HAPPY INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA, BUT...

ANNIVERSARY EDITION

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. ”…Nelson Mandela 

I have a dream!

Literally, I had a dream, and believe it or not, it was as real as can be. What has my dream got to do with you and perhaps life generally right? 

Remember! Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr. had a dream a long time ago, and of course we might as well collectively agree that despite how unlikely it was for it to come true, it has very well come to fruition.

His speeches widely acclaimed as eloquent and inspiring, though ambitious and unlikely, eventually lived up to its creed, bringing illuminating colour to the co-existence of once feudal “races”. 

I don’t blame you if you are remotely interested in knowing whatever dream I might have had, like it matters-ish, just as the modern youths would say. However, you know the drill, patience has it’s perks.

“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery”…Wayne Dyer

Apparent Slavery

October 1st 1960 is to Nigerians just the way July 4th 1776 is to North Americans. A breath of fresh air, and a deep sigh of relief from foreigners that colonized your land, and also had the guts due to their evident possession of superior war equipment, enslave your people and even shipped a large population of your people, both grand fathers and mothers to their lands far away across the deep blue seas.
It ever hurts us for a different race to lord over you while they violate and humiliate you, constantly giving you the impression that you are way inferior, hurting your ego and virtually killing both your self esteem and the apparent weaklings among your lot. Keeping in mind the saying that if you are not used, you cannot be useful, I then gently ask, in all of this, what have we learned?

“When we were children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind”…Patrick Rothfuss

A whole new view

You will surely agree with me that Africans are generally nice people, especially when there is enough to eat and other material stuff are around to satisfy the inherent lucid fantasy they crave. 

Africans have also generally moved on, not necessarily because not all of us are quite familiar with history, but we also have this attitude of who cares so far you dedicate your life to the struggle for survival, although in all of this, there is one thing we did miss, we let our guard down.

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know”…William Wilberforce

Modern Slavery

The western guys are either very smart or we gave them the impression that we’re stupid, which of course technically makes them smart still, only smarter by the way. How can we still under-estimate a bunch of people that spent a lot of time and resources, and also risked their lives to come all the way to Africa to enslave us, and then freed us? If you think about it critically, you’ll find out that there is definitely a much bigger plan in the wraps.

Have you ever been tempted to take advantage of a naive person especially when you realize he’d probably just get hurt and won’t actually die, of course you’d go for it like a boss. This scenario is kind of like that.

These guys make you feel that you don’t amount to nothing, thus beating you up psychologically. They carefully rob you of your self-esteem, trust me this is a well thought out plan, with they having in mind your naivety and innocence. 

Then they play good cop, bad cop, running to your rescue when you’re neck deep in the water which they meant to drown you in, then you cannot do without your (feigned) hero.

“With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone”…Oscar Wilde

It's The Wisdom Age…Baby

Maybe you should google the transition of ages, where you’ll find that man started to exist from the stone age when rocks were struck together to make red fire, then unto the agrarian age when man accidentally planted a seed that grew to be a fruitful tree, and on to the manufacturing age and then the jet age where information travels at the speed of light.

Now we are in the wisdom age where the smarter economies and world power exploit the rest of the world to replicate the more recent of the ages such as industrial, in order to add to their bottom line and maintain their complacent lifestyle having completed the apparent viscous cycle and have climbed to the top of the food chain.

Tell me why would a country like Nigeria ever need loans from economies that hardly ever directly produce anything? They just manage the resources of other nations. Maybe you should google Nigeria as well. She’s the most populous African country with an estimated 170 million people. One of the largest producers of crude oil, great soil for farming, greater weather to relish, smart people, virgin lands and economy, future growth potential etc etc

It's a brain wash, a reversal psychology of a kind, and all we are doing is watching all our wealth go away like we have no use for it.

We have let religion, pride, hate, envy and foreign culture over-shadow our very lives, only for us to embarrass our ancestors, come on guys, we can do better than that.

“The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable”…Seneca

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Did I mention that I had a dream earlier? Oh yes I did!

Is it a cause for worry and much concern? Perhaps, but we need not fret, rather it has however become more imperative than ever that we became more pro-active.

I have a dream, several dreams actually, that we will eventually emancipate ourselves from mental and physical slavery and our folks abroad will come back to their roots.

This is actually possible, but we have to be sincere with the work in our hands, and with fingers crossed of course.

We need to work hard, embrace emotional intelligence and build our self esteem by believing in ourselves and also searching up knowledge by we ourselves for the pure intent of benefitting mankind. Trust me, it is possible, and interestingly, it is up to us. 

Happy Independence anniversary Nigeria, you shall surely be great again.

Thanks for reading.

Akin Abimbola. (akinzogee@yahoo.com, akinzogee@gmail.com)

                          Twitter: @akinzogee

                          Facebook: Critical Lyric by Akin Abimbola

Did we make your day? Spread the word. Tell them it happened here. 

Become a fan, follow and share.                   

You can be a critical lyricist!

Talk to us.

What did we miss?

What do you think?

Be grateful for being alive and let your content flow…

Sources: Google, Good reads, Wikipedia, Brainy Quote