‘Nigeria, good people, great nation’, I had exclaimed and someone quickly reminds me that you cannot market a bad product. Much more painful is the fact that this opinion is constantly echoed every time. How have we fallen so far? I ask ‘what is Nigeria?’ As far as I am concerned, Nigeria is the sum of its individual citizens, and to call Nigeria a bad product is to call each and every Nigerian a bad person.

My question is how long shall we continue like this? I like the line of thought of this re-branding slogan, because it begins with the people i.e. you and me. Our nation is only as great as we are good. So to label us a bad product is to inadvertently say that we are all bad people. I strongly disagree.

We all like to complain about what the government is doing or not doing? But ask yourself too, what am I doing? I do not deny that there are bad people in this country, but tell me one country in this world where they are not. Much more, I believe that there are more good people than bad ones in Nigeria; the problem is simply that we have lost our voices and are sitting on our hands. We chant the slogan of the defeated – ‘if you cannot beat them, join them’.

It has been said that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing, which is why we have come to gain a reputation as a ‘bad product’. But no more! Of what use is a mind if it does not think, of what use is a voice if it is not heard, of what use is being good if you just sit and do nothing?

Let every one of us (good people) who belong to this blessed and most populous black nation in the world begin to use our minds and think of how to make this land better. Let us lift our voice and drown the chorus of ‘bad product’. Talk is cheap, so they say, and like my friend will say, ‘You can think as long as you like and there’s nothing wrong with that, but only one thing counts – RESULT!’

I challenge us to dream again, to tell the world of our dreams of a great nation, but most importantly to act. Douglas Everett said ‘there are some people who live in dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.’ As we become the latter, we would hear the world join in this awesome refrain – ‘Nigeria, good people, great nation’.

I still believe in green, white and green… do you?

I still believe in Green White Green. I remain proudly Nigerian irrespective of what the greedy, black sheep among us do

dont really like the flag. doesnt carry enough patriotic message. something is clearly missing.