered and yet to be discovered mineral resources among others. Nigeria has the potential of being the world largest economy in the world and using our numbers to our advantage and not disadvantage as it is currently.

One cannot but appreciate the fact that this country juggled together by a collection of greedy white men that hasn’t stop being one of the minor reasons for our problem is still united against their wish. We had civil wars for 30months but we are still united. Of course our unity is currently yielding no result or no substantial results. Do you know that Korea did secede from Japan and they did further split to North and South Korea? Do you know that Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903. Ukraine has lost her case in the international court of justice against Romania over boundary problems and that the corresponding Article 72 of the 1977 Constitution was used in December 1991 to effectively dissolve the Soviet Union, when Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus seceded from the Union? The world powers are interested in our disunity because they know the potentiality of this nation Nigeria. They know that if Nigerians do the right thing, we have what it takes to be the world power.

More so, we cannot but appreciate our nationalists who fought for the independence of our about great country of ours. The like of Sir Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Oba Overawen of Benin, Ladoke Akintola among others. Even if the child at 50 years of age is badly infected with all manner of infections, cripple, maggot infested and everything but good. Does that means we shouldn’t appreciate the mother who in water and blood, pain, agony and groaning brought the child to live? Our nationalists suffered hard and they should be appreciated.

I cannot but be disappointed in Nigerians because we the cause of the problems join the low thinking ironically independent and advance countries in calling our country names. They are independent yet they come here looking for job in oil industry. They exploit our land, dry up the crude oil with little or no maintenance. They join hand with our traitors, forgive me, I mean government official to export our resources without any form of estimate. They swim in our country to cool when there is drought in the hinterland. They call us names, they say we earn less than 1dollar a week according to abc news report. They say that our specialty is 419 as section of our constitution that is dead and buried. Should we join them to add salt to our injury? They say we are illiterate and they never mention Italy that less than 7percent of her population ever attended the university. They say we are yahoo- yahoo professional and that we celebrate the riches even above honesty and integrity. When they have never mention the greedy senseless whites, who want to make $20, 000 from just one business transaction that they invested probable $400 at the speed of light. Our government are dull but sincere enough to say this yahoo boys are spoiling the image of Nigeria abroad and send them to jail, but their own government are duller and to egoistic to admit internationally that this greedy white are spoiling their image and sent them to jail too. If there are no magas, there will be no mugus. This is cause ant effect relationship. Governments of advance countries should place a jail term for greed people and scam will be an archaic word.

The problem of our about to be great country multifaceted, they problem will be 70percent solved if all the citizens of Nigeria can be faithful, loyal and honest. Then we can have cause to celebrate, but for now just appreciate.

Afolabi Oni

400 level Education English
Editor in Chief
The Gist newspaper
08036126690, oniafolabiajibola@yahoo.com

No comments:

Post a Comment