Let's Organise and Not Agonise!

I was discussing with a family friend over the weekend about Nigeria. The man, in his early fifties, is a Consultant Radiologist and a product of University of Ibadan. During the course of our discussion, he began to relive his experience at the University of Ibadan. He told me about how they were being served cereal and oats for breakfast, and chicken for lunch at the school dining hall. He described how he was able to buy a brand new car with his bursary award. Although, he wasn’t from a rich family, he talked about how he was able to buy designer clothing at Copperfield. In fact, his wife confirmed that it was the food that was been served at the University, that made her decide to pursue a university degree. After the conversation, I asked myself, why is it that all good things in Nigeria are always referred to in the past? Also, what has this nation offered children of my generation?

The discussion made me appreciate why the generation of Prof. Wole Soyinka are so bitter about the current state of Nigeria. I guess for my generation, we were born at the time, when the country was in steady decline. We only hear stories that Nigeria used to be good.
For me, I had always experienced interrupted power supply since I was born. Prior to my departure from the country, the last time we had pipeborne water in my house was 1991. So I have always seen boreholes as the norm. It was in my generation, that strike action by university lecturers commenced. It was in my generation that incessant fuel scarcity started. Nigeria produced university graduates in my generation whose qualification was not worth more than the paper that it was written on. My generation grew up in an era when “tokunbo” vehicles became the best thing after slice bread. As result of the systemic collapse of the nation, we became disillusioned. Every university student was always aspiring to leave the country after their graduation. Some even abandoned their university education to seek greener pastures overseas.

Having gone through all these, can my generation afford to sit and do nothing? My answer is NO! From my observation, it is clear that the struggle is in our hands, because there is no one that will fight this battle for us. The liberation of the soul of Nigeria lies in our hands. We need to rise up and save this country from the shackles of kleptomaniacs. It is for a fact that we make up the highest percentage of the Nigeria’s population. It is for a fact, that we are the largest population of age group in diaspora.

If we fail we to act then generation unborn will be doomed! The implications of our do nothing action will be severe. If we do nothing, we run a risk of having children who may never know that power can be generated from other source other than house generators. We run a risk of having children, who will think boreholes are the only source of water supply. We run a risk of having children, who will think queuing at petrol stations all night is part of everyday life. We run a risk of having children who will feel school closure as a result of university strikes is part of school holidays.

Despite all the challenges we have been put through, I still believe that my generation is very blessed. We are lucky to have grown up in the information age. The internet has now made the world to be at our finger tips. We are more technology savvy than our fathers. We have the level of exposure better than any generation before us. So, what is stopping us?

As a generation let’s begin to “organise and not agonise”