Most of us Nigerians are frustrated by the socio-economic and political situation of the country. We feel we are unable to plan or realise half the dreams we have for ourselves and children. We wish for better leaders, more money, better luck but for the most part, we do nothing more than we need to, to make these things happen. We go to work and eke out a living; we go to church and pray for money and luck and when these are slow in yielding results, we engage in a little con here and there to make ends meet. For the most part, however, we feel hopeless and powerless. Where two or three Nigerians are gathered you can be sure that the topic of discussion is on how the system does not work, how the government is corrupt and how there is no future for the common person. We have become a nation of complainers and begrudgers and for good reason. It is true that most things do not work, it is true that the government and every other sector is fatally corrupt, it is true that the system does not take care of the needs of the ordinary citizens, but it is not true that the situation is hopeless and that we are powerless.
For as long as you can breathe and move, you have the power to change circumstances. Many of us think of change in macro terms, we think that change can only happen when we are in government position or heading big corporations. There is no denying the fact that with commitment, bigger changes are possible at these levels, but if you are not someone already accustomed to accomplishments at every level of your life and everywhere you find yourself, you are not likely to accomplish change even when in big office and this is the problem with many of our public servants.
Steps to Effecting Lasting Change
Personal Change: An old cliché says that when you want to make a change start with the person in the mirror. In other words, all those things you want to change in the world or other people around you start by changing in yourself first. This is a very important point as many of the problems we blame on Nigeria are problems we also exhibit as individuals. Let us start with the simple things. How courteous are we to people around us? How do we treat the poor, the housemaid in the home, the security man at the gate and the beggar on the street? It is our attitude to those we believe are lower than us that feeds into the government’s attitude to those whom they feel are lower than them. Does this make sense? We are not ruled by Martians or Venetians; we are ruled by Nigerians who were raised by other Nigerians. So if we grew up in homes that disregarded and disrespected the poor, when we get into positions of power we will do exactly the same to those we consider less than us. As far as I am concerned, one of the main reasons government does not care about the ordinary citizens is that we as individuals, as a nation, do not care either. We ascribe no dignity to the poor and so the poor have no place in our policies. Make a personal commitment to treat the poor around you with more dignity, more patience, more respect and change has already begun.
Physical Change: The environment we live in is begging for attention. Nigerian cities are among the dirtiest in the world. Even the universities which are meant to be centres of excellence are crawling with filth. I went to my alumni, UNN a few years ago and I could smell the toilet of the hostel I used to live in from the road. I could not imagine that educated, beautiful human beings were living there. Everyone I am sure moans about how filthy the hostel toilets and environment are, but no one does anything about it. Are you powerless to change this situation? It will only take organising the students of the hostels to insist that the school authorities fix the toilets for it to happen. And if indeed there is not money in the budget for such repairs, which I doubt, what will it cost each student to pay to fix the toilets? You are the ones who live in that filth, not the school authorities, so take control of your lives. Once we do it in schools, to do it for the streets we live in will become second nature, thereby bringing the clean environment we want closer to reality.
Stand for something: A major difference between young people in developed countries and Nigeria is that, elsewhere, by the time a young person graduates from university, he or she, more or less, already has a set for values and beliefs. For instance, some would have become environmentalists, have their political persuasions–whether they are conservatives or liberals–belong to a number of societies and charities, where they donate money and or volunteer. Through these efforts these young people start to shape the society in which they live in. They are politically astute and they have an understanding and indeed an opinion about the world they live in. It does not stop them from seeking good, paying jobs and fine cars; to the contrary it helps them better to choose careers that suit their philosophy and temperament. It is only by standing for something that you define who you are and become the change you want to happen. Many people will tell you that it is utopian to stand for something in a country like Nigeria where everything and anything goes. It is not true. When you stand for something, people will respect you and when they need a person of principles it will be you that will be called. A government official once told me that even politicians seek honest, principled people, if not for anything else but someone they can trust with their stolen money!
