By Kayode Emola
When we talk of the family unit, Africans hold the record for the very best cohesive family bonding. Whilst this has worked well in the nuclear and extended family setting, we have failed to make this a success on the national scale in every African country. It is no wonder why many people in Africa are seeking their escape from the continent to a more prosperous nation.
The last five decades have seen the Nigerian government withdrawing essential services they provide for the people. Leaving the private sector to take on more than enough responsibilities and where possible the people are left to provide for themselves the security, education, healthcare etc, they require despite the taxes been collected by the government. The Nigerian government at all levels no longer take the welfare of her citizens seriously and in turn, this has affected every segment of the country very badly.
Behind any successful nation is the family unit clustered in several communities contributing their own quota to the national development. However, we fail to realise that as a nation, if we pay no serious thought to the development of the family unit, we are destroying the building block of our nation.
Take, for instance, the issue of the national budget we discussed two weeks ago. We see that a large chunk of it is going into repaying national debt leaving little or nothing for development, yet our debt profile piles up with nothing to show for it. It is clearly evident that the budget does not address the socio-economic problem bedevilling the Nigerian state. For instance, the budget does not provide free basic education for every child, nor does it provide universal basic health for the citizens.
Take for instance, under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, the basic needs of every Libyan were taken care of by the state. Education was free, health was free and other essential services were provided. If a Libyan was sick and no doctor in the country could treat them, they have flown abroad for treatment and the medical bills settled by the state.
In Nigeria today, it seems those who get the exclusive welfare the state provides are those who control the various levers of power and this is not supposed to be so. When the British taxation system was introduced to Nigeria around 1912 by Lugard, it was to bring about direct development to the country thereby benefiting the people. However, today one will ask if the tax system is really working for the average Nigerian family.
In Britain, the tax system was designed to reach every individual in the family unit, and once this is being taken care of, there is a reduced crime in the society. This then enables the country to focus on the development of mankind in the global economy. For instance, the National Insurance was created to pool resources from every worker and employer of labour in the country to fund world-class health services.
This health service is free at the point of delivery to every citizen and resident regardless of class, status, background, religion, political position or gender. The fund not only provides free health care to every citizen and resident, it guarantees a minimum pension payment to everyone who has worked in the UK for 10 years and contributed to the purse and a maximum payment if you work for 35 years or more. This does not matter whether you work in the public or private sector, everyone is included.
This to me shows a country that has made adequate provision for the basic needs of every family so that no one in the society is left behind. At any one time, the health service is taking care of over one million people on a daily basis who do not need to worry about their medical bills. In addition, the main tax goes towards funding the police, education, defence and other sectors of the economy providing peace of mind for the citizens.
All these should easily have been replicated in Nigeria but for the sheer greed and wickedness of our politicians who believe that public money is theirs for the taking. This greed of our politicians has cost us good roads, good housing, good school, good health care facilities security etc. Our people now see poverty as a way of life and have accepted their fate rather than demanding justice. Many of our religious leaders who should speak truth to power also do not care, so long as tithe and offering are constant. As long as they are still able to sell hope to the people, they are not concerned whether it materialises or not.
If we continue to believe that one day, Nigeria will become better, and all our yearnings and aspirations for good governance and basic socio-economic facilities will be available for all. I fear that that day may never come, therefore it is my solemn advice for the Yoruba people who are still undecided about Nigeria to make up their mind now. Nigeria is irredeemable and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Nigeria is a broken house being patched by those who should be shutting it down and calling for its constituent component to decide what they want to do with their sovereignty.
For those who still believe that Nigeria can still work, I pray it is not too late before they realise that the worst is yet to come. With inflation hitting all-time high in the global economy and many nations seeking the welfare of their own citizens. Nigeria will have no other choice than to borrow more money at a highly unsustainable rate which may pose a more severe economic risk to the country.
Therefore, we now have a choice as Yoruba people, take back our sovereignty and build for ourselves a new Yoruba nation where everyone will feel as a family contributing their own quota to the development of the country. Or we can continue to complain about what Nigeria could have become or the destruction it has brought to many. The choice is definitely yours but as for me and my household, we will choose Yoruba nation. A country where everyone will have the opportunity to excel irrespective of their age, gender, educational background or academic excellence etc.
We owe it a duty not just to ourselves and our children but for their children after them and many generations to come to demand and fight for that Yoruba nation sovereign state. For if we do not bequeath to them a nation where they can call home without fear of intimidation from internal and external aggressors, we would have failed in our duty to secure for them the homeland we inherited from our fathers and they in turn from their forefathers.
