Nigeria Celebrates 58th Independence Anniversary; Nigeria Still Under Servitude.

By YUSUFF Oladeji Afeez (SIR-USEFUL)

Before I attempt to analyse the theme/topic of this piece, the questions we should pose in our minds are :

What is Independence?

Has Nigeria gotten Independence?

If truly Nigeria has gotten Independence, Why is she still in servitude?

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary,  Independence is "the freedom from outside control or support".

Independence is also seen as the time when a country or region gains political freedom from outside control. In the process of providing a definition to the word, "Independence", I noticed a  keyword, present,  in the definitions of Independence, supplied earlier in this piece,  which is "FREEDOM". And according to me, "Freedom is knowing the right thing, and doing the right thing,  which is the only way to  liberate one's self (someone)  from slavery." Since,  We,  Nigerians have deviated from the right things, and doing what is right, we have put ourselves under/in servitude.

Our forefathers, the likes of Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enaharo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Nwafor Orizu etc.,  fought for the Independence we are celebrating  today - with the hope to free their people from slavery, to make our dear Nation a better country.

 It is so  saddening that the efforts of these heroes have, somewhat, been made to look like they have become vain (useless),  due to the fact that the foundations laid by these great warriors have been deserted by the "Leaders of Today".

These men - the Fathers of Nationalism in Nigeria, the persons who fought for Nigeria's Independence -  fought for  their people; but, unfortunately, the present crop of leaders, we have today,  are fighting for themselves.

To Those men, the fathers of Nationalism, the  comfort of their people was their  utmost priority,  but the present crop of Nigerian leaders get their comfort(s) by subjecting the(ir) people to suffering.

After several years of suffering in school, to acquire good certificate; there is no certainty of getting a  good job. The ringing tone most students have embraced, now, is :  "EDUCATION IS A SCAM". This is to  tell you that people have lost hope in Education, and our educational system.

Even, statistical  Analysis(es)/statistics  has it  that about two million Nigerian graduates are suffering from unemployment , due to the unavailability of jobs.

Those who, eventually, secure   white-collar jobs get fluctuating remunerations.

 Government, today,  owe workers six to nine months salaries. People are dying of hunger.

We have many professionals in engineering, Medicine, Architecture that are products of Nigerian  Institutions. If our government wants to construct roads, buildings, refineries etc., they award them, these  projects, to foreigners like Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese contractors/firms etc. Where are the Architects,  engineers, trained in our Nation(Nigeria)? Since they, our leaders, know that our educational system has been destroyed, they seem not to have trust in "Made-In-Nigeria-Products". When our leaders get sick or their family get sick, they rush them abroad for medical treatment, where are our own(Nigerian) doctors? what happened to our own(Nigerian) hospitals? They  seem not to be well-equipped.

Who is to be blamed for these misfortunes: bad governance, unemployment, Insecurity, lack of well equipped hospitals, lack of well-equipped Institutions?

During the process of asking myself all these questions, I got to know that the system of governance, we have in Nigeria,  is good, but the problem is the poor agenda being presented by the government - and poor implementation, or non-implementation, of beneficial policies. 

We, Nigerians,  are comfortable with our misfortune. We sell our votes, rights, mandates during elections. 

Until we all come back to our senses, and we join hands, together, to fight vote-buyers and vote-sellers, we may continue to vote leaders that do not deserve to lead.

We must be ready to fight to restore the glory of our dear Nation, stolen by some set(s) of person. It is until we are ready to build on the foundation(s) laid by past Heroes, that we will liberate ourselves from servitude.

 

We must be ready to die for our dear country, in the course of revamping it.

Thanks and God bless

YUSUFF Oladeji Afeez,

A final year student, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Faculty Of Education, Department of Science And Technology Education,

A Political Analyst

An Advocate of Utilitarianism.