The Revolution Nigeria Needs.

A few days ago I asked my friends on Facebook what they thought we, ordinary citizens, could do to turn the fortunes of our dear country around. After all, after all is said and done, we are Nigerians and Nigeria is where we call home; Nigeria is where we return to after our sojourns. Therefore, the responsibility of making this "home" one to be proud of lies with each and everyone of us. Now to the responses of my Facebook friends. There was a lone voice in the wilderness which cried "nothing." I can relate with this line of thought and I will come back to it in a while. Other opinions were to the effect that we must use the power of the ballot to elect those who would steer the nation in the right direction. And there were some others who charged us all to cultivate the values of hard work, diligence, integrity and respect for self and others. 

In a country where there is a great disconnect between leaders and led; in a society which transformed from one in which people lived and let others live to one of survival of the fittest where only the strong survives. The strong being the one who is willing to climb on others to get what he wants; in this clime, the strong is the one who sees black and calls it sparkling white and calls bright yellow crimson red all to be in the good books of those in charge of our commonwealth. In Nigeria, the strong are those who win roads rehabilitation contracts and either do shoddy jobs or none at all not minding that the potholes on the roads are akin to death traps. These strong men are responsible for what has transformed our hospitals to mortuaries. It is due to the presence of these strong men that our pregnant women fast for days on end seeking divine assistance ahead of their due date. In my country, the bad guys are rewarded with the best accolades and awards while good people go unnoticed! And that is why I can relate with that person who thinks there's nothing we can do.  What can individuals possibly do when even a government agency's initiative to "rebrand Nigeria" hasn't been seen to have achieved significant success? The perks attached with political offices are so attractive, the desire to occupy such offices gets so consuming that politics is played in a do or die manner so much so that well intentioned citizens do not dare to go near the very murky waters of our politics.  Given such realities, it might appear as though the powers of transformation are not vested in us. Yet there are some of my friends and indeed many others out there who believe all we need to do is have an attitudinal transformation and be the change which we desire and (desperately) need. I agree! Absolutely! For in the words of Mahatma Ghandi, "We must become the change we want to see in the world."

However, this change will not come easy. For any meaningful transformation to take place, there must be a revolution. Yes! A revolution isn't an option but a fundamental necessity. 

Revolution. The one thing that will get us out of the doldrums and back on the path of greatness once again. Before you imagine the collateral damage that this would cause, I need to be clear that I don't mean revolution a la Arab springs. I am referring to a social revolution which Alexander Berkman defined to mean "the reorganisation of the industrial, economic life of the country and consequently also of the entire structure of society." And everyone of us - institutions and individuals - have an important role to play.

First, our vote is the most potent weapon of change. The next general elections come up in 2015. However, the tier of government closest to us is the local government. We do not have to wait till 2015 to stand up for change through the ballot. It is our responsibility to scrutinise the manifestoes of candidates for local government chairmanship in our respective LGAs and vote wisely knowing that every little step in the right direction will mean a lot in the bigger picture. It is of no use selling our votes for peanuts then having to cope with frustrations for another four years. Once bitten they say, twice shy. It is to our credit though that we participated in the last elections with high moral sense and made our choice(s) based on personal convictions. Whether these convictions were along religious and tribal sentiments is another issue altogether and not for today.

Our religious institution has enough powers for positive transformation. We are very religious and pray our way through everything. I am not against it which is why  I crave the indulgence of every Theist citizen of this country to pray that God will touch the hearts of His servants, our religious leaders, to say the truth as they see it not minding whose ox is gored. In our daily devotions, we should ask for special grace for our reverred religious leaders to resist the temptation to seek self aggrandisement and work for the liberation of the citizenry from economic and social bondage. Let us pray that they realise the enormity of the powers they possess for spiritual and temporal transformation. Our spiritual fathers have a big role to play in our social revolution and they must not be seen to be not on the side of the people. The material welfare of Nigerians and is important as the spiritual- that I am sure they are not ignorant of.

Not a few have argued that every people deserve the kind of leadership they get. Which is true afterall, our leaders are from amongst us and developed the traits they now portray as leaders while they were part of the led. To this end, the family shares a part of the blame. The African family was known to be close knit and derived pleasure in raising honest and generally well behaved members who believed in the dignity of labour. In retracing our steps as a nation therefore, the family which is the bedrock of the society has a very important role to play. Our family institution has slept for too long; we have churned out highly conceited individuals who are only interested in promoting self over the common good. Priorities are misplaced and values lost. We cannot continue to complain without helping to clean up this mess. Yes, we have the right to voice out against bad governance, but it is time to compliment talking with taking little stands and begin to work from our little corners towards the positive transformation of our dear motherland. 

I enjoin us to take a journey into the future and imagine where we would be if we continue on this lane we are on. On the other hand, we need to also go back in time and see where we could have been had we not embarked on the various enterprises of self destruction we are still engaged in. Enterprises that have set us on the brink of disaster. Every Nigerian needs to take time daily and tell the man, woman, child he sees in the mirror to be the change he wants to see. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well lest we become like the mad man who snores while his roof is  on fire.