I have often said in this space that we have gotten to the point in our national life where what is required is telling ourselves nothing but the truth – if things must change from bad to good. It is time we begin to call a spade by the real name. The image of ourselves as a people and the country is bad, very negative. This is the truth and beyond contestation.
The challenge now is to find out what the causes are. Ask the citizens to offer an opinion, the far majority are likely to point at low quality leadership personnel and entrenched poor governance culture. They won’t be wrong. Those are some of the factors bringing us a bad image but holding those and stopping there would amount to dealing with the matter half way. The most critical factor in all of that would have been left out. The activities of the citizens themselves jointly constitute the critical factor.
What you call your dog is what other visitors will call it. What one says about activities in and around his or her house are what strangers would take to heart and run with. Citizens run down our country, both those in the country and who live abroad.
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We magnify our internal challenges, paint the country black and describe it in terms that outsiders believe what we have is another version of hell. It is Nigerians who tell outsiders, not to step into the country because it has become a no-go-area. They say it has become so dangerous that people no longer walk the streets holding valuables, especially phones.
A prominent South Sudanese blogger called BMG who arrived the country some days ago was talking to a lady blogger from Kenya who just returned from a visit to Ghana and Nigeria. Both were sharing experiences and the lady asked the South Sudanese if he was carrying about his equipment in Nigeria. He said yes even though he was warned by Nigerians in Ghana to enlist the assistance of Nigerians before walking the streets because it was dangerous walking alone since he could be robbed of his gadgets in open glare.
He was kind to us when he reported back that the experience he was having was far different from what he was told. He said he found the Lagos crowd very friendly, enthusiastic, warm and willing to help. He said he faced no threats whatsoever. The lady disclosed she too was strongly advised to keep very watchful eyes over the driver of any cab she was to use while in the country .
She said her fears were accentuated when the hotel staff where she stayed in Victoria Island told her never to identify herself as a foreigner since doing so could attract danger to her person. I have a relation who is visiting the country currently, his first in 35 years, he just stepped into the father’s house in the village and off he left for the city with his wife saying they have been warned of the possibility of being kidnapped for ransom.
We have played down the damage from the faith-based MINISTERS and chieftains of the corporate world. Different organizations worldwide have been told they can’t hold their strategic meetings in the country because of insecurity and other excuses. What about concocted stories told by dislocated citizens on economic exile and voluntary slavery runs? They paint the country black in order to gain attention and help. Each time they do they take down the people and smear our faces with dirt.
The damage they do is colossal. They give us an image very far from what we actually are. We may have a few citizens taking to acts of bestiality but essentially that is not in our makeup and it isn’t who we are. By nature Nigerians are warm, kind, empathetic and enterprising. Our citizens want to work and earn their legitimate earnings. They are not fraudsters.
Our streets have not become the killing fields the world has been told it is. There are apprehensions but human mobility hasn’t reduced. The cities and rural communities are safe. No society is totally free of crimes. The self-destruct buttons we press against ourselves is happening for a number of reasons. The first and most crucial is poor leadership. The leadership isn’t peopled in the main by the well tutored. This has diminished the place of rigour. Small issues that matter are not identified and dealt with promptly. This negligence creates deep complexities out of what would have been simple matters.
Force of personal examples isn’t in place. The departed British colonialists left us with some measure of standard of ethical conduct but the leadership never saw the importance of building on the legacy. So, today things we ought to be ashamed of have become acceptable standard conducts.
In virtually all the countries where things work, one noticeable trend one will find is good conduct in good measure. This does not happen because their economic interest is well taken care of, though very important. It is because essentially countries build the kind of citizens they want. Many of our citizens running away to America for instance are once in a while told they are not American enough. They tell us it means the new comer hasn’t taken in enough of what it requires to be a full American. It is difficult to see citizens of developed countries speak ill of their nations.
This is so because in schools the young generations are told what it means to be a citizen, they get to know their obligations and rights. There are both orientation and indoctrination. Two different things that on the surface may appear same. Governments in saner climes show why one is a citizen. An American or British citizen would not be held anywhere and the captors won’t feel the full weight of the victim’s home government.
While we look forward to when our government would be that responsive and responsible it is important to say citizens have added responsibility to help government build up a good image for us and the country. Having good image and reputation is a collective responsibility. It is not fair to describe our country as hell on earth and ourselves as grasshoppers amongst giants. Those who put themselves down suffer the consequences. This is the message of true existence.
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