Nigerians, the change we seek starts with US!

The change in Nigeria that we so desperately crave can be often likened to a man on a sinking ship. Gradually, gradually, gra-dua-lly the ship is taking in water and what does the man do? He finds the humor in his situation. He laughs at all his water logged goods and reckons that he’ll be sprouting gills soon. All the while doing so, he also hopes that things will work out and that he will make it shore and not have to face Davy Jones. The words “I will drown” never pass his lips and if any of his crew so much as murmur it, it is quickly quelled and changed to “OUR ENEMY WILL DROWN IN CHISOS NAME!!!” with this hope and humor, he makes it through each day and finds sleep every night

And the boat still sinks

Now dear reader don’t get me wrong o! Hope and humour are vital elements in the life of every man alive. I’m off the opinion that the body runs on both and the day both cease in the life of a person, the body will follow suit and shut down (FAST!) but I’ve been wondering if we have not been abusing Hope and humour as Nigerians. What is hope without action? What is the good of humour when it is an escape from reality?

I remember a comic book I read once, It was a Green Lantern comic. Now for those of you not acquainted with geekdom like us (Yes US, we are MANY) the Green Lantern is a super hero whose power source is a ring he wears. With that ring, he is able to fly, breathe in space, shoot energy blasts and make constructs (all green in colour, hence the name). Now the thing about his ring is that it is fuelled by the users force of WILL. Now having said that, in this particular comic, it was discovered that there were several other rings and lanterns. There were the red lanterns whose rings fuelled by rage, the yellow lanterns (fear), the orange lanterns (greed) and so on but of all the other colours, the one that piqued my interest were the Blue lanterns whose rings were powered by hope. Like all the other lanterns, the rings gave their users the ability to fly and breathe in space but they had one peculiarity. The rings could not make constructs or shoot blasts unless they was a green lantern close by. The main hero of the comic explained it like this and I paraphrase

“Many people have hope but very few will actually get off their asses to DO SOMETHING about it”

Hope in my opinion is expressed not in word alone but is fully formed in deed as well. A nation full of people who spend their days “hoping” for a better tomorrow, hoping for rescue, hoping that some outside force will come and make things better is a nation on a sinking ship. Add to that the element of humour which becomes nothing more than a drug to dull the senses and you have a nation that will be sucking water very very soon.

You and I are Nigeria. We cannot spend out days hoping for rescue and being distracted. It is critical we take responsibility for ourselves and let hope be fully formed in us by stepping up and being the Nigeria we want to see and please note that this doesn’t have to be a series of gargantuan steps. No. I have a saying and it goes thus:

“Hope is fulfilled in a series of small steps”

Do what you can for yourself and for your neighbour. Embody all that you want to see in Nigeria, take time to vote leaders with sense and demand accountability from them. Let it start with you and me. If transformation is a door, then you and me, we are the key.

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