Nigeria’s Journey to True Nationhood

The Muhammadu Buhari administration provides an opportunity for true federalism and ideal restructuring, writes Goke Omisore

I hate to think I am winning, when I am losing a game because he who lags behind must strive thrice to catch-up in times. Congratulations Nigerians, we have won against all odds. We have won a free and fair democratic step in the ladder of nationhood, but wither thy true mission in nationhood? We have won the war of insurmountable oddities in democracy, civilian transition to transition, but how do we keep and justifiably distribute the spoils of true democratic gains and consolidate on true nationhood.

We are, at the bent on this long and winding road but not yet secured on the lane of true nationhood. Ours is still a dream emerging on the horizon. Let's be bold in taking our destiny at the peak of the waves, riding high in favour of bold changes, as President Muhammad Buhari, aptly quoted a Shakespear verse. "There is a tide in the affairs of men..." If the true messiah is here, let him boldly lead us in this quest for visible, tangible, measurable great changes ordinary man on the street can feel.

The obstacles on our path must have been ingeniously woven in our past – Aaditu – the Yoruba, my people are won't to say. It's a hidden curse in the life of a child that refuses to grow and blossom into adulthood. Our traducers left three things – three Greek gifts that are clogging our will of progress that is manifesting wrongly often times, time after time in every steps of our political journey into true nationhood and economic greatness. We are puns in their economic equations and exploitations and religious doctrines.

Each one is the architect of his own fortune, in our own case, may be misfortune, or so it seems in spite of the oil boom. We must grow our immense resources, human, materials and minerals to create fortunes, the lowliest amongst us can feel and be fed on. We should stop the celebration culture of mundane things – wasting champagne in the land where few have access to clean drinking water, when our land is ridden in poverty. No! The world is neither celebrating nor laughing with us; they are deriding and laughing at us.

It's high time the prodigal partying was over. In this nation, the worst of all tribes appears converged at a point of unity. No tribe can be singled out or absorbed of any crime in our land today. Years back, you could safely swear that a Hausa man will not touch that, a Yoruba man would never do this, an Ibo man, would die working hard than try his hand on that. Not today, the differences amongst of all major and minority tribes are that of six and a half dozen in most cases of avarice and all variables of corruption and politics.

The British three Greek gifts, the English-language, their considered superior tongue and the ruse and spell of Anglophone culture, cast on us in the pretence of a Commonwealth. Second, religion, pride in Christianity armed with the bible – the most riveting and potent weapon of mass indoctrination of the mind – far beyond the manifestation of god in our lives. A vast trap in the interest of their own gains and the sustainable exploitation of colonies – indeed religion is the opium of the people.

Last but least visible is a disordered, skewed and twisted political arrangements in favour of their hidden agendas. That which is still riveting our land in mutual suspicion and crisis till date. All these must be unraveled and settled once and for all by we the people this umpteenth time. Our Republic is built on ethnic suspicion, grown in the euphoria of independence.

Yet, over 50 years later, we are still trapped in and around their political mines; we often fiddled with this over-bloated centre in our federal system, time after time, in assorted names of conferences, which are more for political gains on the president's watch, than for true nationhood. Resulting in constant mutual ethnic suspicions often, the fathers of our nation knew better and operated differently, recognising our diversities and differences as a people in the first republic.

These are the marked three naughty knots that must be untied in favour of an unrestricted, unrestrained, full growth of each nation's potential in favour of the greater Nigeria project now in progress – the document of faith on true fiscal federalism that will favour everyone but belongs to no one. Apology President Buhari – he could not have been more ironcally prophetic in this instance. This nation belongs to all of us, but no one or any ethnic group in particular deserves being unduly favored.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo failed selfishly on this challenge, because the finest of his intentions was damned-up behind personal gains and favours, in a political but subtle bargain to please a few, privileged and powerful. By such great omission on his watch, he was unconsciously eclipsing faith in the fate of the greater Nigeria project at a most auspicious time at the beginning of this democracy. Our immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan’s best of intentions and great efforts, political courage and questionable will, in convening the deeply-referenced national conference of 2014 was compromised by fate and time.

Mr. President, this sacred document is a must have article of faith and the honourable way forward, now on your watch. Let us stop shadow-dancing on the way forward to true greatness, please decentralise on your watch and lead our march into greatness. Growing our economy with an all-powerful center, where states go beggarly hand-in-cap for National-cake sharing in our new found progressive-revolution, without this sacred document is a wild-goose-chase, prone to the rule of men, hidden agenda and their caprices as our immediate past experience has eloquently revealed with trails of regrets.

The rule of law stands preferred, than the noise of men in power. Sir, think of the legacy after you. The late General Sani Abacha, in spite of himself, left an indelible legacy of six regions we can build on. In God we should always trust absolutely, not in men's best of intentions, no matter how lofty.

Fifty years after independence, our minds are still firmly grounded where our colonisers want us, very strongly-strung in their own-tongue, alienating our own-mother tongues. No nation can grow her own full potential in other people's tongues – indoctrination and their preferred highly priced education. On this, we are blindly competing and submitting to modern days glamorous slavery I reasoned, under the spell of our colonisers.We are  purchasing Western education at varying  foreign currencies to the detriment of  our own currency, instead of our homegrown education, tailored to our best needs but now left in tatters.