Read: “The more you know the more you owe,” the grandmother of an African American acquaintance of mine always told him. This means that the more you learn about who you are, your people, your race, your history, your purpose, the more you will have a sense of obligation to your community and your country. The secret of the world is in books, so you can never become a better person without becoming an avid reader. The ability to succeed can only be achieved through a higher consciousness and that higher consciousness can only be achieved through an intimate relationship with books. There is no true hero of the world who was not a philosopher. Malcolm X, the African American freedom fighter, when his life of crime eventually landed him in prison turned the prison into a classroom, a veritable university where his God-given talents began to flourish. He read every book in the prison library and took it upon himself to learn and master every word in an edition of the Webster’s dictionary. Malcolm broke the psychological and cultural chains that had bound him and was transformed. He was transformed from an agent of oppression to an agent for the liberation of Black people. As Malcolm X said, “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” I tell you no purpose can be found without knowledge.
Everyone is born empty; hence, the so-called intelligent person is really one who is better read than those around him. With books you can travel the world, undertake adventures and move from the present to the past, to the future, laugh, cry, hope and love without leaving your seat! I love books more than I love life itself, because they have given my existence meaning and given me the privilege to savour the Africa both at home and in the Diaspora that Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sedar Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Frantz Fanon, William Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Nelson Mandela, Chinua Achebe and so many others dreamt of. So I can stand tall despite the world’s somewhat dislike of Nigerians because I know my rich heritage and who I am and so no one can take my dignity away from me. Nigerians severed their relationship with books a long time ago hence the emptiness of many of our lives. With reading comes knowledge, with knowledge comes self esteem and assurance, and with self esteem comes dignity. A person with dignity will never stoop. Read the books of the founding fathers of Africa, about Negritude, about African history. Read about African American heroes, B.W. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Malcom X etc. When you are done you will never be the same again. You will then begin to understand how an Obama could achieve what he has. Knowledge empowers. We are part of the history that created us, we cannot move forward as individuals or a people without knowing, appreciating, loving and celebrating who we were and hence who we can become.
Be Proud: Many people argue that Nigeria is retrogressing because of bad leadership and corruption. I argue that these are only symptoms of a deeper psychological problem; the absence of pride. Pride and shame are age-long instruments of societal control. It was traditional Nigerian’s best weapon of social cohesion. Families still use it to ensure that children behave properly and do well in school. “Make sure you do not disgrace your parents, remember who you are?” “No one has every failed in this family so you had better not be the first.” Other countries use it to make their people patriotic. They remind them of their history and tell their citizens they are better than everyone else, and having heard this over and over again the citizens are able to walk with their heads held high and accomplish feats they would never have known possible. Today our country is in disarray because those who rule have no pride and no shame. It is only the absence of pride that will make you deny your people water, education, food and security and take the same money and deposit in the vaults of another country where the people said you were less than human and were not good enough to rule yourself. It is the absence of pride that will make you, the ruler of a nation, with the power to make and unmake, leave your healthcare system in disarray but subject yourself to the healthcare of another, without blinking an eye. It is the absence of pride that will make the leaders of Nigeria send the highest number of delegates to every international meeting both those in favour and against you as a nation. You can make a difference by daring to be proud, by feeling a deep shame for how our country is compared to others and letting that shame meet the pride of who you are and can be. Once we are proud we will begin to see ourselves, our communities and our country differently and we will treat it with the dignity that it so well deserves
Network: Change is best accomplished when like minded people come together to make it happen. Find something that a group of you believe in and can do and start your change process there. It could be visiting motherless babies’ homes once a month, it could be organising to make a difference in an area of interest, it could be going into the impoverished state schools to teach the kids about leadership or empowerment. It could be “adopting” kids from these schools and helping them with their lessons. It could be making the school authorities more accountable by asking them to openly publish the school’s budget. There are a thousand and one things that a group of you can start and sustain over the years. Nothing is more fulfilling than being able to do something for your community. The most unfulfilled people in life are not those who have no money but those who can not point at one thing they ever did to change the world.
Conclusion
The greatest myth in our culture is that we are powerless. But this notion of powerlessness is perpetuated because everyday we are bombarded by the media with stories of corruption, armed robbery, accidents, wars, etc that just make the world we live in too frightening and with fright comes the feeling of powerlessness. But we are not powerless; we are powerful and every worthwhile change in our society has come from the base, not from the top down. To stop feeling powerless we must change the way we think, especially in relation to the power we think others have and we do not. We must tell ourselves everyday, I am the most powerful person on earth. I have the power to make things happen. I can change my world, I only need to believe.
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