"By the time you try to defend a
child in court, the battle is already lost. The real fighting starts in the
classroom”...Erin Gruwel (1969- ) American teacher known for her unique teaching method.
The
Basics
Everything has an inception, just like Genesis.
Everyone has a story, and also, every story has a back-story, and on and on
like that.
The point here is that nothing just
happens, there is always a reason for something to occur, just as smoke doesn’t
just embark on its ill-fated journey into the wide skies without fire beating
the drum it dances to at its base.
Here at the basics, it is just quite
pertinent to note the urgency and importance of knowledge and the empowerment
of people.
When representatives of government rise up
to their responsibility and give the people a voice and deserving opportunities
to thrive, there is bound to be prosperity in the land, and people will hardly
think of planning evil when they are busy finding fulfillment in their dreams.
“Lay not wait, O
wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, spoil not his resting
place”…Proverbs 24:15
Robbery
in plain sight
Africa is a very interesting continent,
blessed with vast resources, but lacking good heart, direction and skills to
optimally harness her resources.
Nigeria however stands out very visibly
like a sprawling tower from the pack, a country of about 200 million people
with practically nothing to show for it, especially in comparison to her age,
size, resources and human capital.
Only about 20% are perhaps adequately
educated due to their privileged background and lifestyles, about 70%
unemployed even though influential government officials loot the national
treasury and use it to create employment in other countries. 80% live in
extreme poverty, even as it is well known all around the world that Nigeria is
one of the highest producers of crude oil, palm oil, groundnuts, cocoa and
other amazing products and resources due to her rich and vast land and
wonderful climate. And about 90% lack good medical care, even the President
travels abroad for healthcare, talk less of the countless privileged other
Nigerians that spend an estimated $100 Billion on healthcare abroad, and this
is despite the fact that Nigeria churns out brilliant doctors each year and are
employed and respected all around the world.
Why these appalling statistics for an oil
rich nation you may ask. Its simple, surprisingly it isn’t illiteracy,
Nigerians are known to be academically sound both home and abroad, it also
isn’t lack of awareness, Nigerians in the diaspora outnumber perhaps every
other third world country combined due to their resilience and curiosity for
adventure to other lands and their resolve to bring their knowledge and
resources back home.
“To sin by silence
when they should protest makes cowards of men”…Abraham Lincoln. (1809 - 1865) 16th American President.
A school of thought agrees that it is the
non-mix of our culture with democracy and justice, the discord we permitted to
divide us along tribal and religious lines, the sloppiness we bring to equity, the
favoritism we habour that makes us place emphasis over mediocrity in a bid to
celebrate it, and systematically downplay intelligence, not realizing that we
have altered our own destinies by tampering with the eco-system, all combined
have rendered us virtually impotent.
Look at the unions, what do they really
fight for, and in whose interest?
Observe the politicians, they feed fat off
the national treasury and have the conscience to sleep deeply at night while
millions of citizens of their country languish in penury without hope.
Millions have no medical care, millions
have no access to education, millions have no power, millions have no good
accessible roads to link major towns to earn a living through their businesses,
upon all these, citizens are being massacred, kidnapped, robbed and raped by
faceless criminals, causing massive insecurity.
“The only thing
necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”…Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) Anglo-Irish Statesman, authour and Philosopher.
The
Movement
The elites of the same country are awarded
inflated contracts that they either execute shabbily if at all, and no one is
saying anything due to fear for their lives. Government Agencies are constantly ripping
off the citizens by inflating prices of their respective deliverables at higher
costs than legally required. Clearly, the average Nigerian is set up to fail
except he chooses to be corrupt, which is failure all the same, an act, which
technically pollutes if not destroy his soul, and is hypocritically judged by
the very ones that commit worse crimes but get away with it.
The
emergence of creative and timely use of the social media however has proven to
be effective to create awareness of evil and injustice, and has also helped
motivate people to participate in peaceful protests.
People
are now more aware that they have the power to demand their rights from the
government, and actually cause sustainable change.
If fate
be fair, and history bound to repetition, then in the nearest future, an army
of intellectuals, whose hearts are filled with courage, true love and the
initiative to challenge the status quo, shall rise and with knowledge and
wisdom make genuine efforts to set things right, they will not sit tight for
evil to triumph.
God
bless Nigeria, Africa, and the world!
Thank
you, and be awesome because you
truly are.
Akin
Abimbola.
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Sources: Brainy Quote, Google, Good reads, Wikipedia, You tube
This article is an original piece, which was
reasonably researched, contains considerable opinion and is composed in 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.
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