By Abba Muhammad Tawfiq
In her tattered garments, the old woman shrieks out of excruciating pains alone. Without even an iota of mercy, her progenies are malevolent to her in all aspects. There is neither honesty nor good followership or rather citizenship in a substantial number of them. Some of them have become vicious bandits, terrorists, kidnappers; some are suffering from the deleterious sickness of kleptocracy; looting from her treasury solely to attain their insatiable desire for materialism and of affluence.
These beastly pernicious whims and delights are bred into the dear hearts of her younger children as they too set their minds with the view to following the aberrant footsteps of their elders, having no sincere affection and compassion for the senile Mother by indulgence in the follies of the elders!
Albeit the kind-hearted ones amidst the children come to salvage her, kissing her forehead with intensive love, the vicious ones and their vices will never cease to drive them to distraction only to leave the fate of old weeping Mother in a doom and gloom. What a horrible fate of a mother!
The deplorable story of Nigeria today is equivalent to the analogy of the prologue mentioned above. The ineptitude of those who have had the privilege to govern our country has mercilessly caused mayhem to the country in terms of development in almost all sectors in the nation.
This, however, is not because their neural tissues are devoid of intelligence but their failure to think widely cognitive beyond their narrow interests and selfishness in rendering loyal servitude to the nation.
It is pathetic that our youth, the anticipated leaders of tomorrow, recommend spearheading embezzlement and corruption in its broadest sense which they know will further impoverish the people and weaken our economy as a country. Our youths are increasingly developing a fondness for political offices or leadership, not really because they are looking forward to promoting good governance, ameliorating and fixing broken Nigeria. Thus, alleviating the plights of her citizens who have been subjected to untold hardship. Unfortunately, they solely seek offices to get wealthy swiftly, even at the expense of the masses. Their eyes are fixed at the attendant spoils of high office in all its negative manner: riding exotic vehicles and live a life of luxury–exalting kleptocracy to the apogee.
We are not created to weep eternally. The need to equip ourselves with honesty, patriotism and the spirit of good governance for the greater glory of Nigeria starts today and precisely now. Our toils and troubles shall only strive to mend by us coming together under one umbrella of unity and harmony. Having all hands on deck and keeping our tribal sentiments, religious bigotry, and regionalism will enable us to put our potentials to optimal use to figure out our problems without much ado and efficiently climb the ladder of success in halting Nigeria from wallowing in the misfortunes of the past.
We pledge to Nigeria our dear Mother. We pledge to Nigeria to be faithful, loyal, and honest. We pledge to serve Nigeria with all our strength, vigour and zeal. We pledge to elevate her honour, glory and unity to the zenith.
Oh my God! Are we really fulfilling these obligations? Biafrans, Hausa/Fulani relatives, the Oduduwa clan, It is high time we kept our differences and strived collectively for the betterment of our dear nation. The labour of our heroes past! Shall never be in vain. One Nigeria, one people, let peace_reign. Happy Independence day.
Abba Tawfiq can be reached via abbamuhammadtawfiq@gmail.com.