Our education must be salvaged from its present dismal ruins. Thanks to our elite class, the pony folk heroes of our time, who often set the pace or so it seems. We are aping white men in all intangibles and negligibles, ignoring their ingenuity in the true art of governing and the growth of a nation. For God's sake, what justification has a black man ridding RolceRoyce on our crater-ridden roads in the midst of empty stomach and pathetic looking faces of our people? In God they trust, while their Bibles are neatly tucked under their pillows and retrieved only in solemn supplications to God or gathering dust in individuals' privacy or as their heart desires.

We are flaunting ours, like we wrote a single verse of this most sacred document – Lord, have mercy! Yet, we are expecting to reap meaningful growth of our utmost potential. Instead, we breed leaders with inferiority complex and numb patriotism. Most simply feel nothing for this poor nation they reaped bountiful from.

Patriotism is better earned and manifests in the lives of citizens than taught in government or classrooms. We must sit back and reverse trends that have barely prospered nor kept us focused as a nation. The Chinese shut the world out to filter the unwanted global cultural values, they considered wrong for their people. They came out stronger and the better for it. Indians, Koreans, Singaporeans all did liberate their people's mind and now, they are all prospering, with no regrets. In fact, they have all earned the respect of their colonisers, as they are blazing the trails today in all human endeavours – walking shoulder high with their former masters, in some cases, more often surpassing them.

On our road to greatness, we are our own worst enemies. Our politicians, preachers and bankers are the worst culprits. That which they all have in common is squeezing water out of stone in heartless exploitation of the masses, and mind-bending. A nation cannot grow on her prayer knees and Halleluiya merchandising. The separation of church and state on your watch should be unambiguous for God's sake. All sorts of pilgrimages must be abandoned by all tiers of governments. It's wasteful, corruption induced and a subtle political bribery. We are a nation of prayer warriors, economically saddled in our rocking-chair in perpetual action but no motion.

Sir, bank on this fact in any currency, this nation will not attain any meaningful growth, until a revolution in our banking system is surgically done. Our banking system and other financial institutions operate a one-way favoured lane, leading to their personal vault, barring and caring less for most depositors nor the plight of this atrophied nation. Exploiting other peoples' money, ideas and they are steeped in inner-trading. This is alarming.

Bankers understudy to cut corners and undermine all budgets, exploiting loopholes to the hilt and ideas brought by entrepreneurs to be financed are very often commandeered or stolen, reaping where they sowed nothin. Methinks bankers should be pursuing the nation's economic interest and growth, not their own narrow-minded selfish ends as it's often the case now.

From the days of the import-licenced racketeering to fuel subsidy, all these abuse are on their watch, colluding and conniving recklessly with impunity. Even when our economy is in ruins, they have been known to declare doctored mouth-watering profits, craving God's blessing with filthy titles in our places of worship. If their Nigerian gods are pleased with this practice, methinks it should repulse our God and tax men. There ought to be more stringent laws to effect changes in banking to rescue the nation from financial vampires.

Our banks are steeped in the cesspit of most economic ruins plaguing this nation and it's high time their accomplices, the Mallams were taken off the streets in annoying, beggarly droves into a more civilised currency trading post and foreign exchange windows as obtained in saner climes. This must be enforced on your watch, sir. Facts, no financial crime can be committed without bankers and other financial institutions' complicity. Bankers revel and wallow in unethical practices in our land unabashed and often with impunity at the "cash and carry" instances of our regulating bodies. Banking should be a two-way street of mutual benefits for a nation to grow its economy.

Sir, the growth of national honor industry should henceforth be strictly censored. The yearly ritual of the purchase of national honour is quite a shame. Methinks the award of national honour will be more transparent, if held without any input on each government's watch. Awards should be held strictly by new government that could be more critical and impartial of immediate players in our national life, every four years or eight. Our nation is on her knees, yet we have chains of honour-roll unearned.

Our journey to greatness is long and winding and often twisted but the short of it, a clear compass on our road map to this great destination we are embarking on today. Sir, we need a pathfinder. Your cult following as you are broadly perceived as a righteous man, a true leader of the people, must etch a significant change in the lives of our people. Your teaming mass followers challenge you and our expectations are ripen on this great journey. Please, lead us fearlessly to the dream land of a greater tomorrow Nigeria. It is the least we deserve.

The last few years have been painful and grueling on the masses as commerce has slipped into a comatose. I am not discussing rent seekers here, let alone outright crooks or professional or the ever ready any-government-in-power experts, people who sweat and endeavour to earn decent living in all spheres of our life deserve more attention this umpteenth time around.

Let us earn that honour of the biggest economy in Africa. Sir, for real, what Nigerians are looking for and the whole world expects of us this time around is sincerity of purpose and true leadership to reign in the rule of law. Sir, mark my words, should true progressive disciples, who laboured for the victory of the moment, fritter or trade our collective gains for what individuals can get from this new dispensation, this progressive landmark victory, will later hunt them like the pain of a wound received in an excitement that eclipses it.

Caveat emptor! Indeed, buyers, be warned. It will be a great disservice to default on true fiscal federal restructuring on the watch of this present progressive government. It's an article of faith on our journey, a profound debt owed the new generation of Nigerians and generations yet unborn, otherwise, it will be like our nation died intestate without this article of faith if tomorrow dawns. I humbly submit.
-Omisore lives in Lagos

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