Get Involved

Everywhere you go in Nigeria, beer parlours, religious houses, sport bars and other gatherings, you will hear every able bodied Nigerian discussing and dissecting all issues that affect them. From politics to religion, finance to lifestyle and many more. This is not a bad thing to do, I believe it shows that the Nigerian society is a conscious and pro-active one. At least, that would be the suggestion of this act - albeit, it is just that. Beer parlour talks, religious houses rumbling and what have you. It is usually a product of frustration and lack of faith, a response to the crumbling geographical aggregation and the unending daily mishaps we witness and hear of.

Gatherings that are conscious and take the matter of state serious should be encouraged and people advised to join. However, in our context, a rather not unique but perplexing setup, it is the other way round. And the reason for this is pretty simple. Everyone in these various points of convergence knows what is wrong and can analyse it till eternity. They can also proffer solutions within their spaces and let it remain that way.

Just like you have concluded, yes, no one takes action. We all believe that when we set the country on the right path, it will be to the benefit of a few, the privileged elites and their cronies. We have forgotten, or chosen to believe, that the scourge in town affects us all.

When Bertolt Brecht was talking about political illiterates1, he had Nigeria and Nigerians in mind and wasn’t talking about politics alone. Getting involved ensures that we all come to a point of convergence, work towards the desired goal and contribute all that we have within our limits to the building of our nation.

I must tell you, as a Nigerian, who is not only concerned but also feels that we can work as a team, from and in our different spaces, towards the goal of building Nigeria into a place of pride, a place where everyone would love to be, Nation building is not the exclusive job of the government and/or its apparatus. It is a task that concerns us all. The fact remains that we all have roles to play in ensuring that the ship of Nigeria sails safely to Port PromisedLand, else, we will create a system that would consume the generation coming behind us. A generation that is unprepared yet takes a leap into the unending possibilities of the future and its accompanying challenges. Sitting on the fence was never an option, do not make it one, now.

In modern societies, the development of the state is not left alone in the hands of the aristocrats and their limited co-travellers or the hands of ‘jejunes’ that parade themselves as juggernauts. Development has been the result of the synergies between the government, citizens (people of the state) and the civil societies. Picture the three (3) groups mentioned above and have them in a circle, the citizens (people of the state) are at the centre. This is not only because they are at the receiving end but because they produce all members of the remaining two groups. Our bad government (and when it is the other way round) is formed by people from amongst us and our civil societies are a gathering of people from amongst us, too.

It is no gainsaying, that the development of the modern societies rest sorely on her people, who are also the beneficiaries of the development. The greatest wealth of a nation is not her oil, as we have seen many nations without oil become greater than the ones with oil but in her people.

And again, clearly, it is evident that our natural resources cannot manage themselves, not even become useful to a nation except we have capable hands. Capable hands on the farm, producing the food that will sustain us all. Capable hands working on the next cutting edge technology in the health sector to ensure we don’t spend our taxpayers’ money in foreign lands again. Capable hands in our schools and colleges to see to it that we no longer produce graduates that are unemployable but people that are capable of driving development using the resources within their reach.

We must also see to it that we don’t only gather around to discuss the problem our society faces alone, we must in unison, stand up to take actions in our environment.

It must also be emphasised that we must take actions. Not only that, we must endeavour to hold accountable and charge to be responsible, people we have trusted with our mandates to ensure that our lives are secured and our welfare, adequately attended to.

1 = “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participate in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.” - Bertolt Brecht

About the Author
Abayomi Sarumi is the curator of www.aatsarumi.com.ng and a project manager at Thinking School Nigeria (www.thinkingschoolnigeria.org), Ado Ekiti. He is a trained Agricultural Economist, a community mobiliser, advocate for youth inclusion in politics and governance and Social Media Advocate of UNICEF/UNFPA #endcuttinggirls campaign.