Nigeria –Yesterday, Today and The Day After Tomorrow (The Way Forward).

green road map

¤INTRODUCTION.

First of all, the aim is not to attack anyone. This is done to ameliorate the problem we presently face in the society. It is to make us see truth in our actions. To be frank, let’s stop deceiving ourselves with that ‘E go better’ mantra. How will it get better when our actions, attitude and behavior makes it worse? From the Common man on the street to the politician in the Office, we are all (knowingly or unknowingly) contributing to the executive process of destruction as designed.

That aside, the cotton no longer fits Omoye, she is already naked at the market square — Things have fallen apart. And to bring back the Good old days, all hands must be on deck. The nation is drowning and it hasn’t been rewarding for us as shareholders. We’ve all been stakeholders in this spoil, we therefore must begin to Plan for a Brighter Rewarding Future (in Fashola’s Words).

They say your Sunday is better predicted from the outcome of your Saturday. Nigeria at the moment is witnessing an Unfortunate Saturday, should we begin to predict a similar Sunday? To solve this, one question we need to begin to ask ourselves is—what does tomorrow holds for us? Hmmn… Wait! Let’s talk a sharp look at ~Our Yesterday.

¤OUR YESTERDAY.

First Prime Minister, Tafa Balewa (R)

To say but a little, Nigeria is a country suffering from high decadence of History with about 70% of her antecedents undocumented. I was asking my younger brother one time ago if he knew anything about the ‘notable’ Alvan Ikoku. All he could say about him was about his picture encrypted on the 10naira note. He couldn’t say much about him. Was he a politician, business tycoon or a Military officer? It’s not just my brother, and not just about Alvan Ikoku, so many Nigerian youth have no answer to this question. It shows how neglected the Nigerian yesterday has been.

Ofcourse:

Yesterday is gone; forget about it.
Tomorrow doesn’t exist,
Don’t worry; today is here,
Let’s carry on.

Hmnn… this is the sweet poem we were trained with. This is the philosophy how our Daddys, Mummys and Aunties have given us — to forget about yesterday and a tomorrow that doesn’t exist? So don’t blame us if we are now roaming the street without ambitions. You made us.

In America, every detail of the antecedents is evenly recorded (even up to the first chief cleaner in the white house *lol). In contrast with Nigeria, little can be seen on paper (just oral literatures). This why some politicians can come to tell us that Buhari killed Fela’s mother and we will all believe. The same reason why an average Igbo youth won’t see his point of relation with an Hausa- Fulani brother and vice-versa. Yet, the Government is deciding to remove History from the secondary school curriculum. Smh… I wonder what will happen when all our old men dies ( the History is going to die with them). Behold! A nation without History.

History is very important. It is the tool that helps to measure the past and correct the Future. Without it, we will go nowhere. Am afraid, the continuous negligence of history will continue to strengthen our backwardness and disunity. This has led us to ~Our Today.

¤OUR TODAY.

The choice of this topic is in perfect monochrome with the happenings in the today’s society. The Nigeria of today is in a state of cataclysm and it is not a day to be happy about. A day filled with high level of corruption, tribalism and nepotism, economic recession, indiscipline and insecurity, environmental degradation and, to crown it all, bad leadership and followership. We all know how we got here. There is no need flogging around the bush. But If our today looks this shabby, our Tomorrow is absolutely a mirage. If tomorrow is a mirage, what then can we say of the Day after Tomorrow – where is the future?

¤THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

Today is bad
Tomorrow is a mirage.
What is the day after tomorrow?

Mathematically, the environmental solution to a better Tomorrow lies within Today. So then, the solution to a better Day after Tomorrow lies inside Tomorrow. We need to Make up our mind. Desist from all unethical behavior and attitude Today to rescue Tomorrow. if Tomorrow is clean, then we can begin to look forward to a brighter Day after Tomorrow. In truth, ‘#ChangeBeginsWithYou and I #IstandwithBuhari on this. There is need to wage ‘War Against Indiscipline and Corruption’.

¤INDISCIPLINE AND CORRUPTION

President Muhammadu Buhari

Many will define Corruption as a deliberate misuse of public trust or fund. But this definition limits the scope of corruption to just finance and monetary issue. It should be expressly captured that corruption is a deliberate attempt to alter or tamper with the generally agreed norms and values of a particular community.

Therefore, the level of corruption in a society is determined by the strength, power and guidelines of the law of the given Society. In a land where there is no law, there is no offence. The laws of the land need to be strengthened. Corruption can be classified into six (6);

–Legal corruption.
–Political corruption
–Economic corruption
–Bureaucratic corruption
–Moral corruption
–Spiritual corruption

Legal corruption is the highest on this hierarchy. It all starts from the corruption of the spiritual mind – lack of fear of God. The Moral standard becomes influenced too, then the Bureacracy. Economic corruption comes as a result of a polluted bureaucratic system – when protocols can be easily bridged. This strengthens the Political aspect of it – which is the deadliest of them all. The political corruption is so strong that once it gets hold of the Legal system, it dominates the Society.
Therefore, we need to retrace our steps. Fighting Corruption is everybody’s business. As part of my recommendation, our moral standard need to be restored with;
–Fear of God
–Accountability
–Good leadership and followership
–Respect for the rule of law.

All these should be encrypted in the new War Against Indiscipline.

¤WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE.

Sometime in August, in a statement through the Head of National Orientation Agency (Mr. Garba Abari), the FG spoke about restoring the WAI brigade of 1984 but little has been seen of it yet.

»»
‘The idea is to deploy 170,000 volunteers across Nigeria to wage Mr. Buhari’s new Campaign against “indiscipline”’
««

Many have argued that the re-enactment of the WAI agent will be brutal and may practically not solve the problem. But if cajoling and small pressure wont make people change, isn’t it better we enact the use of force?

Please, Share your views about this in the comment box below.

Ola-lawal Muzzamil Oladayo is a freelance (creative) writer. Studied Linguistics at the University of Ilorin, Ilorin.