By Denrele Animasaun

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Leo Tolstoy

Many years ago, I was in a taxi with my nieces and son heading to the South of London and the taxi driver just happened to be a Nigerian (nothing new there, but it will all make sense as the story unfolds). We were more than halfway to our destination, I handed him a £50 note, he told me he had no change and he was not very pleased, in fact, he was indignant and he immediately stopped the taxi there and then and told us to get out of his cab, he was annoyed that I did not have a smaller denomination.

I tried to remonstrate with the man but he was not having it, he was very abrupt and he insisted that we should vacate his vehicle. We had no choice, we came down and he sped away without getting paid. I couldn’t understand his logic by refusing to take the fare, he gave us a free ride and we had a short way to travel to our destination. I kept my money and the driver had gone on a round trip, without collecting the fare and he only has himself to blame. So what am I driving at? This behaviour is quite common among our people; they often cut their nose to spite their face.

It always seems that we let our anger and frustration get the better of us and we do not achieve anything good by doing this. In fact, we have everything to lose and nothing to gain. So when I hear people say that they rather see Nigeria is divided and everyone go their own way, which way is that and who is going to pick up the pieces when this happens, because those people that say this, have not got the answer to what would happen after. Who will bell the cat? Who are these people relying on to rebuild the splintered outposts?

Everyone has this idea that once they have their own land then utopian ideas will fall into place. I hate to break it to these people: that it is not going to be. We are the people who are going to sort out the mess, except everyone is relying on someone else to do it for them. This is why we are in this mess, we want quick fix, instant gratification and a life of wealth without any struggle. It is a no brainer. We will all lose if this happens. Besides, if we do, what do we gain by it?

Have we prepared the grounds, where are the infrastructure, healthcare, institutions, establishments and businesses or economy, is any of these in place to make every fraction self-reliant? We are not self-reliant when we are together and there is no evidence we can become reliant once we separate. The fact is, we need each other. And in whose best interests would it be when all our collective resources have been duplicated into small bits and then misappropriated. We tend to throw the proverbial baby away with the bathwater.

This serves no one and it means that there are no winners, we will all lose because of our intolerance. So here we are and nothing has changed other than it is increasingly difficult to find a way forward unless, we work together to make Nigeria better for everyone. We are in this together and no one can make the change until we all buy in to make it better for everyone and the future generations.

What do we tell our children and grandchildren that we failed because we cannot sort this out? We are what Nigeria is waiting for and the inability to see beyond our noses has beclouded the moral judgement of so many people. We are willing to peddle fake news in the social media, false stories and false bravados, false news, many sadly, believe what they read even in the face of hard evidence. In the last couple of weeks, we have fake reports of the illness and demise of PMB.

The trolls are out in force but they are faceless and cowardly. Tony Okoroji on his Saturday breakfast show said that “Nigeria is at war over the control of the minds of our young people and the millions of our vulnerable citizens. The war is fierce and there are no rules in this crazy war, religion is at play and tribalism is a major weapon and every crude propaganda tactics have been deployed and hatred let loose in the land.

Everywhere you look there are new churches and mosques and if we love God so much, how come we hate each other that much?” Tony is right. Hatred has never built anything constructive other than destroy. What we need right now is tolerance, understanding and everyone pitching in. Change should begin with the individual. The writing is on the wall and for so long, the sails have always been adjusted and people move on from one crisis to another. This time is one crisis too many and it has been going on for far too long.

The crisis has been decades long and it is going to take dedication and commitment to change direction. The government has to provide a sustainable program that can make the country and its people function not just for the rich but for everyone: free education for our young people, employment, regular payment of salaries for workers, zero tolerance with corruption, reducing poverty, equality of opportunities for everyone irrespective of your tribe, religion or gender; better standard of living, affordable food stuff, accessible health care, social and transportation, safe roads and amenities, introduction of solar power and regular electricity outage. The younger generation of Nigerians, should have the chance to thrive and not struggle all the time to survive and that they find their way in the world and not be judged by the failures of the older generation.

The younger generation are leaving Nigeria because they feel they have no future, most are not happy at home and the fact is we are not appreciated abroad then, we have a massive problem. The national security is so important to the people and recently, the Controller General and the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) seized 661 pieces of pump-action rifles from China, concealed with behind reinforced steel doors alongside other merchandise goods, that came through Lagos Port. We can only wonder the destination of the armament and the disaster that was averted due to the unit’s diligence. The controller said “Such deadly contravention of the law is even more unacceptable considering the fragile security situation in some parts of the country.

Already three suspects have been arrested in connection with this illegal importation. What on earth is going on and what do people think would happen if war broke out.  Do they really think that they will be spared? There has never been a just war and everybody loses. The sentiments of separatists is a bad idea and ill thought of. As it is evident, the life of refugees is not a happy one and being displaced is traumatic and people do not recover.

We have borne witness to this and we should not wish to revisit this. We need restorative justice; a dialogue to improve the relationship of those who feel marginalized or who have been wronged through neglect and systematic discrimination.