STEEMIT ENGAGEMENT CHALLENGE || Three Things I love about my country and Three Changes I would love to effect to make it better by @jueco

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Greetings, highly esteemed members of this community,

It is with heartfelt love that I have chosen to participate in this wonderful engagement challenge.

This engagement contest requires me to explain three things I love about my country and three changes I want to see in my country.

Before I begin as a patriotic citizen of my country, I will love to recite the national anthem and national pledge of my country.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

1ST STANZA

Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria's call obey
To serve our fathers'land
With love and strength and faith.
The labor of our heroes past
Shall never be in vain
To serve with heart and might
One nation bound in freedom, peace and
Unity.

2ND STANZA

Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause
And guide our leaders right
Help our youth the truth to know
In love and honesty to grow
And living just and true
Great lofty heights attain
To build a nation where peace and justice
Shall reign.

NATIONAL PLEDGE

I pledge to Nigeria my country. To be faithful, loyal and honest. To serve Nigeria with all my strength. To defend her unity, and uphold her honour and glory.

BRIEF HISTORY OF NIGERIA

The area known as Nigeria was was found by a man known as Lord Lugard and named by his wife with the name Flora Shaw

This area known as Nigeria began to come under the control of the great Britain in the year 1861.
And in the year 1914, Nigeria had become under the colony of the Great Britain.

After several years of struggle by our past leaders, Nigeria gained it's independent in the year 1960, October 1st to be precise and three years later, Nigeria became a republic.

My country Nigeria comprises of 36states and over 300 ethnic groups.
Nigeria is regarded to as the giant of Africa

WHY I LOVE MY COUNTRY

• UNITY OF OUR YOUTH:

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Without unity, it would be so impossible for a country to grow and develop.

Unity helps to bring citizens of a country together, thus helping them to progress and advance as a people.

The unity of Nigerian youth is something I admire a lot about my country, Nigeria.

This bond between Nigerian youth is a rare one, despite the diversity in culture and language, our youth never allowed this to be a barrier between us.

I can remember vividly during the ENDSARSPROTEST in Nigeria, our youths from the 36 states came out in unity, and this is a very admirable quality.

Another thing I noticed was that children of prominent men in Nigeria did not discriminate themselves from the ordinary citizens, they came out and joined in the protest.

This end sars protest really gave a good example of how United Nigerians are.

• CULTURAL DIVERSITY:

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Another quality of Nigeria that I love the most is the diversity in our localities, culture and language.

As I earlier said, Nigeria is made up of 36states and over 300ethnic groups, the majors being the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

These ethnic groups in Nigeria speaks different languages, have different dressing codes, different meals, infact, I most times appreciate that I am born into this country.

Anyone that chooses to come to Nigeria for tourism sake will never be disappointed as Nigeria is filled with lots of aweinspiring things.

Less I forget, have you attended one of our traditional marriages before?
Trust me, if you do, you will want to marry and marry and marry again.

The activities performed on traditional marriages varies from one another depending on your culture.
The way the Yoruba perform their traditional marriage is different from the way the igbos does theirs and different from the way the hausas perform theirs, trust me, you wouldn't want to miss one.

• MY PEOPLE:

Another thing I love about Nigeria is it people.
Nigerians are extraordinarily strong people, they are people that are ready to bring our the best in every situation.

I have had dealings with probably the three major ethnic groups of Nigeria, and I must admit that Nigerians are very hard-working.

A good example is my class teacher while I was in high school.
This woman is a graduate of one of the universities in Nigeria, she was a very bright teacher.

Unfortunately due to some personal issues, she stopped teaching, but trust me, as a Nigerian she can never stay idle.

She is now a successful trader in one of the most populous market in my locality.
Despite being a graduate, she didn't mind being a graduate.
She started from scratch, thus showing the spirit of a Nigerian in her.

There are numerous examples of hard working Nigerian.

CHANGES I WILL LOVE TO SEE IN MY COUNTRY

• UNEMPLOYMENT:

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The issue of unemployment in Nigeria is one reason most Nigerian youth wants to leave the country and it is the same reason many of them get involved in illegal practices.

It's so unfortunate that Nigeria, despite being the giant of Africa, suffer a lot from unemployment.

The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is exceedingly alarming, there are numerous Nigerian youth that are graduate but with no job, this condition is so disheartening.

Most times, Nigerian youths are usually blamed for illegal activities, but every one fails to dig deep to see the reasons for their fraudulent acts.

I honestly hope that someday, unemployment won't be an issue to Nigeria anymore.

• INSECURITY:

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Insecurity is another major issue affecting the giant of Africa, Nigeria.

My country has gotten so insecured to the extent that everyone is on the look out.
Most times mothers are on the lookout for daughters, fathers against sons, mother in-law against daughter in-law.

The most recent of the insecurity in Nigeria is that of the attacked Abuja-Kaduna train.
The worst part of the insecurity in Nigeria is that those in authority are less concerned.

I have been a victim to the insecurity of this country.
When I was still in school (on campus), we were in our examination period and at such, we go for night classes.

On this faithful day, a senior colleague of mine was on his way home after studying in class, then he was attacked by some cultist.

They requested for his assest of which he gave them, then he made a request that they should at least release his sim card and memory card to him, that he has most of his school credentials there.

You know what they did, instead of releasing it to him, they stabbed him and left him half dead.
I couldn't help but give way to tears, but I thank God that he didn't loose his life.

• BAD ROAD:

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What Nigeria is mostly known for is her bad roads.

The roads here in Nigeria, especially in rural areas is nothing to talk about, and this is one reason why foreign investors refuse to invest in our dearest country.

I can relate a very ugly experience that happened while i was in school because of bad road.

One-day, a final year student of my school was on her way to our local market to get some foodstuffs for she and her roomie.

And as usual, she decided to take a tricycle, what Nigerians know as "Keke Napep".
As they proceeded, they got to this very terrible road and were struggling to pass through.

She then decided to alight from the tricycle to aid it's movement, unknowing to her that there was a van behind them, also struggling to pass through this damaged road.

This is how she was run over by this van, and she lost her dear life, this was a very ugly and painful experience, the whole school was in pain, but there was nothing we could do, she was already dead.

This is how bad Nigeria road is, and I hope that someday, it will be taken care of.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I would say Nigeria is a very good country with some challenges, just as other countries.

And u believe that with time, Nigeria will be all good.
Thanks for going through my contest.