This piece is a little recipe written to rejuvenate Mr President Buhari’s health, as he arrives Nigeria from his treatment of illness in the United Kingdom. How Nigerian citizens are changing the intellectual world, but wanton in stagnation at home is baffling!
Nigeria is a unique country. Yes! In spite of our geopolitical tensions, ethnocentrism, mismanagement, hedonism and penchant for wealth accumulation; our bizarre entity and the state of hopelessness in Nigeria, Nigerians are taking a quantum leap in academics and their professional callings. In the Diaspora, we carry our heads so proudly high to the admiration of other nationalities. We are such a blessed nation whose citizens are performing excellently well all over the world. But our structural entity is full of contradictions; and it is also unfortunate that the political climes are bedeviled with leadership problems.
All official and unofficial visits I have made to various institutions such as Health, penitentiaries, governments, schools etc. in Arizona, United States and other States of the Union show that Nigeria is a country with uncommon resources contributing immensely to the development of other nations.
The achievements of Nigeria should be very instructive to Nigerian authority. Nigerian professionals at home and abroad are impregnated with good ideas ready for delivery. Check an average Igbo man from the East, he is gifted with unquestionable entrepreneurship and innovation; check an average Hausa man from the North, he is unmatched with agility and sustainable agricultural development; check an average Yoruba man from the West, he is nonpareil and wonk in policy formulation, academic and political acumen. We have utterly failed to utilize these nuances to the benefit of all.
Nigerian intellectual acuity is resonating in the minds of people across the world. Outside of Nigeria, our children are blazing the trail. Nigeria citizens are promoting either as Valedictorian in Elementary schools to High schools, or are making First Class in various prestigious universities in Nigeria and across the globe. From Nigeria to Rusia; to United Kingdom to Japan and other countries, the citizens of Nigeria are being churned out with incredible and prestigious academic laurels. Statistically, Nigeria has the highest number of university graduates in the United States. We are the most educated nationality in the US. Without mincing word, three in every ten graduate in any institution in the US are quintessential Nigerians. Nigerians are highly educated. When Debo Adegbile was made a nominee by vintage president Barack Obama as his DOJ to civil rights division in 2014, I knew Nigerians’ impacts to socioeconomic and political structures of the United States is enviable. Nigerian intellectual resource is being felt at the highest level of government in the United States and around the world.
Sadly, our bane of development in Nigeria is corruption and bad government. Remove hydra-headed corruption and corrupt leaders from Nigeria entity and its entirety, Nigeria will compete favorably with the United States and the rest of the developed world; and in all areas of human endeavors. We are very resourceful and pragmatic when it comes to academic, sports, entertainment and entrepreneurship. Nigeria is a hemorrhaged nation blessed with human capital and intellectual acumen.
Historically, Nigeria and Singapore are symmetrical in historic burdens. Singapore was becoming a pariah state before the coming of Lee Kuan Yew, his country was debilitated by protracted corruption. The rebirth of Singapore was engineered by the founding father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. His election to power was similar to the election that brought Buhari to power. Yew closed his eyes to tackle hydra-headed corruption in Singapore. He was very revolutionary in his approach to killing corruption before corruption kills his country. He created a conducive business environment and jobs in Singapore for Singaporean Diaspora to return home.
Today, Singapore is one of the most prosperous nations on the face of the earth. It is imperative that Buhari of Nigeria learns a good lesson from Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to make Nigeria an enviable nation in the world. It’s doable! Lee Kuan Yew is a prism with which Buhari should look into the future of Nigeria.
The current and past achievements of Nigerians at home and abroad are templates for Buhari’s administration to speedily put all resources and machinery in motion to bring the Nigerian Diaspora back home for nation building. He is cleaning the augean of corruption in Nigeria now. Is he doing it with fairness and equity and justice? Justice must be seen to be dispensed to looters with no sacred cows to reassure that the Nigerian Diaspora return home for national integration and nation building.
Most of us can discern why this writer is an incurable optimist of a great Nigeria. Nigerians are so talented, stunningly smart but resourceful. We stand out and we are very outstanding in all our professional callings. Every blessed achievement of Nigerian yonder is an opportunity to showcase Nigeria imbued and endowed resources to the stunning world. Our hidden and real story has not yet been told in all its ramifications. We only dibble-dabble in our untold story yearning to be told.
From Ekiti to Okene; from Kano to Umuahia to Abakaliki to Imo and to Ojuelegba, our stupendous story of achievements and challenges are the same. When you remember your roots far away from yonder, you’re subsumed in the ocean of sublimity and grace. But when you remember the existential threat Nigeria has posed to itself in the past, you are quick to remember that Nigeria is a country that is yet to re-invent itself to achieve the laudable goals within its reach. With our great human capital and untapped resources, all hands must be on deck to change our ruinous ways of life, and unleash our greatest potentials; change the course of our ugly history for the progress of Nigeria. All we need now is total reawakening to re-invent in what made us great in the past.
To Mr President Muhammadu Buhari, thank God for your speedy recovery. As you arrive Nigeria today to continue your hard work to eradicate corruption from Nigeria, your success is our success; your failure is our failure, we will join hands with you to continue to promote unity, peace and good governance in Nigeria.
Welcome back!
Yahaya Balogun
Arizona, USA.
