Quo Vadis, Nigeria? – When a Nation loses it’s way –
By Hon. Chinedu “Samba” Nwadike
It is abnormal to be normal in a state of nature that is abnormal in essence.
A society that has no patriotic and responsible youth is on code blue.
Hon. Chinedu “Samba” Nwadike
I recently just visited Nigeria for two weeks and I was shocked at the fact that our Esteemed Princes and Princesses are continuing to live outside the “Palace” that is their home.
Nigeria is a country that is gifted with multi-ethnicities rich in culture, population advantage, and natural resources but so famished in the provision and sustainability of a credible structure for a better tomorrow. I observed an annihilation of a progressive society orchestrated by bad leaders instituted by highly irresponsible citizens. Here, the dream and reality of common goal is a vice to be isolated. Indeed, a circle of doom. The whole place is polluted with poor environmental responsibility as people dump garbage recklessly and indiscriminately. Not even in those areas considered to be “gated” by the higher-level inhabitants, the powers that be. Highways littered with endless mounds of debris that have turned to city decorations at the expense of health of the people. If the saying, “cleanliness is next to godliness” were to hold true, then I wonder what would be said of or what could be made of present-day Nigeria and how far away from it, potentially, that God is.
I was fixated with the question of “what is the hope of my country when there is no healthy environment?” An unhealthy space is an incubator for a sick population. To think of the life expectancy of Nigerians is to imagine the horror of Covid mortality rate when there was no reliable treatment. It is evident that the social determinant of healthy living is extremely remote from the poor who contribute to 99% of the population.
Night has become day as young girls (teenagers & adults) struggle to survive at the table of “trade by barter”. By all means of Machiavellian principles, they have tied their survival to using what they have to gain what they need. Society has forced them to be crucified on the cross of shame, thus living life with no dignity. To erode the shame of irresponsible living, their trade got baptized and was renamed, “hustling”. Nevertheless, the proceeds from this gives minimal hope to their families who may not be unaware of the means or sources of the procurement of these basic needs by their “hustling” daughters. To many of them, it invokes the survival mode or idea of “give us this day, our instant noodles”.
A society that has no patriotic and responsible Youth is on the fatal status of code blue. Thus, death is imminent if no resuscitation is activated.
The society is coated with mandatory acceptance of irresponsibility as constitutional right of every citizen, since nobody wants to be responsible. Therefore, it is abnormal to be normal in the state of nature that is abnormal in essence.
The inhibitory receptors of responsibility are so strong that one basically has no choice but to dilate for the influx of abnormalities as a culture of a people. In this state of nature, the laws of physics are reversed in the sense that like poles attract.
The decay is systemic, highly invasive in the space that even the law enforcement department is too crippled to make a positive and sustainable change. Instead, they (Law enforcement) have become torchbearers of corruption and valiantly carrying the armor of “say no to responsibility” as they engage in the hustling of taking bribes – again, a necessary evil for survival.
If the head is corrupt, then what is/where is the hope of a better society? Suffice to say that everything is moving in the wrong path and the culture is not dynamic enough to accommodate a more positive change, but consistently holding unto self-mutilation.
Quo Vadis?
Nemo dat quod non habet is a Latin maxim that means, “you cannot give what you don’t have”. When a society has no value system, that society cannot hold. Thus, like a ship in an ocean sailing without a navigational order, it will have no destination.
With the end of military junta in Nigeria, we celebrated the kumbaya of “democracy” – that is supposedly a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It is a system of government that holds freedom and responsibility as tools of building a healthy society. It is a system of government where the citizens hold the leadership accountable with their right to vote.
We all came out of the street screaming “Eureka” and welcoming the epiphany of reconstruction, building a solid structure for a better tomorrow. Unfortunately, instead of growth and development, we are still inhibited by the socio-politico-economic malnutrition. Our dream-reality of “the dawn of new” got aborted by the same people that welcomed democracy right before our eyes.
Election is around the corner, hypnotic posters of good governance have invaded our space again. The deceptive echoes of “hope at last” are once again challenging our reason. Money has come out to buy our conscience and distract us with short-term target palliative of rice, tomatoes, akara and Ankara packed in the Trojan horse of horror.
The only hope of the citizens to have access to the dividends of democracy is assured by the right to vote unhindered. Let the people rise up to resistance and reject hospice as the only treatment when the prognosis is based on the right treatment. Freedom is now or never.
This is not the time for us to remain buried in the toxic waste of ethnicity, religious zealous syndrome and others. We must stand up with one voice for the change to be. The change must start from us as citizens so as to produce a changed leadership out of us.
So much for now.
Chinedu “Samba” Nwadike.
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Hon. Chinedu “Samba” Nwadike is a free thinker and conscientious advocate for social justice and transformative change. As President of Prestige Club USA, one of the most influential African Diaspora social clubs, he has led numerous initiatives that have fostered social change and uplifted the less privileged.
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