It was the eve of another God given day, and I think it was just too early for a phone call. Why on earth should this call come in at this time when am seriously engrossed in the words of Martin Luther King Junior, the man who made the historic “I HAVE A DREAM” speech. (His speech expressed the hopes of the civil rights movement in a manner that has enshrined it as one of the most revolutionary speeches of all times.) and I least expected any distraction whatsoever when this call came in.
The voice I heard on the other side of the phone was not just impressive, after a brief discussion, he sounded so disgruntled, irritated, angry, or better put Resentful. “…This Country is finished, I doubt if anything good can ever come out of it, our leaders are sick and wicked that is why the system is sick and hostile, I wish I was not a Nigerian, I wonder why God is punishing me like this?”
These are words from a long time accumulated anger ranging from Governments inability to provide Electricity, Water, Good roads, Jobs, Security of lives and properties, Education, Governments penchant for corruption and outright disregard for the rule of law. Total neglect of the fundamental rights of children. These words come from a victim of this failed system.
The good and interesting point here is that a major problem has been Identified, “Leadership”, which shows that we at least know where our problem lies. According to late Jules Masserman, (An American Psychoanalyst), leaders must fulfill three major objectives ranging from, providing for the well being of the led, provision of a social environment where people will feel secure to ultimately inspiring hope in the belief of a better tomorrow. A little look at the leadership of Nigeria, one will find our leaders wanting in all the above. This shows there is an urgent need for an immediate change in the leadership of our country. Having identified the problem, we cannot continue complaining, the big question is “Who will bell the cat?”
What we need right now are men and women who will lead the new generation of Nigerians just like the Indian nationalist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of the most influential practitioners of nonviolent resistance, used a unique combination of spiritual and political pressure to achieve humanitarian ends. His early efforts, in colonial South Africa, greatly improved the conditions of Indians living there;
Like Rosa Parks took it upon herself to lead the resistance of racial discrimination refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her action led to the Montgomery bus boycott, an organized, citywide protest against segregation that used nonviolent tactics. This act of defiance opened a decisive chapter in the civil rights movement in the United States;
Like Martin Luther King Jnr. who led other black leaders to organize the 1963 March on Washington, a massive protest in Washington, D.C., for jobs and civil rights which is believed to have paved way for the emergence of a black President in the United States;
Like Nelson Mandela, who by the late 1950s, with Oliver Tambo and others, moved the ANC in a more militant direction against the increasingly discriminatory policies of the government which kick started the apartheid struggle;
Like Jerry Rawlings, who led several economic and political revolutions in Ghana that has placed the country as one of Africa’s leading political and socio-economic nations;
like Late Chief Ghani Fawehinmi, (Defender of the Defenseless and Senior Advocate of the Masses) who apart from organizing peaceful rallies targeted at resisting bad government policies, used his own personal resources to utilize the due process of the law to challenge perceived illegalities and unconstitutional policies.
The list of reformers is endless, and like each and every one of them, we are faced with a system that has not been able to meet our expectations, but like the Prophet Isaiah said, “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
