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Here we go again!

 


Wide angle picture of a long highway. The image is a metaphor for the blog title, which way Naija, a popular phrase used to express frustration at the direction the country is headed.
All the kinds of news coming out of Nigeria today I believe is precisely why many Nigerians opted for a change in 2015. We were fed up with the constant news of unbridled corruption, kidnappings, bombings and deaths. Alas, things appear to have gotten only worse. It is still the same cycle of injustice, disregard for citizens’ rights and a very lethargic response to tackling institutional corruption.

I must say, I truly believed the current administration would go about the task of fighting corruption with such veracity that government as we know it would become unattractive to the kind of folks it usually draws. It however seems like for every step the Buhari administration takes forward, it inadvertently takes two steps backwards. This administration has been a failure on practically every front that I criticized previous ones for.

But more fundamentally, a government that is incapable of protecting its own people has failed in one of its most primary responsibilities. The most recent incidences of kidnapped school children further underscores this government’s monumental failure in safeguarding its citizenry. Ordinary Nigerians are already under constant assault from a barrage of socio-economic afflictions that drastically limit their welfare and wellbeing, to have to fear for their very lives on top of all of these is absolutely mortifying.

2023 is gearing up to be another opportunity for many Nigerians to try and get it right yet again; although for many, they would just be going through the motions. Nigerians have been holding their breaths for far too long now as Nigeria remains great only in potential and promise. We have not been able to figure out how to render this 60 year old awkward machinery - with different moving parts - efficient. How do we then move forward without a sustained loss of enthusiasm?

The many calls for restructuring, constitutional and systemic reforms over the years seem to have been hinged on leadership with the will to effect these very changes; and the emergence of such leadership also seems to be predicated on a reformed system that guarantees equity and that would be able to produce such a leader. In many ways it seems to be a vicious cycle, but we must never give up hope on our dear nation or its determined people.

I believe the battle for a new Nigeria that will work for all is a battle for the very soul of this multifaceted country. After wandering as though lost in the wilderness for decades, the search for our true identity is one that would have us confront ourselves. We must be open to and foster meaningful conversations that help us to stop tripping over one another and find ways to move forward together. Okey Ndibe sums it up best - To move Nigeria forward, we must define our interest in the Nigeria project.


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