In Nigeria, daily life is characterized by an ever present lack; from the basics
to the majors. The majority od people seem to always play the victim, looking
for those they think are better off than them to solve their problems. This
particular negative character trait which is so common makes life unpleasant
and stressful for anyone who wants to live a modern/progressive life in this
country.

Sometimes one wonders how much better it would be if every individual always
simply did everything possible to help themselves first before looking to others.
At least half of the problems associated with living in Nigeria would be
solved if people adopted the right mindset. People in Nigeria as a whole are
generally quite good at blaming other things for their problems in life, the
major culprit here being the government. Fact is there is really little or
no government, at least not a functional one.

Even though that's a real tragedy of sorts, that problem is also one caused to
a large extent by the people themselves. First, they allow their so called
leaders to install themselves in power through largely flawed electoral processes
and then these people get into power and start to misuse the money meant for
the good of all. But the masses simply sit down, look at them and do nothing
else than complain.

The truth is that there cannot be a working system in Nigeria where all the citizens
are carried along, if this continues. In other words, there can be little or
no progress if things continue this way. This is such a complex problem and would
require nothing short of a revolution, not war per se, but a drastic change in the
mindset of the masses. Its a revolution on the level of the common people, not the
elite.

All this will take a very long time to materialize, but the point is that it must start
somewhere, it could start today, it could begin in the present time. Where is the best
place to start? Of course there'll be a huge number of opinions about this.
A good example of where to begin is for all Nigerians, especially the youth, to start
deciding for themselves the kind of people they want as leaders. What kind of persons
do we want as leaders? what qualities should they possess? Instead of just money,
what skills do they have and what is their track record?

Looking further at this issue, a really huge, "rocket science like" problem
in all of this is that in order to ask the right questions and eventually choose
the right right leaders, the masses themselves have to be collectively willing
to take some responsibility and make some sacrifices for it to all come together,
but all indications point to the fact that they either do not know this, or simply
choose to play dumb and victim, keep on holding their hands out for leftovers
from the "big man's table".

All in all, my view is that these are the reasons why nothing seems to work in Nigeria.