SHAFEEQ UMAR SHAFYSOFY

THE NIGERIA OF MY DREAM

When I close my eyes, the Nigeria of my dream is a perfect one. I see in my dream, Nigeria as a friendly country. Communities co- exist without wars. Neighbours sit and sat outside their homes without fear of poison, violence or malice. The roads are free of potholes. Crops grow in their time and are allowed to mature before being harvested. Spring water is collected and bottled not some hastily treated gutter water, packed and sold to gullible consumers.

As soon as i close my eyes, life is easier; education is smoth qualitative and affordable, adolescents pay attention to improving their minds, preparing to makepositive changes in the society and becoming greater than their parent. Violence is non-existent. Cheating is unheard of, corruption is gone and prostituting is an old tale.

In my dream, I am not afraid of tomorrow. I do not look at the youths and wonder what their future will be! I do not educate them on how to stand for their rights and fight for them. In my dream, Nigeria is a land of equal opportunity. Whether a northerner, a southerner, a muslim or christian, prospects are open for all.

But then, as i woke up from my dream, the first welcome i got was a news flash: Bomb blast in so so place. I picked up the news paper and the face of a missing person stared at me.There is a noise that grows louder every minute. I listen, there is a quarrel between two neighbours;" who is is more corrupt, this  Minister or that governor?" I feel  sad, disappointed and grouchy. There is no water, there is no light. Corruption is on daily bases.

Then my fears return to the youths in the future. How will it be then? How can they escape the harsh environment that is Nigeria's reality today? I close my eyes merrily.....and Idream again.. ..I am very sure that all Nigerian youths have the same dream like me.

Shall we continue to dream and become blinds forever?

So i challenge and encourage my fellow youths not to close our eyes and continue day-dreaming but rather open our eyes and face the reality and look towards realising ourdreams!!!

Awake thou sleeping hearts............It starts with you

This is what we are denied during elections in Nigeria. I tell you, those who succeed in life are those who insist on making their own choices. As with individuals it is with nations. Nations that succeed are those that make their own choices. Citizens of Nigeria who are in fact the nation called Nigeria must insist on making their own choice in elections. The people's choice and consent make leaders to arise out of the people. The fraud and force of those with power make rulers to arise over the people. When leaders arise out of the people, they lead in respect of the people. When rulers arise over the people, they rule in contemp of the people.

The youths in particular must wake up to their responsibility. The youths are the people whose tomorrows are more than their yesterdays. We must not allow people whose yesterdays are more than their tomorrows desecrate our tomorrows. Leaders work for those who chose them. It is naive to think someone will choose your leader for you and the leader work for you and not for that person that chose him. The first responsibility of a child is to his mother. It is foolish to sell your vote and expect the person who vote it to still serve you. Now we are having power on our backs instead of besides up. Why? Because like the donkey which cannot choose its owner, we have not been choosing our leaders. To what have we sold our present and our future? To lies and dishonesty. Any wonder why our fortunes are what they are? Lies and dishonesty are empty oil wells and whoever invest in them can only drill barrels of hot air. The more politicians eat your money, the more they become mealy mouthed and the more they look mealy during campaigns.

Look at the present administration and you will understand what i am saying.

It is not only leaders that are irresponsible as most of us seems to think. Most of us are irresponsible people in this country. Leadership is irresponsible because the followship is irresponsible. The followship is irresponsible because the leadership is irresponsible. It is only in this country that no one can say he is a contributor to the national wealth of the nation.

This country to me is a bank. However, it is not the conventional bank you know, but a strange kind of bank. In this bank, when you look at the desk of the receiving cashier,there is no queue of customers paying in money. However,if you look at the desk of the paying cashier, there is a long queue of people shoving each other to be paid money they did not pay in. Because the bank is only paying, but never receiving, it will soon go bankrupt.

