Skip to main content

Thoughts on a New Nigeria.

I woke up to a cold and breezy morning, a wave of fresh air greeted the Nigerian airways as news of Change dominated the conversations. As I drove out I could feel it in the general mood in the streets which used to feel so tensed. It is peace. I mean a genuine sense of accord with the national direction, more than I have ever felt in the last five years. I have never been this optimistic and proud of our Nigeria! Understanding has finally come through in our time. When the news broke that President Jonathan called the president elect, I thought that it was a turning point in the history of our democracy. One of those phone calls you can make a movie about. Huge step for our politics. It shows that we have woken from our slumber as citizens. I can only pray that we have what it takes to stay awake as we embark on this journey toward redemption. Leaders come and go but the state is a permanent entity whose sovereignty belongs to the people. It is high time we as Nigerians exert our power as people in order to enshrine this new found Voice of ours in the management of our affairs. I have a few expectations from this new government. I have always had faith in the integrity of the man, General Buhari. I hope that his resolve remains strong as it has been since 2003. 
At a time when we need all the wisdom and doggedness that we can gather, it is important that the General assembles a team of people who are prepared to stand up to the great challenge of steering this country out of troubled waters. His appointments are going to be crucial as will his relationship with the new legislature because efficiency will be key for this administration. I say this at the risk of striking a few nerves but I expect serious attention to be paid to our criminal justice system. The office of the attorney general has to be busy closing cases and helping to plug the drains of public funds. We need to see empirical evidence to show that these gaps are plugged and the monies are deposited in the right channels. The success of this government will be largely based on how much wastage they are able to plug in the first two years of the administration. The system which we have chosen to operate has to be made to work for us. I would expect that the Vice President elect, Yemi Osibanjo being a seasoned lawyer will always be on hand to ensure that the president and others around him, exercise their statutory powers in order to ensure like I said earlier, an efficient government. This is not time for business as usual, our civil service needs reform. I think nothing stops this new administration from employing a competent, independent auditor to run a full audit on the civil service. This I believe will help the administration to save money for the country, moving forward.  The Goodluck led administration made some good policies which will pay off in the long term. I pray this new government is wise enough to ensure the sustenance of those good policies which will contribute to the growth of our economy. 
The elections have come and gone, the fuss is over and now it is time for the president elect to get to work. The campaign is over. All the propaganda should stop now. The APC should celebrate their victory for a short while and quickly focus on how they can contribute positively to the new government. Those who consider themselves the more "personal" friends of the General should respect the mandate of the people and allow the Him to work for the country. The last administration was  plagued with a lot of characters, some of whom were loose canons who often exposed the president to criticism as a result of their misconduct. The president elect and those he chooses to keep around him, have to ensure the sanctity of the presidency.
 The task before this new government and indeed the entire country, is an enormous one. We will require every persevering bone within us in order to triumph. This is the perfect time for the young Nigerian to embrace our nationhood and contribute our quota to the realization of the New Nigeria by remaining vigilant and attentive to national issues.
 Long live the Federal republic of Nigeria! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Help

Whenever I use the public transport system in this town I always get a story. It's because the public transportation allows one to interact with the society and feel it's pulse in a way that is almost impossible from the comfort of a private vehicle. So yesterday I got off a bus at Julius Berger round about at around 5pm, rush hour. Naturally there was a fair amount of traffic, pedestrian and vehicular. I had just arrived in the city from my outpost in Gwagwalada and I was hurrying to get in a cab and out of the blistering sun. That was when I saw something that made me stop. There was a crippled man along the sidewalk. His limbs were shrunk and shriveled and he could only manage to drag his malnourished body along the curb using his forearm while accepting alms from motorists and passersby who threw their loose change in his direction. He looked very exhausted and he had his hands full but every time a  note was thrown out of a moving car or dropped by a pedestrian he would ...

If Your "Insurance Bank" does not support your Business, you need a new Church

Salvation... The cornerstone of all religious establishments. The Human race is so terrified of the doom that is promised to come upon the many who will not be saved and this in turn has led to a great deal of desperation among men to gain this salvation.  In our world today and speaking from a Nigerian perspective, the need for this spiritual "assurance" if I may call it that, has inspired the birth of a multi billion Naira industry - Souls Insurance Banking (SIB) wherein a few clever men have learned to take sacrilegious advantage of this widespread desperation among people and have now debased the sanctity of God's Word to the level of Insurance Banking. In this business, the insurance bankers (pastors) devise different means (some contradicting others) of selling this insurance package, that is the comforting hope of salvation to this Gullible Population. Worse still, people don't mind! It is common place in this country to hear stuff like "I call on the go...

Who I Am

The more things change, the more the stay the same. This is the story of the world we live in today as we seem to be stagnated in a constant flux between the hopeful possibility of a better, more peaceful, healthier future and a cataclysmic devolution into irreversible anarchy. The handwritings are on the walls and pretty much everywhere else you look. Global Warming is ravaging the earth - no thanks to our collective irresponsibility. Global warfare on another note has spiralled out of control, with the institutions of state facing new kinds of enemies - the faceless kinds who are happy enough to just spread the gospel of fear. Global population is on an uncontrollable rise and we all keep saying the same things, attributing our actions and inactions to the will of the almighty. It all has to be part of THE PLAN. We pretend that the world is some kind of fictional place where all our actions have pre determined consequences of which we need not take responsibility and when they turn ...