By Hashim Suleiman
So many people who nag and complain about the non-workability of Nigeria or desire to relocate are only lazy and don’t understand how to benefit from Nigeria in my opinion. And this is why I had since believed in President Buhari’s assertion of Nigerian youths being lazy.
As imperfect as Nigeria’s system is for which I don’t even believe it will ever become to what the people I described above want of it, so many Nigerians are becoming great and living well albeit with some patience and contentment which form the basic attributes of living a good life the world over.
You may not be able to understand what some of us are talking about till you travel around and see for yourself how truckloads of goods travel between one point and another with the people in the entire chain making good money and living a good life in their various levels. Such also has to come with very little bigotry and an open mind.
Because we are patriotic and truly wish well of this country and its people, let me today share a free secret about how you can live in Nigeria and benefit of it big time; it is so simple; Involvement. Nigeria likes that you get involved in her activities without assuming in any way that it will be an easy ride devoid of the usual challenges of life that one could face anywhere in the world including Canada, don’t mind the little sarcasm here, the people I described in paragraph one know exactly what I’m talking about.
Involvement does not only relate to politics, it involves everything; business, entertainment, religious activities, NGO, activism and so on. You have to be present in the activities, you have to be humble to learn, you have to give in your all and once you gain admission, your ‘Chairman’ position has been confirmed and you can flaunt it if you like.
If you analyze the comment of the young people who feel disappointed and want to relocate, it is that of expecting a perfect system before they can venture in anything. A perfect system that they see in American movies or that which is propagated to them through social media of which they practically know nothing about. There is no free meal anywhere. Get your mind right.
It was the same imperfect system that has landed Wizkid and Burnaboy Grammy awards while Tiwa Savage grabbed a nomination. They never waited for a perfect system, in fact, Tiwa relocated back to Nigeria before she could earn her stardom. Furthermore, it was after the event that some of us got to know that Michael Babatunde Olatunji had since won the award in 1991 with Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum projects. Pa Michael did not have to wait for drums to become digital before he worked hard on his music to merit a Grammy award.
By the way, between Pa Michael’s time till now Nigeria has grown so much in many aspects, ask progressive governors like Tinubu, Kwankwaso and Wike and they would tell you how Lagos, Portharcourt and Kano are far more developed than they were during Pa Michaels time. States, where there are less progress, are those states that have minimal involvement in the democratic process from the citizenry. So get involved today!
To buttress the importance of involvement without giving any credence to violence and waywardness, you could see how miscreants also end up with attention and perhaps compensations for getting involved albeit in the most negative ways. Little did they even know that they could get involved in so many other ways and still reap the appropriate benefits with fewer risks and sustainability assurances. Involvement and appropriate concerns by the citizenry can also help us solve the whole insecurity problem, everything must not be heaped on the government like is currently the case, we have to care for our communities and get involved.
Even people from the religious fronts like Sheikh Pantami and Pastor Osinbajo decided to participate in the system by being involved and today they have used the opportunity to showcase their ingenuities and Nigeria is better for it.
Ngozi Okonjo Iweala did not have to be a bigot nor gloat over electoral victories or losses. All she did was to get involved with the nation and it paid off appropriately with the latest emergence as WTO DG amongst all other positions she had held in and outside Nigeria.
Nigeria is 200 million people and more, it is a developing economy and such makes it a major market, if people from the outside can recognize its potentials and come to tap it, what more of us from the inside who have chosen to not participate but rant from all corners over unrealistic expectations that have never happened anywhere without some deliberate work been put in by the citizenry.
Before any of us criticizes, we should first ponder on how much we have chosen a path to get involved in that has not paid. But I can tell you for free that Nigeria does reciprocate with commensurate involvement!
May God bless Nigeria!
Hashim Suleiman can be reached via oneheartnaija@yahoo.com