WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
I was honoured with an invitation to the launching of a book titled “THIS SHIP MUST NOT SINK.” The book and its content are a reflection of my perception of the Nigeria nation and it represents my position and stance on many issues that confront the country. In my stance with the author and the content of the book written by Sir AK Etta Peters, I borrow the title for my topic this week and create a reflection of the book for all Nigerians to see and reflect on.
When the weather condition becomes unfriendly, and there is an unabated wind on the sea, the ship crew becomes jittery; the more hit the ship receives, the more impact it takes from the boisterous wind, and the more likely it would sink to the bottom. Now, crew members are already deciding who is going down with the ship and who is taking the life boat to escape the sinking ship.
The ship in question is the nation Nigeria; getting hit from all sides non-stop. Our nation and only nation and regardless of our dispositions to its welfare, progress and sanity, the only nation we will always have to call our own and our home. Unfortunately, this dear nation has suffered dire attacks from within and without, but mostly from within, that have threatened its cohesion and survival; attacks that are grossly responsible for the economic challenges, the insurmountable insecurity and the disunity that is now a permanent feature of our national system. Nigerians, oblivious of the consequences of destroying the roof over their own heads have been busy for decades throwing stones at the glass house in the name of fights for lesser communities within the bigger community; we are fighting for religious communities, for ethnic communities and for political communities’ affiliation at the expense of the structure that houses these sub communities.
It got worse when the introduction of social media provided us with a greater tool to throw destructive tantrums at the nation under the guise of protecting or projecting our individual selfish biases on many fronts. The story of the destruction melted on the Nigeria nation via the social media over the last years and its consequences is laid open for all to see; and is grossly responsible for the inability of the nation to confront its many challenges; of course, a house divided against itself cannot stand. That is the reality of the Nigeria nation and the very bane of our development.
Years back, the United State of America predicted the end of our nation, referred to us as a ‘failed state’ and predicted the terminal end of our cohesion. What were our responses? Some of us backed the American, they voiced our support for the splitting of Nigeria, and listed reasons why we must terminate the cohesion of Nigeria. Rather than standing by the nation, as patriots that we sing every day in our Anthem, we set up machineries to aid the disintegration of the nation. We evolved the Boko Haram, the Biafra agitation bred IPOB and the ESN to effect a breakaway, the Yoruba Nation began to echo loudly from many corners, and some individual actors set up systems to echo the deficiencies of the nation to drum supports for antagonisms to the cause of a One Nigeria.
At the launching of the book, the chief launcher and a fervent believer in the Nigeria Project lamented the posture of Nigerians to the Nigeria Project. We see only what is wrong with our estate, we pick on the things that are not working and spend our energies and resources to amplify the same to garner support against our dear nation. We are bent on turning Nigerians against Nigeria and to a large extent have succeeded, with a large population of citizens now totally unconscious of our responsibility to protect and defend the unity of the country.
Nigerians of today spend the day and year round discussing insecurity, talking about inflation and roundly concluding that Nigeria is gone with nothing good happening in the country. Yet, this is the same nation that is experiencing the great agricultural revolution in the rice production industry; something we always thought is impossible, suddenly became possible as we can now produce and refine rice to feed the Nigeria population – regardless of the price. Suddenly, the era of railway transportation began to return to the country, and is still expanding. Nigerians can now once again after some decades travel by rails again. Yet, we would not see this because we have chosen to see only the negatives. We see the negative, talk of the negatives, spread the negatives, and create a rhetoric of a nation failing irredeemably until the nation becomes a jest of a nation, reflecting the image of it that we all created and propagated.
I quote from the book: “There was an important job to be done, and everybody was sure that somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was everybody’s job. Everybody thought anybody could do it; but nobody realized that everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that everybody blamed somebody, when nobody did what anybody would have done. Nation building is everybody’s business.”
Does that not reflect the reality of the Nigeria state; nobody is doing their part to establish the change we desire to see, but everyone is waiting to see the changes they are not willing and ready to contribute to. We spend the whole day round castigating those in government for what they have not done but fail to ask ourselves if we have done our parts as responsible citizens. We desire a united Nigeria but spend our time propagating tribal superiority and affiliations; spend our time arguing religious superiority and creating intolerance along critical boundaries; yet, turn around to blame some people in government for the disunity of Nigeria.
Imagine a people that saturate all available media with hate speeches targeting select ethnic groups, religious set; and enjoying the spread of the hatred they spread and the import of the messages they circulate, and then turn around to get worrying about the religious intolerance, the ethnic clashes and the resulting enmity that continues to polarise the country and make it ungovernable. Ironically, they suddenly frown at the operation of IPOB, ESN, Boko Haram, bandits and other separatist movements in the country and the harm they are causing to the system; the proceeds of the seeds they planted.
The nation Nigeria has passed through so much and has survived much more than we can all imagine, because we are designed strong. The Americans expected us not to exist anymore by now but here we are stronger than we have ever been despite the unique challenges and our due share of global trials. We are the giant of Africa and the entire world wouldn’t ignore our existence because we always stand strategically when global issues are in consideration. Despite all the naysayers’ submissions, we remain the power house of our black military power, the economic mainstay of Africa, and the unavoidable economic engine of the black nations of the world. Nigeria has seen developments that intimidate the globe over time, the World Bank, IMF and similar global development measuring institutions have recurrently given the country thumbs up over the last few years, and even security indices are getting better.
This ship will not sink. This ship cannot sink. Having read the book, I frankly listed the elements that Nigerians need at this crucial time to revive and set the country on the pedestal of stability, sustained growth, and development and an enviable position in the committee of nations both in our continent and the global village. Individually and collectively, we must shelve and abolish the projection of all our self-motivated biases, emotional attachments to sectionalism, to religious and tribal jingoism. We must play constructive politics that is prompted with spotless desire to install the best of candidates in leadership positions. We must all become ready to exert our part willingly in the re-negotiation, re-arrangement and reengineering of the Nigeria nation. This being done, we would all boldly be able to say, this ship, our nation cannot sink.
