I pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest. To serve Nigeria will all my strength, to defend her unity, uphold her honour and glory, so help me God.”

That has to be the weirdest thing anyone has asked me on the ‘red carpet’. I was walking the media gauntlet at a movie awards ceremony when suddenly out of the blue the lady holding the microphone asked me to recite the National Anthem. “Excuse me?” I said. I thought she was joking. But then she repeated the question so I placed my hand over my heart and began to recite it you see, because I knew it.

“I pledge to Nigeria my country,” I began confidently; “to be faithful loyal and honest, to serve ….” Ugh??!! And for the life of me I could not get past that point. I started over like twice, but there was nothing for it. Maybe because I was caught unawares but there it was, captured on video tape for posterity and to my everlasting shame.

The anthem and pledge are two of the most basic symbols of national unity. And the words of both should be deeply engrained and engraved on the hearts of every true patriot. The words a constant reminder of the allegiance we owe. Then again how do you  swear allegiance to something or someone who just keeps on taking and taking and never gives anything back?

“I pledge to Nigeria my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest…” Where? In a place where the only loyalty is to money and dishonesty is encouraged and thrives unchecked? “To serve Nigeria with all my strength…? Why? So that a small percentage can continue to exist in obscene wealth and comfort while the majority wallow in abject poverty?

“To defend her unity…” Our unity has been polarised by socio-political issues that have taken on, and divided us along religious and ethnic lines. “To uphold her honour and glory…”For what? We dishonour ourselves and drag our glory in the mud on a daily basis both home and away.

It’s hard to love this country right now. I doubt if the relatives of the 150 plus souls that so needlessly perished in that Dana plane crash are feeling any ‘allegiance’ right now. It is bad enough when it is a freak accident; but for a disaster of such magnitude to have been set off by such gross negligence as is being reported is unacceptable and hard if not impossible to forgive.

I am personally disappointed that it took all of 72 hours to suspend their operational licence. And up until now no arrests have been made.

There is enough evidence out there to show that something definitely was wrong. Question is to what extent and who’s responsible.

Madam Aviation Minister should pursue this with the same vigour and tenacity with which she pursed the fight with British Airways to lower the cost of first class travel.

Once again we suffer a painful consequence of years of corruption, greed and neglect of ‘leaders’ and the complacency of the ‘led’. May we one day awake from this deep and terrible slumber so help us God!