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admin 2 May 2009 Writings 83 views 5 Comments Email This Post

Nigeria we hail thee

Our own dear native land

Though tribe and tongue maybe differs

In brotherhood we stand…….

These are the words of our former national anthem; our fathers sang this song as a mark of their commitment to Nigeria. One thing I want to bring out of this song is the sense of patriotism and commitment to the nation. The second line says “our own dear native land”. Unlike now, when a lot of things have gone wrong and Nigeria is now calling to obey and to serve our fatherland with love……. I have a burden for this land like many other young Nigerians who have publicly declared that.

I was with Deolu Akinyemi last week and he was emphasising his believe for this country Nigeria. Fela Durotoye said the same thing, Dayo Israel and a host of other young Nigerians who believe that this country still have the potential to be great. I share the same opinion with them also, but going by the current trend of things, one is tempted to move to a pedestrian of unbelief, but we will not allow that to happen. I like all the young Nigerians to also use whatever is in their power to speak out so that we will all get to the promise land together.

There are a lot of things that are fundamentally wrong with this country which we need to address, the nation will soon be 50 years old and we need to do everything to prevent her from crawling. Any nation that want to develop must first of all know and believe that their greatest asset is not oil, gold, bitumen, gas, or the strength of her military. But the greatest asset of any country is her PEOPLE. Yes her people! because no matter the abundance of natural resources the nation has, if VALUE is not placed on the citizens, all other things are just useless.

I was stunned to find out that a Nigerian ship was hijacked by Somali pirates with all the crew members on board for the past 8 months. Just recently the senators are now calling on all the security chiefs to appear before the house not even immediately but in the next two weeks. You will recall that a similar incidence happened to a US ship; the swiftness at which the Americans reacted to the incident was so commendable. Within 2 weeks they had their citizens back.

We have to come to a point whereby our leaders will have to place high value on the life of the citizens. What is happening in Niger Delta boils down to the same issue whereby the government has placed a lot of values on the mineral resources there more than the lives of the people living in the community.  I so much wish that our leaders will believe that the life of an average Nigerian citizen is worth more than an instrument of political violence to achieve their aims politically.

America, South Africa and Ghana are among few countries that has recently conducted a general election. One lesson we have to learn from this is the same value we are talking about. The countries value their citizens so their votes count. But in Nigeria, right in the presence of the electorate the “leaders” will be snatching the ballot boxes and stocking it with pre prepared ballot papers. This is an indication that zero value has been placed on the life of an average Nigerian citizen.

All the successful corporations in the world know this principle of HUMAN CAPITAL VALUE. That is the greatest secret behind their success; get the best technologies in the world you need men to drive them. I watched a documentary on China recently on CNN the president when asked “what is the greatest asset that China has” I was expecting to get a similar answer like petroleum, gold, rubber etc. but to my greatest surprise he said “the people of china are the country’s greatest asset”. Oh how I wish our leaders can say the same thing. Even when it is said, don’t we act contrary to what we talked about? I wish you will recall “90 minutes in Entibe” where Israel has to deploy their soldiers to rescue their citizens captured by the former president Idiami of Uganda. That is value placed on the citizen!

Jesus said in the bible that “your life is worth more than a sparrow”. If the divine can place a lot of values on human life what about human to human. The rate of torture by the police to extract information from a suspect in this country is alarming. This is a call to our leaders to    

have a look towards this issue so that the right development will take place in this country. Let us join hands to build this country; it is our own dear native land….. God bless Nigeria.

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