WHAT DOES NIGERIA NEED?

At 48, this is a question that clangs through my mind and I’m sure of several Nigerians and Africans. What does the number ‘48’ signify for the world’s most populous black nation? What does this giant of Africa require to move to the next level, to become a “dream come true”? Postulating a single solution to the myriad problems confronting Nigeria would definitely be the woolliest task ever undertaken by man. Every independence eve, the nation’s media is saturated with nationalistic effusion; a yearly ritual which pits a good arm chair social commentators and political analysts against government lobbyists. On the one hand the nation is left to rue at numerous missed development opportunities while on the other we bemused at the incredible tales of success being churned out by government propagandists when Nigeria lies at the lower third of the global development index. How Nigeria ruled the third world horizon in the 1970’s where the naira exchanged with the dollar at par and Indonesia was offered a handful of palm nuts to feed its starving population. On October 1^st national dailies are overwhelmed with ads congratulating the federal government and its cabinet for the ‘giant strides taken so far’. Do not be stunned when the faces of past military despots are splayed on center spreads as messiahs of the rejuvenated Nigerian state. Everything is perfectly in order because I can assure you it is in the Nigerian spirit to celebrate political brigandage which is why though it has be practically accepted that billions of dollars remain unaccounted for in 48 years of statehood, only the dead Sani Abacha’s loot has been recovered, after all the dead men don’t bite.

On October 1^st the familiar drum beat of reversal to true federalism will be sounded in our ears with a slightly variant version of the convening of sovereign national conference, but all these song themes been rendered have become hackneyed, old tunes which have refused to score with a largely apoplectic Nigerian population.

So who makes up the Nigerian population? Youths; young men and women between the ages of 18 and 45, products of the baby blooming period of the 70’s have gone full cycle and are now of age. It is this crowd that have bore the brunt of harsh government policies and watched glibly some of its renegade members unleash mayhem in the Niger Delta and commit cyber and social crimes leading to the loss of several lives and millions of dollars. It is their ilk that has pushed Nigeria up the ladder of drug courier nations and prostitution rings in Italy. To say that there is an air of unbelief in the Nigerian dream courtesy vision 202020 is perhaps the understatement of the year. Recently more than 250 Nigerians being deported from Spain for illegal entry and sundry criminal offenses held up their flight as it prepared for take-off, chanting ‘ASYLUM’ to the consternation of Spanish Authorities and the Shame of Nigerian onlookers

But on October 1^st I’ll not be looking out for the usual national celebration cavalcade of colourful National troop dancers, children and soldiers marching out the colours but rather at a two year old spectacle tagged ‘Reach Out Nigeria’ sponsored by a Nigerian church. The charismatic leader of Christ embassy church in Nigeria, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome believes reordering the mindset of the Nigerian would result in the cataclysmic change Nigeria urgently needs. Last year 2 million copies of its daily devotional where freely given out, this year it’s 10 million copies. When asked if last year’s campaign scored, a senior pastor of the church, Pastor Touyo Edun said the meteoric rise in its projected distribution campaign was a vivid sign that people are yearning for a change, last year’s demand has been greatly outstripped he announced loudly. So the good news is people are reading, a fad which is rapidly ebbing. So on October 1^st we will reach out with the ambitious Nigerian preacher to this intellectual and spiritual enlightenment age that Christ Embassy sees as an antidote to the Nigerian quandary

dorcas, CONNECTAFRICA

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