Hurray!! Behold, our beloved country is fifty. Everyone and everywhere is looking green and the champagne glasses are being raised in the air with reckless abandon. E remain small sef, them for paint the champagne bottle green. But seriously, on October 1^st, I viewed Nigerians as a very patriotic set of people as people represented our great country to the fullest. Yes we are fifty and we need to celebrate.

On the other hand, there are people that feel we have done nothing worthy of celebration as a nation. After all, a fool at 40, they say, is a fool forever. According to them, a nation that does not have good roads, portable water for its citizens, stable electricity, utilizable education and one that cannot provide jobs for its unemployed youths and even adults should not celebrate. I quite agree with them. I mean, citizens of a country as “endowed” as ours should not have to suffer for anything. We should live as kings like our Dubai counterparts who are not as blessed as we are anyway. Like seriously…

So permit me to ask, who is responsible for our woes? The answer is a little bit too obvious. The government. The government, the government, the government. The government and rulers are the ones to blame. Why not? After all, the selfish and inhumane people that have been opportuned over the years to rule(instead of lead) us have dragged us into this mess. The places described as ‘consulting clinics’ by IBB years back have been reduced to mere pharmacies over the years. The railways built by our colonial masters have been converted to marketplaces.  And most importantly, our roads have become deathtraps, where innocent Nigerians reap the ‘dividends of democracy’ by becoming objects of sacrifice to the gods of corruption, while those in leadership are too drunk on power to pay attention to our woes. This is a sad situation indeed. A very sad one…

But come to think of it, we are the government. Take it or leave it, but that is the solemn truth. Apart from that, we are responsible for our problems to an extent.  We are the ones that have been oppressing and depressing ourselves. You don’t believe me?

Take this example: a young business man sells a commodity of #500 for #650. A commercial motorcyclist charges someone #150 for a #50 trip just because time is not on the person’s side. An orange seller decides to sell a #20 orange for #35 during the Ramadan period for obvious reasons. These same people scream and wail that the government is corrupt. Imagine one of these people becoming your local government chairperson tomorrow. What will be the result? Your guess is as good as mine…

Did I hear you say impossible? Gov. Alao Akala of Oyo state is an ex-policeman. Pres. Goodluck Jonathan is an ex-teacher. The immediate past minister of education was a lecturer(who forgot his people upon resumption of office). These are ordinary Nigerians that God has placed in privileged positions. It could be anybody. Things happen like that nowadays. Nothing is impossible to them that believe.

We all know that complaining is the easiest thing to do. Every single person knows how to complain. We Nigerians have gotten used to it and once we don’t change our complaining mentality to a winning mentality, things will not get any better for us. The major problem plaguing Nigerians is nothing but lack of conscience. We have lost our consciences. All of us. We are being oppressed and instead of helping ourselves, we are busy destroying and killing one another. Take a marginalized MEND for example. In order to make their voice heard, their bomb fellow struggling Nigerians who decided to hang around the Eagles square and celebrate. Their oppressors are still left unscathed. People are killing one another in the name of religion. People create hold ups on the road due to impatience. A minor traffic situation that could have been resolved in minutes results to people spending hours on the road just because some people suddenly decided that the best way to drive is to drive against traffic. All this wasn’t done by the government. They are done by Nigerians, for Nigerians. Yes, we derive joy in oppressing ourselves. If not, tell me why someone will invite kidnappers to kidnap the father of his kinsman and blame it on unemployment? When did kidnapping become a noble profession that one can become gainfully employed in? We have indeed murdered our consciences.

The time to change is now. Let Nigerians resurrect their already buried consciences, leaders and followers alike. Let us take our future in our own hands and stop depending on the government for everything. No developed society does that. Let rich and blessed Nigerians take it as a point of duty to cater for less fortunate members of society. Let business moguls give back to the society in which they do their businesses. If 5 nigerian billionaires decide to fix benin-ore road, that road will be a thing of the past.

Finally, if we don’t like those in power, we should rise up and vote deserving personalities into power. There’s no way we can say our votes didn’t count if we didn’t vote at all. It is time to stop being passive citizens and actively take charge of our future. The future is ours and not for anybody else.

Even as we celebrate amidst pomp and pageantry, we should pause and redefine ourselves. Like Michael Jackson sang, look at the man in the mirror and encourage him to change his ways. Let us start the revolution from ourselves. After all, that’s what rebranding is all about abii?

Till I come ur way again remain blesses and Proudly Naija…