By Kayode Emola
Many of us have heard the phrase, “Make America Great Again”, the slogan touted by Donald Trump so many times that we begin to question what greatness means. We have heard stories of great kings that built empires, from Persia to Syria, the Romans to the Babylonians; and tales of their majesty persist even to today. In more modern history, we can relate to the great levels that the Ottoman, British and even French empires grew to.
However, it is difficult to comprehend the true meaning of greatness when politicians, in a bid to secure another term in office, make promises of greatness, whilst knowing that the bureaucratic processes of the country will restrict their fulfilment, even if the political will to achieve them were present. In reality, greatness is not about catchy slogans designed to win elections, or political statements created to entice the populace.
To be a great nation, a country must afford its citizens sufficient comfort in their homeland that they need only travel abroad for business or for leisure, and never out of necessity for mere survival. I do not believe that the Yoruba people are enjoying this currently under the presidency of Bola Tinubu in Nigeria or have they with his predecessors.
When Tinubu was campaigning for the presidency, he promised Nigerians heaven and earth if he were to be elected. However, now, five months into his presidency, the people living in Nigeria are witnessing the worst economic downturn in a generation. Not only is the economy in such dire straits, but the government has no clue about how it is going to reverse this trend.
Despite this, the lawmakers and the executives are concerned only with how to build the most comfortable houses for themselves, buy the best cars and travel in the most luxurious of flights. Such actions do nothing toward driving productivity in the economy; demonstrating the reason that Nigeria is this way, and that no amount of political promises or plans will ever be able to make it great.
Therefore, what the country needs is someone courageous enough to admit that Nigeria will never be great again; that the only solution is a total overhaul.
Nigeria in its current form can never help its citizens live their lives to their full potential. Instead, it will continue to frustrate any efforts, whether implemented by groups or individuals, that are aimed at reviving any given sector of the economy.
Take the example of the transportation sector. Even if someone were able to build affordable cars or buses, their efforts would be thwarted by the paucity of highway infrastructure: the vehicles would rapidly be destroyed by the poor quality of the roads. And the same principle applies across many other sectors of the economy.
The only route to a better life for all is if the leaders of Nigeria agree a means of disintegrating amicably, avoiding the bloodshed and animosity that may otherwise last a lifetime. Yet even though we know this, we continue to gamble with the lives of our youth and the future of our unborn children. We fail to consider them as we perpetuate policies that will engender a hostile environment in which they must live.
I know a lot of people, if they are able, will seek succour in the western world. However, this is a poor substitute for the creation of an enabling and edifying environment for ALL our children to truly call home.
The degradation of Nigeria should make every Yoruba person think twice about our future within this country. We must take a stand *now* to end this slavery mentality, the belief that we cannot stand on our own two feet as an independent nation. The truth is, we would be far better off being by ourselves than if we remain in Nigeria.
This is not an exaggeration: we have the history and facts to back it up. Any modicum of greatness or achievement that still exists in Nigeria today is left over from the tenure of Chief Awolowo as Premier of Yorubaland. Furthermore, if we consider the example of Yugoslavia – that split around 1991 – the six emerging nations are now far better off than when they were a single entity.
If we have all these history and facts at our fingertips, why are we then hanging on to Nigeria? My answer is simple ignorance. If we can fully educate our people about the benefits of having our own nation, this, I believe, would make great strides towards our goal for independence.
The challenge, therefore, is how to go about educating our people. Many of them are too comfortable cocooned in their little shells of ignorance; until they come out of that tiny shell, it may be difficult to get to our destination.
Consider the Israelites of biblical times: it took them over 40 years to get to their Promised Land. It wasn’t because the distance was far, but because many of them failed to see or to believe that their destination was worth the leap of faith required to get there. We need to avoid falling into that same trap. The quicker we can educate our people and bring them to the realisation that Nigeria is the beginning of our problem, that dissolving it is our only hope, then the better it will be for every one of us.
