By BASHIR ADEFAKA
We are in a world in which the patriots suffer resentment by many and those who have resolved on the treshold of rule of law get the worst treatment being straight people. See how people, who preach good and sincere citizenship, are mocked by people, who ordinarily have no other country they can run to for safety should they be allowed to destroy this only one – Nigeria – that they have but value not.
Imagine a world, where the richest (billionaire) Nigerian killer/kidnapper enjoy huge solidarity from learned, supposedly educated, members of the society and his case – after arrest with many of the arms and proceeds of crime recovered from him – has dragged for four years in court.
From grapevine, I once learned that those who have frustrated his straight and clear case hinged their hope on 2019, when they would have a change of government and work out his release from correctional custody.
I won’t talk about effort by the same elements, during #EndSARS, which saw to their burning down of the court building believed to contain evidences regarding his case. That is not to talk about many published news reports same elements aimed at blackmailing the Nigerian Police Force and State in solidarity with the suspected criminal under trial.
That is why when some Nigerian public commentators or analysts disparage their own country, its government, security forces and agencies to say we are in a failed state reason things don’t work, I just laugh. Yes, I laugh because I am confident about my belief that what we have is failed citizenship not failed state. You cannot have citizens, who curse their country daily and think they are connected with commonsense to have a Nigeria like United States of America where citizens wake up every morning and say “God bless America”, and work their talk in that regard.
Therefore, I say no, things are upside down the way they look in Nigeria because the people themselves have failed. It is only in Nigeria that I have seen – and I stand to be corrected (and such correction notwithstanding anyway) – that people take foreign aids in hard currencies to run down their own country under the guise of demanding for their rights but they never for once sought or even staged a protest for government’s failure to state out their duties that they should fulfill towards achieving a collectively grown better country that is truly Giant of Africa. Only here I have seen police arrest a vehicle for taking one-way, which is serious offence, and masses would mobilise against the security men to set the offender free. Even in other cases, from among the same society you have some bad eggs in the security agencies, whose behaviour is worst than to be tagged criminality. You cannot have a better, greater nation this way.
You cannot have a people, so complacent with imported goods and, as state officials you cannot take pleasure in sabotaging good government policies geared to making Made-in-Nigeria food, consumables and other goods by local farmers and manufacturers a success, and you want to have a better, greater nation. How can you take goods all the way from China or Germany to port in Cotonou paying all necessary tariffs without hitches only for you to force them into your own country without paying necessary tariffs at your nation’s border and you still call your Nation failed state exonerating yourself from the blame? You cannot have a people relegate their country to a society where things don’t work, and you still expect that you can have a great country. It is just impossible. As simple as to write alphabets A, B, C.
That is why in many of my writings in the past, I never pretended not to know the root causes of the problems that bedevil us as a nation struggling to rise from underdeveloped to developed status of a nation. What stops us from being developed country is we. No disputing that. If at 49 I am still looked down upon as a kid that should touch not ‘anointed’ of this indecent way of life, where we deceive ourselves to be in a civilisation, I can only say, if the deceived do not know they are being deceived, the deceiver surely knows he is deceiving others. This is the reason I find it difficult to take any money from people especially politicians, who I know that taking up their defence as media and publicity consultant will hurt, seriously, the name of my father, image of many great people that have had things in connection with me and put a snag on my company. I have been this extra careful that even opportunities I should have grabbed, I have had to reject them although I suffer poverty for it. But one day, those opportunities will re-present themselves and the providers of same will understand my innocence.
As said above, it is the reason in my recent works I showed no disdain in opening the evils that some religious, ethnic and political leaders perpetrated, which make our diversity that should otherwise be our strength a farce. To the extent that as a citizen with resolve to live life defending the truth and national integrity of his country, one looks like outcast in own land of birth. But, my consolation came when I stumbled over a set of advice that addresses these worries of my life. I then found out that, of a surety, one can never walk alone for standing on the path of integrity, which, for certain, is to take risk. Risk itself is the essence of life. Without risk, there can be no progress and development will continue to elude one all the days of his life.
The set of advice as copied shown below:
1. Take risks in your life. If you win, you can lead; if you lose, you can guide.
2. People are not what they say but what they do; so judge them not from their words but from their actions.
3. When someone hurts you, don’t feel bad because it’s a law of nature that the tree that bears the sweetest fruits gets maximum number of stones.
4. Take whatever you can from your life because when life starts taking from you, it takes even your last breath.
5. In this world, people will always throw stones on the path of your success. It depends on what you make from them – a wall or a bridge.
6. Challenges make life interesting; overcoming them make life meaningful.
7. There is no joy in victory without running the risk of defeat.
8. A path without obstacles leads nowhere.
9. Past is a nice place to visit but certainly not a good place to stay.
10. You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.
11. If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, then you haven’t done much today.
12. If you don’t build your dreams, someone else will hire you to build theirs.
13. If you don’t climb the mountain; you can’t view the plain.
14. Don’t leave it idle – use your brain._
15. You are not paid for having brain, you are only rewarded for using it intelligently.
16. It is not what you don’t have that limits you; it is what you have but don’t know how to use.
17. What you fail to learn might teach you a lesson.
18. The difference between a corrupt person and an honest person is: The corrupt person has a price while the honest person has a value.
19.If you succeed in cheating someone, don’t think that the person is a fool…… Realize that the person trusted you much more than you deserved.
20. Honesty is an expensive gift; don’t expect it from cheap people.
This is a very interesting post and I want everyone to benefit.
