Here we go again on zukerville! The serial cyborgs are at it again. Whoever is trying to use our human capital in literature to further sow the seeds of discord among us should desist or refrain from it. If they don’t use religion, they are quick to resort to tribal sentiments to divide themselves. Remember, you people have failed before, you will continue to fail again and again in your quest to send Nigeria into the abyss of time.
In a nutshell, we have two Timbers in our land. One is deceased and the other is still an enigma boiling and oiling our political and intellectual faculties respectively. The ebullient Professor Wole Soyinka and late quintessential Professor Chinua Achebe are very unique in their own literary ways. While the latter has answered the heavenly call, the former is at his twilight years reconfiguring the rot in a wasteland. We wish Kongi more existential strength and power to see us through the Nigeria unending self-quagmire.
Meanwhile, the two diacritics and vintage individuals are enormous figures in a wasteland. They’re are icons of inspiration to millions of us who are worshipper of the Muse. These two individuals have brought unquantifiable honor and glory to Nigeria and Africa. Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nobel Laureate in Literature. His literary works in art are only a constant migraine to our politicians, but his academic works are a veritable source of wealth to global academics.
Unprecedentedly, to the continent of Africa, the Late Professor Chinua Achebe’s “The Things fall apart” has been translated to more that 50 languages around the world. More than 50 millions of the “Things Fall Apart” copies have been copiously sold to some households in the 7 billion inhabitants of this global community. It will be practically unusual not to find “Things Fall Apart” in any bookstand anywhere or any corner of home in the world. So, why are we not collectively celebrating our OWN in the realm of global affairs? These collective icons of inspiration in the realm of reality of our clouded history, and bemused firmament are our national egos and heroes? But there are also some pertinent pregnant questions, amongst which are these ten questions that we must honestly answer for our collective mindfulness if we are to move forward as a nation:
1. Why are Nigerians too parochial (narrow-minded) to discerning facts and figures from fiction?
2.) Why do we so much hate ourselves with penchant for selfish politics and tribal expediency?
3.) Why are we so subsumed in cynicism and mundane issues to creating unnecessary enemies for ourselves?
4.) Why do we like to dwell in collective retrogression instead of collective advancement for ourselves, and for our common good?
5.) Why are the enlightened Nigerian youth groups so divided on some naughty issues to take back their future from past and present?
6.) Why do we continue to read from the playbook of those who are self-centered on corruption and nepotism?
7.) Why can’t we see the constant handwriting on the political walls of Nigeria, by separating the husky chaff from the robust grains?
8.) Why are some Nigerian youths coded symbiotically with their oppressors to mortgage their future, and that of their children?
9.) Why is the country, for five decades still crawling at the infancy of her nascent life to meet the 21st century democratic challenges?
10.) Nigeria at crossroads, which way forward?
All the questions above might sound mundane and repetitious, but they’re the bedrock of our present national conundrums! The more some of us proffer unpretentious solutions to Nigerian problems, the more her citizens bring discouragement and issues that compound her problems.
Predictably, my answer to the last question above is to rediscover ourselves as a nation; sit down for honest and true national conversation devoid of “cash and carry” and ethnic jingoism. We will then discover that truly, in the amphitheater of decorum, we can then discuss the truism of the inevitable restructuring of our “mere geographical expression” called Nigeria.
Lastly, there are some conscripted non-correctable individuals among the youth that make the country’s unnecessary botheration more complicated. I strongly admonish my responsible brothers and sisters with these diatribes from both sides of the Nigerian ethnic isles, to see beyond parochial issues, and to open their eyes to mindfulness in order to save Nigeria from Nigerians.
