The Nigeria of My Dreams

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Few years ago, when I got admission into the University to study Microbiology, one of my lecturers described the Nigeria of his youth days and I was dazed by all I heard. He narrated how they were served chicken, I mean complete chicken as undergraduates. How they were paid some stipends for being university students. How conglomerates justle to get them employed the very day they graduate from college.

What has happened to my beloved Nigeria???

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The system has gotten so destroyed that no one could source for the origin of this massive ramshackles. My Nigeria who once was bestowed with honour by the Queen of England as a strong nation among the commonwealth nations. Once regarded and respected giant of Africa.

Have we now lost all?

Blessed with exceptional and weather favourable conditions , magnificent soil composition and structure that supports variable tropical seedlings , human power with ancient and better methods of farming and now what has happened to the agricultural sector of the country ?

Resources with no bound , strength in iron ore and steel mining , wealth in petrochemical products , agility in enough query station , dignity and uniqueness with the presence of gold and so far the sales and exporting of these resources as not been able to match our foreign debts and invariably with no national reserves, what have we lost here?

An era whereby genius and intellectual beings were traced down to the origin of Nigeria. Oh! the magical Ajayi Crowther hails from my beloved country , Nobel laureate winner Wole Soyinka lives nearby to my residential location. "Things fall apart and the center cannot hold", it seems the great Nigerian Novelist and poet - Chinua Achebe was right.

Why are things falling apart ?

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The answer is simply in our coat of arms

Unity, Faith, Peace and Progress - our Nigeria Motto

In unity we can all have faith leading to peace among citizens invariably leading to the progress of the nation ......... more to follow soon in my subsequent post

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But all these are mirage to the teeming Nigerian youths. That is why I write and support the clamour for change in every sector of the economy #Nottoyoungtorun.
I'd like to see a Nigeria where:

• The retirees get their benefits without queuing up in the harsh sun and some of them dying in the process.
• Where the young men and women who are ready to work are accorded the opportunity
• The votes of the electorates counts and his opinions respected
• Hospitals are not built for class and hierarchy
• The police and the armed forces are well paid and not necessarily have to live on bribe or tolls
• The unemployed are entitled to monthly social benefits
• The teaching profession is highly placed and teachers are second to none in salary scale
• Petroleum products are sold less than #20 per liter since it is extracted from our natural land
• Political office holders are paid the least
• Electricity is constant like in Tanzania, Ghana and Botswana
• Election process is transparent
• Farming replaces a host of white collar jobs
• Ethnicism is wiped out and rotational government is forgotten
• Corruption in government parastatals is hanged
• The peasants enjoys the very same facilities the elite enjoys
• The life of every Nigerian is as important as that of an American or any foreigner.
• Dehumanizing treatment melted on crime suspects becomes culpable on the part of the police
• The youth rises up and take what rightfully belongs to them without violence.
  
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I dream of a new Nigeria where security of lives and property is guaranteed. A Nigeria where basic amenities like potable water, electricity and good roads will be in existence, a Nigeria where there will be improved level of education up to world class standard.

I dream of a united, stable and peaceful country. I dream of a Nigeria where ethnic and religious militancy will be a thing of the past; and where there will be no basis to reward ethnic and religious militants with amnesty and juicy government contracts.

I dream of a country that rewards hardwork and excellence, where entrepreneurs and not politicians are the richest. I dream of Nigeria where the politicians and other public officials are not the richest among us. I dream of a society driven by politics of ideas rather than godfatherism, and ethnic and religious considerations. I dream of a country where gender equality is practiced in all walks of life, including the political sphere. I dream of development and governance, and consequently public policy, based on scientific ideas, hence evidenced-based rather than on myths and superstitions.

A Nigeria where public officers are responsible for their wrong acts; a Nigeria where job opportunities abound, a Nigeria where human rights are respected, a Nigeria where fraud becomes history.
This dream is not a flying horse, I am one of the Nigerians who believe that there is a very big hope for the country.

"This is the Nigeria of my dreams.”

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Thank you
I remain @olanrewaju
Am still on the verge of making the world a better place to live in