By
Olukayode Ajulo
(Being
text of address presented at “Nigeria Of My Dream” Symposium organized by
United Nigerians Forum at Thistle Bloomsbury Park Hotel, London on May 26,
2014.)
1. Greetings
2. I
feel greatly elated for the opportunity given me to address this very
distinguished audience. I must confess that addressing a gathering of very
distinguished Nigerians and non-Nigerians like this is not an easy task at all.
But my consolation and encouragement is in the fact that it is a speech about
Nigeria, a talk about the Nigeria we are all part of, the country of my
passion. With this, I am confident it is all about us all; about what course we
can chat for our future, our dear nation – Nigeria.
3. Nigeria
is a blessed country. We all understand to a large extent her history, her endowment,
her glory, her ups and downs, but I beg to remind you a bit of it before
proceeding. It gained her independence in 1960 and attained republican status
in 1963. It is a heterogeneous country with diversity of cultures and tribes of
about 250 ethnic nationalities with the Yoruba, Igbo and the Hausa-Fulani as
the dominant tribes. It is the most populated country on the African continent
with over 160 million in population. It is the 6th largest producer of crude
oil in the world and its rich and fertile soils speaks of its economic
viability, wealth and prosperity. All these attest to the fact that human and
material resources abound for Nigeria and these are the basic indices for the
development of any nation.
4. We
are not in doubt of the challenges we face as a people. Over the years, we have
been faced with the problem of mistrust among our people. I can affirm without equivocation
that Nigeria does not qualify to be regarded by all standards as a developed
nation as it is still categorized among the third world nations with
substantially all the indices that underlie an underdeveloped country. To state
it more clearly, everything that is synonymous with underdevelopment is
synonymous with Nigeria. Our hospitals have become mortuaries due to lack of equipments,
drugs and personnel; our universities lack the adequate facilities for adequate
manpower training and development and the graduates of these universities are
now regarded as half-baked; our transport system have gone moribund – our roads
are riddled with potholes and our airspace is unsafe to fly with incessant
crashes; there is high rate of unemployment; insecurity of lives and properties
has become the norm; there is no power to drive our industries making
investment difficult and occasioning industries to close shop. These and many
others may have propelled the description of Nigeria as a failed state.
5. All
have been identified as a product of the governmental failure over the years.
The bad governance of our leaders is what many if not all Nigerians have
identified as the overall cause of this gory state. For this, many Nigerians
have chosen the option of leaving the country to other countries of the world
and that is why we are here.
6. We
are here because we think we have a place of birth, we have an identity. This
identity is Nigeria. We are here because we believe solemnly and sincerely that
we can make a change, a change from where it currently is, a change for the
better. A new Nigeria of our dream, a Nigeria we can be proud of. We look forward
to a day when we can raise our heads tall anytime anywhere in the world and say
confidently: “I am a Nigerian.” Confidently because Nigeria would have been a
country known for good governance, comprised of people of integrity and
honesty, characterized by free and fair election, good standard of living of
its people, peaceful coexistence amongst others. This is the Nigeria of my
dream and the dream of many citizens of Nigeria home and aboard.
7. However,
that may just be all for many of us. We dream, we dream and just dream. We
dream of a better Nigeria, we dream of a reversal of the ugly woes that currently
betide us as a people. But what do we do about our dream. What? That is the big
question we should retrospect on.
8. A
couple of days ago, at the first leg of the inauguration of this Forum in
Abuja, my brother, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, former Media Aide to the late President
Yar’dua and Chairman of Editorial Board of Thisday Newspaper, in his speech
advised us to stop dreaming but begin to take responsibilities.
9. In his words “no country gets
changed by a bunch of dreamers who do not match their dreams with positive
actions. The Nigeria we all envision will only come about through the actions
of everyone in this room and not necessarily by our dreams. Nations don’t
develop by accident”
10. I
agree with him. But my agreement is not in totality. I believe we should dream
about a better Nigeria, but we should not stop at just dreams. Not stopping at
just dreams means that we must act, we must live our dreams and that is the
only way out of it.
11. The
world has witnessed great ‘dreamers’ who have left foot prints on the sands of
time. We are not unmindful of the dream of Martin Luther King, Jnr. He dreamt
of an America where the people will not be judged by the colour of their skin
but by the content of their character. His dream of an America free from
discrimination and racism of all sorts was not in vain. Today we can say this
dream is here. Mahatma Ghandi of India is an example that also comes in handy. But
these were not just dreamers. These were people who lived the dream and this
dream they lived with a committed citizenry and followers.
