Whilst addressing stalwarts of his
political party over dinner, the Nigerian President revealed an insight into
his thought process when making the statement he was in no hurry to do
anything. He in one breath prised open a
dissonance between him and the governed, his past promises of change and the reality. Whilst
the President may affect imperviousness and lethargy masked as thoughtfulness
and consideration, the youths of Nigeria are not fooled. Some might suggest that It only goes to disguise
his helplessness and the out of depth with national issues at hand and
conundrum we face as a nation.
Now I let you into my own personal story. After my father’s death, young and helpless, impaled by grief, immobilised by
circumstances with odds stacked up in my path. Progress, development and
chances of a break-through in life became greatly diminished. A Harmattan
period laced with heavy fog filled the skies above and the Saharan fuelled dust
choked out any hints of hope. But in the darkest of hours, something planted by my mother kept the
flame of hope burning and alive.
My own history challenged me that the walls
of dissonance and insensitivity can be torn down but that task is never easy. True progress will require constant work and sustained sacrifice. Today with the
apparent concern of many youths about the progress of Nigeria I project my
story on to its problems, its frustrations and its tragedies with an unstinting
belief that it can and will overcome.
For twenty-three years, I dwelt abroad in
my early youth, but not too distant from the scene of Nigeria’s devastating
stagnation and pervading cynicism. My relatives and friends ensured that I maintained
a watching brief through my regular visitations.
So today in this write up I sound a
clarion call to the youths of Nigeria, those who are dissatisfied with the
current status quo and raise the following rhetorically. With many doubting
that this government can address the potential of the question called
‘Nigeria’, to those who assert that our country will only end in sorrow and
tears and blood, this piece challenges that assertion.
In 20I0, I lost my beloved twin,
Folashade Feyisara and was convulsed and imprisoned by grief, more traumatic
than the loss of my father and it took me so long to recover from it. My life
was in shambles and it took prayers and counselling to arrest my slow descent
into depression and to set me free from its shackles. My work and ministry were
affected and it appeared there was no way forward, as I stumbled around blindly
and into a wall of darkness. Today I still continue to feel the effects of her
absence, the power of the present silence of her voice, one so complete and
assuredly speaking to us from the past.
My country Nigeria has also faces so many
traumas, so many false dawns and is in a slow decent into anarchy. I believe it
can draw a leaf or two from my present circumstance. So today the ownership of this piece really
belongs to the long suffering Nigerian youths, those who are subjected to the
daily scandal of mis-governance, clannishness, to those who deserve better
healthcare, to the child who has a right to decent education and also the
family who simply want to live in security.
The pathway ahead for the youths remains
hard, your ascent steep, and you may not get there with one election, but I am
filled with more hope now than ever before that you will get there and you will
reclaim our voice. I do not in a thousand years suggest that piece conceived in
the depths of my anguish with this current administration should end in the social
media. But I am certain that this piece
can create a space and awareness for the youths to challenge the status quo
make the change Nigeria so badly requires.
So today to the youths I urge, realise the
coming election of 2019 is your chance to reclaim your voice, to answer the
call, for this is your moment and this
is your time. By default, you have had bad governments because you have allowed
the past and present rulers to operate on the unending margins of despair and
apathy. They acquired power not because they had a genius about them but
because you were asleep in deep slumber and the coalition of progressives was
fractured.
In the past, I have made reference to the
template of President Obama, the improbability of a black man becoming the
President of the United States. I have provided a nod and wink to the near
impossibility that was overcome when the first man was sent to the moon. The
obstacle that Apartheid presented and the dismantling of it without a
bloodbath, the impregnability of the Berlin Wall which came tumbling down! I
therefore lay down a challenge to the cynics who claim that Nigeria is an
impossible case and that without your abject surrender to corruption and its
accompanying violence you simply do not have a chance at mounting a challenge
to the status quo, represented today by the duopoly of political parties.
I ask what do you have to lose by trying?
I suggest you lose more in not trying at all. I go further to state today that
by helping the people find their voice across Nigeria, from Sokoto to Lagos,
Kwara to Taraba, Borno to Imo, Cross River to Kano, beyond tribal loyalties of
the Hausas, Efik, Fulanis, Yorubas, Ibos, Ijaws, Tivs, etc., we will be able to proclaim with
all certainty and voices soaring above the skies of Nigeria that your time has
come!
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