DOES NIGERIA EVEN GET THE WHOLE IDEA?

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game”…Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 -1832) German writer and statesman.

Who’s looking at you?

You would most probably be relegated to the sidelines of intellectual gatherings and high-level discussions as a Nigerian in Nigeria if you remotely appear naïve of the game of football.

It may also interest you to know that in as much as you would probably do well not being anxious about what people think or say about you, trust me when I say that if you are privileged to at least have a glimpse of how people perceive you, you might as well be on the rare path of seeing yourself through other people’s eyes and you may have the infrequent opportunity to adjust some aspects about you, if indeed you must.

Take football for instance, to be a great football player, apart from having talent, which is not an absolute must, you should genuinely have a huge interest in the great sport, which of course progresses into passion, followed by sacrifice, and if you are in luck, you will stumble on a good coach that will try to bring out the best in you.

He monitors your lifestyle, supervises your training, watches your every game and keeps your career dreams alive as he blends your performance with a team of gifted players just like you, instilling in you discipline, humility and leadership, making you an apparently finished product of all round quality.

Hope I didn’t lose you there in the heap of football jargons; suffice to say we all need a coach to help observe our evolution, we all need someone to honestly tell us how we look when we cannot see ourselves, and who will criticize us perhaps in a productive way.

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are”…C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) Clive Staples Lewis was a British novelist and poet.

What is Nigeria to the world?

Although the entire world has impressively become a global village where messages are sent, received and exchanged with the speed of light, all nations including Nigeria have shared and enjoyed the spotlight for positive reasons and even otherwise.

Currently in this 21^st century there is virtually no secret whatsoever about any nation, the strengths and weaknesses of basically every nation are known if not to all, definitely to some.

For instance we know the United States is a world superpower with massive weaponry, diplomacy, intellectual research etc. We also know that Russia and China likewise compete for the number one superpower spot, which has constantly evaded them and caused series of diplomatic and espionage matters.

We know North Korea has a history of being power hungry and long to be recognized and also respected at the expense of her citizenry, in order to buttress people’s speculations, a controversial motion picture was even produced to reiterate the notion the whole world already knew.

We know that Africa has been constantly exploited and also dragged down perhaps owing to complacence due to her ignorance, corruption and greed due to illiteracy and lack of foresight, power drunkenness due to insecurity and fear of the unknown, and terrorism due to lack of love, which clearly disqualifies Nigeria from the league of world powers and changers.

Nigeria used to be respected for her agricultural products and her mineral resources which ranges from crude oil, gold, tin, bauxite, coal and so much more, but just as we said earlier about needing a coach, Nigeria virtually became a football player that practically relied solely on her apparent talents and didn’t want to be guided by a coach, and just as you would expect, the growth and development of a once great potential came to a stand still, literally.

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change”…Wayne W. Dyer (1940 – 2015) American Philosopher, self-help author and motivational speaker.

What do Nigerians think of themselves?

For the record, this is totally my opinion without prejudice and bias. I am sick and tired of people saying Nigerians are good people, come on, we really need to move past this, like what is the good worth when we can actually be great and incredibly awesome?

‘Good’ is a baggage, it wears you down to a state of complacence and some comfort zone thing. It appears to be some self-gratifying abode, which takes you far away from reality, setting one on the path of mediocrity.

Nigerians need to move past just reacting to issues, but also need to act intuitively by predicting the future the way the philosophers and world powers do, which is by making the future they desire.

What do Nigerians think of themselves? They are insecure because their role models were afraid and did not inspire them enough to make them believe that they can conquer the world without selfishness, greed and corruption.

In as much as indications have arisen that it is all about to change, it remains incumbent on Nigerians to amass the right quantity of courage and initiative to make something creative of themselves as the world is impatiently waiting.

“Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind”…Roy T. Bennett (1957 - … ) Zimbabwean politician and former member of British/South African police.

What is Nigeria’s true potential?

I’m sure you’re probably somewhat disconcerted, wondering if I cannot see the Nigerian heroes in diaspora, but that is the problem, why just diaspora?

Thousands of Nigerians are superstars in other countries, excelling in sports, medicine, science, law, politics, charity, education and so much more. When they were studied it was found that they performed greatly because they had the emigrant’s attitude, and they had a fine environment to work in, better than the one they had in Nigeria.

This in someway means either they are not really Nigerian’s anymore, or they eternally owe the western world all that they have achieved.

In essence, we have not truly achieved much until the western world can come to our shores and acknowledge that indeed we have surpassed their imagination with our own discoveries, and we not getting carried away by it, not just because it may be a deception, but also because in truth, humility, which is the character of the sages will make us sober, reflective and open minded in readiness for more wisdom which is yet to come into our souls from the infinite and heavenly source, with we being qualified as the gods that we are.

“At the end of the day the question comes what are you doing for the world? You have to try to do something that’s going to add something positive”…Paul Feig (1962 - …) American actor, director, producer and screenwriter.

What is Nigeria up to?

In the year 2050 Nigeria is tipped to be the 3rd most populous nation in the world, and trust me, this is not an achievement and obviously not good news even in the least.

Of the current 180 million people living in Nigeria about 75% live below the poverty line of surviving under N500 a day. The remaining 25% or so are simply fortunate based on the premise that ‘it is opportunity that separates human beings’. Statistics does in a way show that the wealth of the nation has somehow found its way to the wrong hands through corruption, thievery and other vices, vehemently altering the eco system where lions now eat grass and maggots, while the top of the food chain is reserved for ants, scorpions and snakes, how weird and awkward.

Wouldn’t you know, that ill-gotten wealth, through the natural order of things such as guiding principles that govern the earth, becomes toxic? Especially if the unforgivable act of robbery has caused great deprivation for the desperately needy, and which the act caused irreparable damage or even loss of lives.

How many truly wealthy Nigerians have clean money and have empowered youths and tried to sponsor research that will benefit the citizenry and their future?

This is difficult or impossible for them because they don’t really love the nation; they are only greedy and repressive.

When they expand their businesses, it is only to improve their bottom line and not primarily provide employment; they couldn’t do it alone in the first place, so they need us, as they cannot survive without contribution of the masses that work with their hearts.

Believe or not, this is the time for Nigerians to wake up and get up to reality for our lives and our future depends on it. We need to seek knowledge the way we seek to breathe air in order to realize that we need to understand and embrace the divinely set principles that govern the earth.

We surely must strive to genuinely love our neighbours as ourselves, only then will our eyes widely open and we will not only look, but we also shall see.

God bless Nigeria!

Thank you, and be awesome because you truly are.

Akin Abimbola.

Contact the author: (akinzogee@yahoo.com, akinzogee@gmail.com)

Twitter: @akinzogee

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Sources: Brainy Quote, CNN, Google, Good reads, Premium times, The light in the heart, The Magician’s Nephew, UN Report, Wikipedia

This article is an original piece, reasonably researched and contains considerable opinion and a unique style of the author.

The names in actual stories are not real and the stories in this write-up are fictional, consequently, people’s names appearing are purely co-incidental, except for quotes and news that are typically referenced.