12. We
may not be there in Nigeria. In fact, we are not. Yes, we are not. This I am
confident about. I have met and interacted with thousands of Nigerians
including my social media friends and the feelers I get from them lend credence
to my assertion that we are not there. We are not there because today in the
country, citizens regard government as “them” and not “we”. There is disconnect
with the people. Specifically, I should let you know that of all the comments I
heard from my social media friends when I sought their opinion about this
discourse. The response is clearly a blame on the government – government
provided no school, no work, no hospitals, no security, no electricity, no
road, no law, no everything. Blames, blames and blames! They all blamed the
government. None, not just a comment to condemn the people, not a comment to
question what we the people are not doing right, what we the citizens ought to
do that we have left undone. And that is the problem. From the petrol attendant
in Wuse, to the orange seller in Akure, to the Civil servant in Port Harcourt,
their story has always been about a corrupt, ineffective and incompetent
government. The Nigerian government is corrupt is the clear report. But then,
are we the people free from this? Are we not also part of this corruption? If
we are free from this, what are we doing about it?
13. Government
is corrupt, I agree. But who are the government? There is infrastructural
decay, lack of water, electricity, health care, good schools. I agree to all of
these.
14. But
in the midst of all these, we the people may not be totally free from blame.
This is because even though we make the government we have been passive about
our desire. We can be active and make a change but we have chosen to be
passive. At different times, I have gone through the provisions of our laws
which enable us to be active. At the height of it, we profess democracy and
this is supported by our fundamental law – The 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Section 14 stipulates that the Federal Republic
of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social
justice. It declares that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from
whom government derives its powers and authority. That is not all, it also
declares that the primary purpose of government shall be the security and
welfare of the people. By the same token, the participation by the people in
their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the
constitution.
15. These
declarations are there, but what effect have we given to it. Have we activated
or given life to these declarations? No! Rather we have remained passive about
it all. But this is what we can do. I recalled at different times in the
history of the nation, the activities of many Nigerians. We cannot forget so
soon the efforts of our forefathers in the struggle for an independent Nigeria.
We recall the likes of Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi
Awolowo among others and we remember how hard they fought for our independence,
we remember they fought in unity and achieved it. This was at a time when the
existing environment did not clearly support their activities. Even in the most
recent of times, we are all aware of the fuel subsidy protest across the
country in January 2012, the call for the removal of Stella Oduah the aviation
minister over the 260 million car scandal. These demands were the demands of
Nigerians and we achieved it by our insistence. That is why I believe we can do
it if actually we face reality and dream less. We can do it.
16. Our
demands have however not been coordinated and consistent. In many cases it has
been half-hearted. Edward B. Butler once said and I quote “one man has
enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it
for 30 years who make a success of his life.” This expression captures in clear
terms our position in Nigeria. Today, we speak out about the ills, about the
challenges, but we do not bother to see how we can overcome this. We do not
think about how to address it within without looking up to the government. It
is the general attitude in the land for government to act on our behalf in all
circumstance, to do all we desire.
17. I
make bold to say this is a utopian dream. A dream that is not realistic and
that is why when we dream about a better Nigeria, we should dream alongside how
we as individuals can be better citizens, how we as individuals can be a part
of the solution to the problem rather than just speaking out about it. We
should take action on these dreams. Our task is to live out the dream; our task
is to support the government and the nation in our individual ways. Nigerians
find it easy to compare Nigeria with other countries of the world but fail to
take responsibility on how participatory and helpful the citizens and people of
such countries were to their government.
18. We
do ourselves and our nation a lot of harm by always looking at the government
as the problem. We only do ourselves a lot of good by being retrospective and
thinking about what we can offer. At my own personal level, I have a dream of a
better Nigeria but I do not just dream but I work for a better Nigeria. My contributions in a modest way I have made
and still continue to make as this is the duty I owe my country. A country I love
so much and passionate about. For I know above all things that there is no
place like home. For I dream about her and see that someday all corrupt
practices and abuse of power shall be abolished, national loyalties shall
override sectional loyalties, the security and welfare of the people shall indeed
be the primary purpose of government and the national resources of the nation
shall be harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good.
19. Terrorism
has found its way to Nigeria and it is sad in the history of the country, we
need to rise up and stop the blame gain, Terrorism is not a Nigeria thing, it’s
a universal problem and we must encourage our military to succeed in flushing
Boko Haram out of Nigeria. Our Girls must be brought back alive.
20. We
need to be discerning and separate politics from policy. Some of our leaders
are not helpful in realizing our Nigeria dreams and we need not sit back but we
must collectively speak against their parochial positions.
21. But
above all and in the midst of these dreams, I dream about what role I can play
within this and that is how I think we should dream. That is the way I want us
all to dream while we ruminate about the Nigeria of our dream. If that is done,
we will have the Nigeria we truly desire.
22. Thanks.
