Nigeria Needs Mental Not Violent Revolution To Change The Political Culture
By Ado Umar Lalu
INFOMEDIA – The aspiration and dream of every patriotic citizens is to see gradual progress and development of their country to make positive impacts on the lives of the common man.
Each and every nation around the world have potentials to develop in their own peculiar ways that suits their unique available resources to ensure equitable allocation and distribution of such resources in the overall interests of the country not few self-centred elites and their cronies.
Some countries have all the resources and potentials to develop rapidly than others because of uneven endowments both natural and man made resources. These will be harnessed and manage with the intentions of inculcating a sense of patriotism on each citizens to make personal efforts no matter how small in the nation building on one hand, and leave legacies behind for the future generations to build on and continue the process on the other.
Serious nations at any given time encourage their citizens not to despair, but create possibilities out of every impossibility to build a prosperous nation where the citizens will be competing to surpass each other in brightening the future of their country through sacrifices and selfless services in the overall best interests of the country and it’s citizens.
However, if we look at our dear country from all angles of natural endowments, fertile land and human resources, we have all the potentials to develop and compete with other developed and developing countries around the world. Instead of building a viable nation that will create opportunities for all to serve as a role model for other countries, we became dumping ground and hopeless country that promotes advancements of personal interests which eventually will cripple the country.
Many countries after their independence drawn a roadmaps and adopted a blueprints for attaining sustainable development in all aspects of life to facilitate socioeconomic growth. Nationalists movements became regular features and serve as a watchdogs for anyone that will derail from their stated objectives and blueprints.
In Nigeria we are not so lucky to have such roadmaps and blueprints followed and implemented strictly to set short, medium and long-terms plans that will ensure our gradual growth and development. Without any iota of doubt, Nigeria is one of the countries around the world that have beautiful and comprehensive development plans by successive governments, but very poor when it comes to sincere and strict implementation.
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Our founding fathers that fought and struggles for our independence tried their best in leading by examples, selfless service and accommodating. They cared for our socioeconomic wellbeing through policies that facilitated human capital development. Education was given priority with local and foreign scholarships that were easily accessible to all.
Although our founding fathers have done their best in pre-independence and independence Nigeria, but they did not laid a solid foundation for a brighter futures. Instead of building a political structures that look beyond ethnic borders and prisms they succeeded in planting the seeds of ethnic politics.
Immediately after the independence, our founding fathers became regional champions whereby their strengths starts and end in their respective regions with insignificance or no influence in other regions.
Those who tookover from the British Colonial Masters have all what it takes to promote fully integrated political cultures and structures that were not ethnically dominated using the principles of cultural relativism, but ended up promoting ethnocentric politics where our differences can easily be discerned.
The collapse of first republic and the subsequent political developments leads to the demise of regional politics, but still retained the ugly ethnic politics which up to today constitutes a serious threats and impediment to the emergence of credible leadership in Nigeria.
The current mindsets of ethnic politics that became well established and pervasive in the minds of the overwhelming Nigerians can be overcome and deals with through mental revolution not physical or violent revolutions to change our mindsets.
In our today’s politics, an average Nigerian is mentally and politically enslaved by the political gladiators who are using illiteracy, poverty, ethnicity and religion for the actualization of their political ambitions and personal interests to the detriment of the majority masses.
Leading mental revolution by the Association for Credible Leadership in Nigeria is a welcome development, but not an easy one, the tasks ahead is enormous. With perseverance and grassroots enlightenment it can be accomplished over time to change our mindsets that goes beyond ethno-religious and regional sentiments.
The current political atmosphere of Nigeria gives the elites from across the country endless opportunities to control the masses using divide and rule to impoverished the masses who now see their political persecutors as protectors.
Ado Umar Lalu
08060306089
[email protected]
Member, Association for Credible Leadership in Nigeria.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of INFOMEDIA
