The founding fathers of Nigeria had the vision of leading their people from the shackles of disease, want, ignorance and development to modernity. This vision they shared with great men like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Dr. Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia in the 60s and 80s.
This vision is aptly captured in the message of the old national anthem if the politically incorrect language is ignored.
"Nigeria, We Hail Thee" (1960-1978)
Nigeria, we hail thee,
Our own dear native land,
Though tribe and tongue may differ,
In brotherhood we stand,
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our sovereign Motherland.
Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign,
In peace or battle honour'd,
And this we count as gain,
To hand on to our children
A banner without stain.
O God of all creation,
Grant this our one request,
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed,
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed
QUESTION
To what extent have these aspirations been met by successive government of our nation? The brotherhood was shattered by a needless fratricide civil war where millions of Nigeria lost their lives. The war stained the “banner” handed over to us by our father, contrary to the vision of the founding fathers. A whole generation was wasted in 33 years of military rule- a period where truth and justices were literally on vacation.
We become a nation where the prayers of the founding father to build a nation where no man is oppressed, rang hallow. Oppressed typed our nation until people losing their freedom and even their lives by peaceful voicing opposition to government. Our government was born into this atmosphere of shattered hopes, surreal dreams, blurred vision and a bloody civil war.
We are weaned under the jackboots of military oppression, ethnic and religious strife, urban violence and finally “plenty”of want. It is this generation that has now been called upon to restore Nigeria to the original vision of our founding fathers. The challenges are daunting in the sense that we lack one of the most basic tools of any political endeavour – experience of good governance. The founding fathers had a very short period to actualize their dream/vision before the noble enterprise was shaken to its foundations. The generation of our fathers was wasted by military rule that of our elder brothers was lost to economic depression. But we are determine to succeed.
Today, we are literally back to where they are at independence, with the task of building a united, prosperous and peaceful nation still a dream. Unfortunately, time is not on our side, we are not at the dawn of our generation but at late afternoon, with the twilight about to set in as to be expected of a people with literally forlorn hope, Nigerian’s are importantly expectant. We do not blame them, it is the duty of government as the generation of leaders called upon to restore the vision to meet their aspirations.
It is possible to achieve modernity within a generation as the experience of Singapore that developed from a 3rd world country to First (1st) world country. In 30 years between 1960 and 1990 and subsequently that of Malaysia has shown. All that is required is a Leadership with Vision and political will. This is probably our nation’s last chance, as from the current global trend, it is doubtful if any nation will have another 40 years to experiment with government but as stated earlier, 40 years is more than a enough time for a nation to achieve modernity.
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