This country is a society of hunters and not of farmers. In a society of farmers,people pay tax to the soil - they till the soil and plant their crops which they harvest during the season of harvest. But in a society of hunters, no one pay tax. Hunters go out with their bows and arrows,sticks, catapults,spears and guns to shoot wild animals they do not know how they came to be in the forest. Those with guns and great hunting skills are likely to return home with more games than those with mere sticks and poor hunting skills. Those with poor hunting skills knowing they did not breed the animals that were shot, dared not challenge the great hunters that are about exhausting the animals in the forest. In a society of farmers, let anyone dare go to the community farm and harvest all the crops to his barn and see what the response of the farmers would be!

Reason with me!!!

    In view of the prevailing dialogues on the need for nation-building, I consider it compulsory to my personality to make a brief analysis of Nigerian ideologies and demonstrate their existence and the need for reorientation.

In my humble opinion, the view that Nigeria has no ideology is not only an erroneous view but it is a misconception arising from palpable ignorance of cultural anthropology. Nigeria has an ideology. For there is no racial or cultural group exists without an ideology.

Ideology is a systematic body of concepts about human life or culture. It is the manner and mannerism, content of thinking, character and the characteristic of an individual or a groups. It implies the integral assertions. In other words, the complex of philosophical abstractions and sociological realities which express Nigrian epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and eschatology constitute Nigerian ideology or what should be identified as NIGERIANISM.

  To avoid ambiguity, since many people have been discussing this intriguing topic of "ideology,' I think for the sake of laxity, that I should enunciate precisely what I have at the back of my mind when I expound the need for re-orientating Nigerian ideologies.

By using the expression societal reorientation, I imply a change of attitude in human relations or a fresh approach to Nigerian epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, eschatology, and other aspects of Nigerian culture. With this dialectic on the semantics of ideology, I will now expose myself to the lecture.

My thesis is based on the proposition:"That Nigeria has ideologies, particularly in the field of politics, sociology, economics, jurisprudece, philosophy and religion, among many other disciplines. Therefore, reorientation is all that is necessary to adopt them to contemporary concepts and criteria"

In expantiating same, I will reconstruct the story of our social institutions, as published by experts.

In order to appreciate the importance of reorientating Nigerian ideologies, I consider it advisable to make a brief comparative of same with those in vogue in the so-called Western Democracy. In doing so, i hope that i will not be misunderstood as making value judgements. Rather, I intend to demonstrate the inherent strenght and resilience of indigenous Nigerian ideologies to warrant an adaptation, where necessary, to modern concepts, norms and practices.

♥  In the realm of politics, Nigerian democracy, on the whole, is a representative government of the generality of Nigerians, by elected or selected councillors, who represent their kindred or families and who comprise elders or tided persons, irrespective of their station in life, for the western democracy is government of the people, by their elected or selected representatives, comprising socially-stratified leaders, for the welfare of the electorate.

Is, concilliar, in the sense that is apothesises collective, as distinct from individual, leadership and places a premium on election, discussion, dissent, and consensus, as basis for crystallising the popular will.

The leader is, therefore, a democratic interpreter and not an autocratic ruler. The Western system of democracy footers autocracy in the individual leader and worships the strongman or woman executive, whilst the eastern system promotes authoritarian rule and thus fertilises the soil for totalitarian.

♥ Socially speaking, Nigerian social ideology is altruistic. It is devoted to promote the well-being of all members of Nigeria. The extended family system regards Nigerians as children of a common ancestry. Thus, each kindred is responsible for the welfare of the families under its protective umbrella(not that of PDP), irrespective of sex, tribe or religion.

♥ Nigerian jurisprudencedepends upon the principle and practice of equity. It is based on the concept of settlement of disputes by conciliation. It emphasises the need for amicable settlement of dispute by mutual compromise. It discourages litigation which could lead to arbitration with its undesirable social consequences. In its operation, the machinery of Nigerian justice shuns technicalities but places more emphasis on redress, impartiality, reasonableness and fairplay.

Instead of relying on cunning, wit, and subterfuge to administer justice, the pristine legal system of Nigeria seeks to prevent the perpetration of injustice and to enthrone equity, on the understanding that no person should be unjustly enriched or denied the elementary principles of natural justice or allowed to escape soot-free from the natural consequences of any criminal act committed.

......................................................To be continued!

Shafeeq umar a.ka. shafysofy