"Nigeria is a zoo!" "This country is just hopeless." "I give up on this nation." "It is wisdom to travel out and secure your future overseas; don't play with any opportunity to leave this country." These shades of lamentation and counsel permeate the social, some religious, media, and educational spaces almost daily. And the cause of such despondent expressions is not hard to fathom. Nigeria's primary sectors spanning from the security to economic spheres have, in Chinua Achebe parlance, fallen apart. But can our center really no longer hold? Seemingly but no. If otherwise, then the political entity known as Nigeria would be defunct by now. In as much as the catalogue of challenges plaguing her which is patently man-made appears inexcusable, the average Nigerian--I reckon--needs to have a re-look at this impasse which can prove instrumental to administering a remedy. Perception decides the fate of an obstruction. Thus, it is the contention here that Nigeria's present predicament is arguably a phase in her political evolution and not without any glimmer of hope as a lot of Nigerians now suggest.


History, a seldom fallible teacher, has shown that the state is like the Darwinian organic existent that metamorphoses from simple to more complex forms. In attaining an advanced condition of living, organic species face stiff competition from their ilk and only the fittest among them survives. The average political state similarly undergoes this process. A nation's period or phase of having a simple form comprises its embryonic, fledgling, growing stages where different obstacles in the shape of ethnic clashes, brazen abuse of public office, bad politics, insecurity, economic instability, poverty, racial acrimony, religious intolerance, underdevelopment, and what have you, are commonplace. Her procession to a complex form or phase remains a possibility as long as she (and her citizens) purposefully persists. That is to say, such travails worth having an amnesia of are not the end but only a phase.


In the 1860s, United States of America (USA), the country scores of Nigerians instinctively cite as a model and now flee to, went through a very turbulent time where there was widespread insecurity and the entity's composite existence stood threatened. Why? The Southern and Northern parts of the country had divergent views on the existence of slavery. While the former insisted that slavery festers, the latter argued that slavery be discontinued nationwide without further ado. After President Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" which formally and finally committed slavery to mother earth, wanton killings and pervasive instability ensued. But the hatchet was not too long after buried and the American nation evolved to a world power today. That did not happen in a day! What the USA experienced centuries earlier does not differ from Nigeria's current status-quo where distrust, suspicion, economic downturn, insecurity, mindless killings over racial inclinations, terrifying retrogression, and despair hold sway.


Well, a widespread purposeful interpretation of these as a phase in the political growth/evolution process would propel you more to that proactive point where brooding becomes unfashionable and acting to ameliorate Nigeria also tops your scale of preference. Contrary to that voice of skepticism within, there is something you can do, no matter how little, to midwife the Nigerian dream. Drops of water can make an ocean. Discern and do it! Thus, Nigeria at 60 is not our end but merely a part thereof liable to change.


However, the viewpoint that virtually every state passes through an evolution process considerably peculiar to it is reasonable and tenable. This is usually not deficient of hope-draining occurrences, which often co-opts the citizenry to become prophets of doom and entices them to wind up the political state. The abductions, killings, misgovernance, misplacement of priorities, canonization of corruption, oversight of high-flying Nigerians in diverse facets of endeavour, penury are a phase. Like USA did, Nigeria can progress to a higher phase with minimum of the aforementioned impediments and become positively more complex. Nigeria can get there, only if Nigerians (you and I) are willing to discard the belief they can't.


Kaycee Naze
(Rational Pen)

CC: Lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala, mynd44.

cc:mynd44

CC: Lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala

CC: Lalasticlala, Mynd44.

Good piece!

okachie1:
Good piece!

Thanks, bro. Good to know.

cc:lalasticlala

CC:Lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala, front page material.

This write-up questions the hasty gloomy conclusions drawn by most Nigerians (within and outside Nairaland Forum) and argues that the status-quo would not always be so, insisting improvement remains feasible. It cites the US as a case-study, going on to solicit optimism in the citizenry. The somewhat unconventional, hopeful perspective offered by this piece makes it worth reading by Nigerians.

Kindly make our country an inch better by forwarding the post to front page. Thanks for your patriotism.

Mynd44

CC:Lalasticlala

cc:lalasticlala

CC:Lalasticlala

cc: lalasticlala, front page material.

CC: Lalasticlala

Written by someone who is probably enjoying the loot.welcome to the propaganda kingdom.