People tend to be familiar with “Change begins with me” during the current All Progressives Congress led administrationof President Muhammadu Buhari, which claimed to want to change the situation the country found itself under the PDP administration. President Buhari, who is termed “incorruptible”, “radical”, “ruthless”, and “wicked” by some Nigerians, has taken it upon themselves to fight corruption, insecurity and change a whole lot of narratives between Nigerians and the politicians.
To many people, “change begins with me” is a mere slogan, to me, I see it as a solution to all of Nigeria’s problems. The problems we have today as a country are multifaceted even though some try to limit them to a countable numbers such as ethnic and religious bigotry to mention the two major ones. But they don’t just end there, they are many but this write-up just mentioned two and will focus on them.
Looking at the two mentioned, ethnic bigotry has been and will remain an unsolved puzzle. Looking at how it has eaten deep into the heart of the average Nigerian, one will get the feeling that the country’s problems will never come to an end. Isn’t ethnicity the reason citizens of the country from all regions have a name they are called with, names which have some connotative meanings attached to it? A northerner is called an “Aboki” or “Malam” in other regions while an Igbo man from the East is called “Inyamuri” in the North. Yoruba too have their names which they are addressed within the two other regions.
That is just a simple shallow explanation of how ethnicity has affected us negatively.
Religious bigotry in the same vein is also doing a lot of harm to us as a country for it is in our veins. Politicians do use religion to campaign. Even though they are not religious themselves, and even though, at the top, they don’t care about your religion as long as you make it to their cycle of the so-called “elites”. You’ll dine and wine together.
All the aforementioned are problems that have not begun to see even an iota of solution. The measures, we, the people, the government, and other responsible organisations are taking towards crippling these problems prove ineffective always. Why is that so? Why do our intellectuals always rant about these things and even offer seemingly effective solutions yet, the country is always stagnant? Where did we get it wrong? Did we miss something important? Who is to blame for our failure?
The questions above are the frequently asked questions among our “intellectuals” who are desperate for the situation of this country to change. The questions need answers, but because of the difficulty people have in answering such questions, they turn out to be mere rhetorical questions.
Inability to provide appropriate answers to the questions asked is what led me to believe that the slogan, if truly implemented and given a deeper thought, can solve the country’s miseries. In Nigeria, we are not fond of shouldering responsibilities. We are people who mostly don’t want to partake in things that will help our communities prosper unless we are directly affected or are left optionless than just to partake or do the needful. There is this Hausa saying “in jifa ya wuce kanka…” I guess that is the saying that best depicts our lives in this country. We also prefer putting the blames on others rather than ourselves.
The Nigeria we live in today is a Nigeria where people will cry out to the government about the lack of drainages and later on fill them with trash. After such a criminal act, the waterways are blocked and the waters will decide to take new routes which might be their homes. They will again cry about the flood. Lives may be lost, properties will be damaged all because of our “I don’t care attitude” towards government’s properties.
We live in a Nigeria where we damage government’s properties wherever we come across them and when asked why such acts? The reply we often give is awful, “is it your property?” To be up and doing citizen in this country, you should be ready to face criticisms, you should be ready to be given an alien look. To be a good citizen of this giant (of Africa), one has to tighten one’s belt. It’s tougher than it seems.
We complain about crazy billing, yet, we do illegal connection of the electricity. In fact, not giving room for illegal connections of light, will lead you to being called all sorts of unprintable names.
We complain about unconducive classrooms in schools, and when our brothers, sisters, or children come home from school with fans, we never question them. We break benches, we spoil the buildings with filthy inscriptions, we burgle offices. We complain about every little thing, yet don’t make effort to change even the smallest of them. It looks like we derive much pleasure in criticising others and forget that we also have roles to play in changing the narratives. “Laifi tudu ne…” Is another Hausa saying that suits our situation in this country. My world! Our fathers have mastered this life, that is even the reason they give us these fulfilling words which are perfect representations of the life we live today.
Finally, the solution to our problems lies in our ability to shoulder responsibility and take the blame if you should. Contribute our quota to the development of this nation by changing a thing or two that needs change within our immediate environment. Pay no attention to the naysayers for you will come across many, do the needful even if you are alone, and above all be patriotic.Sulaiman Abba Aliyu,Kano
