Opinion/Article: My Wish For Nigeria At 55, By Joe Igbokwe

My Wish For Nigeria At
55, By Joe Igbokwe
This is our chance to prove to the
world that we did not go to school
to learn how to accumulate what
we do not need. This is not the time
to stand and stare. This is not the
time for bedtime stories and
frivolities. This is the time for us to
tear ourselves away from primitive
accumulation of wealth to service
delivery. This is the time to grow
up. This is my wish for Nigeria at
55.
Make no mistake about it, there is a finger of God in the
coming of President Buhari at this critical moment in the
nation’s history after making attempts at the presidency
in 2003, 2007, and 2011, before eventually clinching it at
the Saturday March 28, 2015 election. If one is not deep
in the knowledge of how God works, one might not
know the full meaning of President Buhari’s emergence
at a time like this to do what he is doing presently.
There was nothing PDP and its massive followers, with
deep pockets, did not do to stop him but their efforts
were not enough to stop an idea whose time had come.
Those who did not follow the campaigns fully may not
have known what the wreckers, the ruiners and
destroyers of Nigeria did to stop him, but the grace of
God and the love of God for Nigeria stopped them. Huge
amounts of money in various currencies were deployed,
mercenaries were hired to execute the worst form of
hate campaign ever known in the history of Nigeria, the
instrumentality of the full weight of the federal
government was fully deployed, the full weight of
Nigeria’s security forces were fully and maximally
employed to stop President Buhari but God had other
plans for Nigeria. Despite these onslaughts and
desperation to change the will of God for Nigeria, this
will of God prevailed. I may not have been a Reverend
Father, Prophet, an Evangelist, General Overseer, Bishop
or General Superintendent etc. but I saw it coming. God
has not finished with Nigeria and this I know. Promotion
does not come from the East, West, North or South. God
is the judge. He chooses whom to lift up and whom to
bring down, thus says the Holy Book.
Since Buhari came to power, I have seen a lot of deep
changes which ordinary eyes may not see. The 2015
election losers may not see this because they are still
very angry. Inordinate ambition and hate have
beclouded their senses of reasoning as they continue to
curse the day President Buhari was born. But a deep
look into Nigeria’s political landscape shows evidence of
change to new ways of doing things. Saboteurs who
have sworn that our power sector and the downstream
energy sector will never work have distanced
themselves from the vandalisation gas pipelines, power
plants and refineries. Looters of our common patrimony
are now thinking twice because a new sheriff is in town.
The fear of President Buhari is now the beginning of
wisdom. Yes, they have stolen enough for the real
owners to take notice but they have not stolen our
brains and ideas. With brains and ideas, we can start
the process of rebuilding Nigeria. I am told that ideas
are better than money at high levels of offices.
It is historic and prophetic that the new ministers’ list
will be out when Nigeria is clocking 55 on Thursday,
October 1, 2015. My late father once told me that you
will never get up unless you have fallen down. I have an
idea of the kind of people who will make the ministers
list in a Buhari-led government, and I know that 70
percent of them know that we have to build Nigeria now
or never. We have the political will to recover every
kobo stolen and use it effectively to rebuild our
dilapidated infrastructure, create jobs in millions,
rebuild our institutions, feed our teeming population
and provide maximum security for all Nigerians. This is
not the time to eat but time for work and work for the
good of the commonwealth.
The massive flow of Refugees from
Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Africa
into Europe should serve as
teachable moments for Nigerian
leaders. Boko Haram insurgents,
MASSOB and Niger Delta Militants
remain a big challenge to all of us,
especially our leaders. We must rise
above ethnic sentiments in order to
confront these threats and build a
new Nigeria of our dream.
Last week, I took a tour of the Tin Can Island and
Apapa, Lagos, where the federal government makes
trillions every year via the seaports. One only needs to
see the state of the roads in these gold mines to know
the state of minds of those who serve as managing
directors of companies at the Tin Can Island, the Apapa
Wharf, the flour mills, banks, oil companies, etc. There
is no law that prevents them from building roads that
lead to their premises. What stops them from doing the
needful by mounting pressure on the Federal Ministry of
Works to use part of the huge amount they cart away
every year to fix those roads? Roads in Apapa and Tin
Can Island remain not only an eye sore, but a head sore,
a mind sore, a soul sore and a heart sore.
The incoming ministers must know that it is not business
as usual. President Buhari has a mission and time is not
on his side. It therefore behoves all of them to key in to
the president’s vision of zero tolerance for corruption.
They have no choice. Nigeria has gone full cycle in
stupidity and selfishness and this is the time to rebuild
or we all perish.
Nigeria at 55 with Muhammadu Buhari as President
provides a new window for all of us to sit up and be
smart in re-ordering the way we do things in Nigeria.
The massive flow of Refugees from Libya, Iraq, Syria,
Yemen, Africa into Europe should serve as teachable
moments for Nigerian leaders. Boko Haram insurgents,
MASSOB and Niger Delta Militants remain a big
challenge to all of us, especially our leaders. We must
rise above ethnic sentiments in order to confront these
threats and build a new Nigeria of our dream. Diversity
remains our greatest assets in this country and should
we bungle it as a result of greed, selfishness, ethnic
preoccupation and political irresponsibility, woe betide
us.
President Buhari’s team should be our first eleven for
the first time in 55 years, and we demand nothing less. I
pity any minister who will go there to mess up when
the need is greatest. I pity any minister who will go
there to think it is business as usual. I pity any minister
who will go there to betray the president and the
country. This is our chance to prove to the world that
we did not go to school to learn how to accumulate what
we do not need. This is not the time to stand and stare.
This is not the time for bedtime stories and frivolities.
This is the time for us to tear ourselves away from
primitive accumulation of wealth to service delivery.
This is the time to grow up. This is my wish for Nigeria
at 55.
Joe Igbokwe is Publicity Secretary of the Lagos
Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).