FELLOW NIGERIANS! ARE WE REALLY PATRIOTICS?

FELLOW NIGERIANS! ARE WE REALLY PATRIOTICS?

BY:

MUDASSIR ALIYU YUNUSA

NTA ZARIA

mudassiray@gmail.com

The first stanza of our National Anthem  says " Arise O compatriots, Nigeria call obey, to serve our fatherland, with love and strength and faith"

The question is how deep and sincere these verses are in our minds? This is subject to critical analysis, but to be honest even though our national anthem became well known to majority if not all of the citizens of the country but again majority do not attach value to the prose. The reason why I said this is because for long our country Nigeria has been in mess, worrisome, retrogression and backwardness as a result of paying less attention to our national anthem which inspire patriotism to the citizens.

Nigeria is a country that comprises different tribal and ethnic groups with different ideological and religious interest, beliefs and background but in my country some individuals believes to be greater than the law and order of the country, some ethnic groups think that their interests must come first before national interests, a country where the absence of coherent policy is highly noticeable and some ruling  class compromised national interest with their personal and selfish whims and caprices. A country with well articulated, experienced civil servants but lack of training and capacity building brings obstacles to the development of the country generally, a country where our politicians are imposing themselves over and above other citizens(electorates) either by design or for selfish seeking purposes. And also a country where Yes in so many instances may mean No and vice-versa.

Economically, there is no doubt Nigeria is blessed with abundant human and material resources but grossly abused,misused and unpreserved to the detriment of the present and future growth, progress and development, a country with highly fertile and mass area of land capable of cultivating different types of food and cash crops, but could not feed itself even during bumper harvest not to talk of manufacturing goods but heavily rely on importation and mere assembling of machines and automobiles which was the reason for the current economic recession, a country with professionally trained and qualified medical practitioners but could not check and prevent the flow of citizens to abroad for medical treatment and they(stakeholders) shamelessly use to concentrate much in the private hospitals rather than public owned.

    Since independence our greatest problems which are catalysts to most of the vices we are experiencing includes corruption, poor policy implementation, poor leadership style, etc etc. Corruption is the number one anti progressive element that became a syndrome to the extend that it heavily affect the legitimacy and legality of good governance in Nigeria. Corruption made most of our recent leaders abuses the good legacy put in place by our true nationalist activists  which is responsible for the slow motion the country is doing on the trend of development, this remind me what  PMB said in his inauguration speech on the leadership of this country . "In recent times Nigerian leaders appear to have misread our mission. Our founding fathers, Mr Herbert Macauley, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Malam Aminu Kano, Chief J.S. Tarka, Mr Eyo Ita, Chief Denis Osadeby, Chief Ladoke Akintola and their colleagues worked to establish certain standards of governance. They might have differed in their methods or tactics or details, but they were united in establishing a viable and progressive country. Some of their successors behaved like spoilt children breaking everything and bringing disorder to the house". (President Muhammadu Buhari, May 2015)

   However, despite all the fouls made some good citizens have been playing a significant role towards uplifting the country but now Nigerians are lucky to have a leader who is always ready to bring positive change and will allow law and order as well as good governance to prevail in the course of sustaining the legacy left behind by our true nationalists.

Therefore, the verse that says " The labour of our heroes past shall never be in vein" should be given much priority by any good citizen in Nigeria.

Quite rightly we have started witnessing the sincerity of purpose and also the enthusiasm of transforming the country. Whether we like it or not, to me is a departure from usual backwardness in government circle for a number one citizen to have studied the bottlenecks responsible for killing the country and determine to solve these problems.

Fellow Nigerians! It is clear even among the blinds not to talk of visionary citizens that our country is starting taking shape of advancement, so it is now time for any citizen to be part and percel of our national unity, growth and development because of the so much interest and desire of the present day Nigerian leaders. And we also need to know that development of a country is multidimensional process that needs collaboration of leaders, stakeholders and follows alike.

Finally let us review and become so committed to our National Anthem which we learnt in our primary schools so far we want to become so patriotic.

MUDASSIR write from NTA Zaria.