Let me use this opportunity to congratulate Nigerians on our 63rd Independence Day celebrations even as the nation celebrates twenty four years of unbroken democratic governance.
Yes, we may not be there yet, but we must bear in mind that we have made some substantial progress in the art of nation building if we conduct objective assessment of our post independence journey.
And I can’t agree less with the piece by Dr. Sunday Adelaja, a pastor in Ukraine who outlined some areas of positive impacts the country has made to the rest of the world recently.
Therefore, we should not think that the story of Nigeria is a complete failure. This impression is absolutely incorrect, and it’s also in our own interests to imbibe this philosophy that the process of nation building is a journey and not a destination
According to the philosophers, slow and steady wins the race. While it’s within our legitimate right to be so optimistic about our expectations of Nigeria after independence, it’s also important for us to identify lack of patriotism as the biggest challenge militating against our national flag from gaining the required altitude globally.
I ran into a debate recently where some Nigerians pointed out that the Nigeria flag was not flying higher at the UN office in the US during the last UNGA. I asked them what could be responsible for our national flag from gaining the right altitude.
My finding may be sad but it is the truth that some Nigerians don’t see anything good about this country. They merely see the Green-White-Green national flag as a piece of inconsequential piece of cloth.
As parts of my independence gift to Nigerians, I have carefully x-rayed different categories of Nigerians who are responsible for our national flag from flying at the top.
It’s left for you to identify where you belong and make the required change.
As Nigerians both home and abroad, you are expected to be the first image maker for your country both home and abroad if we all want our national flag to fly at the right altitude, earn respect and admiration of the global institutions.
Below are the categories of people who are responsible for the embarrassing state of our national flag.
(1). If you are a Nigerian, whether home and abroad but getting involved in illicit drug dealings ,thereby destroying the image of the country, you are sabotaging Nigeria taking her rightful place in the world.
(2). If the person who is involved in the illicit drug dealing is your father, mother, uncle, etc ,and you didn’t expose him/her, automatically you are an accomplice therefore, you are one of the people holding down the flag of this nation from flying. .
(3). Corruption: If you are a public officer or civil servant or elected into public office and rather than use your office to dispense services to the citizens, you have converted and privatized the public office, you are unfit in any public office. You are the enemy of Nigeria.
(4). If you are a fake parts importer, fake tyres importers and fake drugs importers, sabotaging the economy of Nigeria and also expose Nigerians to all forms of health hazards, including death, you are certainly the enemy of Nigeria.
(5).If you have collected money for contracts not executed and you and your family are spending public money without doing any job for the country, you and your entire household are the enemy of this country who are disturbing the flag from gaining the required altitude amongst the comity of nations.
(6). If you are a Nigerian, whether at home or abroad, rather than become the biggest image maker for your country, what you do with your friends, families, and other nationalities is to badmouth your country, you are one of the black sheep disturbing this country.
(7). If you are in public office ,and when opportunities come for the recruitment of new staff, you sell slots and ask children of the poor to bring money before they can be employed in the civil service, certainly you are one of those people preventing the national flag from flying..
(8). If you are a custom officer and you have been aiding smuggling and promoting importation of inferior items into this country, thereby sabotaging and destroying the domestic economy for selfish purpose, you are one of the conspirators trying to kill Nigeria.
(9). If you are a Nigerian and your desire is to run everybody and the country down, you are certainly an enemy of this country.
(10). If you are a Nigerian and what you do is to prevent your subordinate from growing or get promotion until they lick your boots, you are certainly one of the enemies of Nigeria who doesn’t want the national flag to gain the required altitude.
(11) If you are a police officer, and what you know best is how to use your position to intimidate and oppress the public, including making illegal financial demands, erecting illegal road blocks to extort monetary gains from the public, you are one of the enemies of Nigeria.
(12).If you are a public officer, and what you know how to do best is to turn yourself to a contractor, awarding government contracts to yourself and your families, certainly, you are a member of the gang.
(13). If you are a civil servant who should naturally report at his or her duty post by 8am, but what you know how to do best is absenteeism at work but always quick to remind the authority that month has come to an end for salary payment which means you are one of the people preventing the national flag from flying.
(14) If you are a school authority and you are to conduct exams, what you know best is to sleep with female students and award marks, you are certainly one of the enemies of Nigeria.
(15) If you are a a young person indulged in Yahoo and other cyber related crimes, thereby destroying the image of this country, all over the world, you are one of the enemies of Nigeria.
(16). If you are a leader or in whatever capacity causing divisions amongst your people through unwarranted manipulations, you are guilty as charged.
(17).If you spread fake news as a propagandist to destroy the image of Nigeria and others, certainly, you are one of the destroyers of the nation.
(18).If you are a Nigerian and commits different kinds of crimes like ritual killings, kidnapping, robbery, rapes and terrorism, you are undoubtedly one of the enemies of Nigeria.
(19). If you brainwash and mislead others, especially women, by destroying their homes through fake prophesies, you are certainly one of those soiling the national flag.
(20). A leader whose action in the public is different from what he does in the confine of his room is a person of double standards. He’s certainly one of the people preventing the national flag from flying at the right altitude.
(21). If you are a Nigerian and you participated in an election you were dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections, rather than following the due process, you took refuge on the social media to condemn your country, you have become mercenaries against your country.
(22). If you are a Nigerian and when you approach any court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress on any issues and the court rules in your favour, you praise the court and the judiciary as the hope of the common man but whenever the pronouncement is against you, you shout above the sky, of miscarriage of justice and even say judges have compromised. It’s you that is the enemy of Nigeria, who only celebrates when judgement is in your favour and shout foul play whenever it’s against you. You are amongst the enemies of Nigeria..
(23). If you are a member of security agencies, fighting Boko Haram, insurgency, kidnapping, robbery and other criminal militia and the only thing you do is to sabotage the efforts of your colleagues by providing information to the enemies of the state at the detriment of your colleagues and the country, you are certainly part of the enemies of this country..
(24) If you are a leader in whatever capacity, in the family, church, public office, community, organization and the only thing you are looking for is how to destroy the place, you are certainly one of the enemies of Nigeria.
(25). If you are a Nigerian, and what you know how to do best is to spread hate speech and propaganda, just because something didn’t go your way, you are certainly one of the enemies of Nigeria, who has continued to prevent its national flag from gaining the required altitude amongst the comity of nations.
It’s now crystal clear that Nigerians are actually the enemies of Nigeria progress, preventing the national flag from gaining the required altitude amongst the comity of nations.
Nigeria needs rebranding starting from the family unit to communities, churches ,mosques, wards ,constituency, local government, state ,and national and international levels. This will ultimately help to boost the image of the country amongst the comity of nations, and it will earn the citizens respect and admiration amongst their counterparts around the world.
We can’t but appreciate the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his recent efforts to shore up the image of Nigeria at International Fora.
This is highly commendable because, in the world today, it’s good to have more friends than to face self-imposed isolation. With many countries in the kitty as your friends, it will be easier to achieve economic, political, social, and cultural progress.
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman, Ikale Heritage Development Association, IHDA, writes from Lagos