IT IS TIME TO THINK, REFLECT AND ACT – GEN. MURTALA MOHAMMED

Posted on July 1, 2014

Let me begin with a write-up I saw on Facebook:
“The tragedy is not the missing $20 billion(or more), the tragedy is not the wanton destruction of lives and property, the tragedy is not the massive oil theft, or the proliferation of illegal refineries, the tragedy is not the deep sectarian division being encouraged by this regime, the tragedy is not the massive subsidy scam and present madness of fuel scarcity, the tragedy is not the massive rot in our educational system, the tragedy is not the erratic or poor power supply that is getting worse by the day all over the country, the tragedy is not the teeming army of unemployed youths across the country, the tragedy is not the forlorn and withdrawn faces of Nigerians, that struggle hard to eke out a living amidst the elusive search for the basic necessities of life!……..The mother of all tragedies lies in the fact that, they are still going round promising Nigerians same of the same, or more of the same for another four years! That indeed is the real ‘TRAGEDY’!!!” (End of quote).

It is very disheartening and unfortunate that only bad News keep on emanating from Nigeria and no good news to make one cheer up. You will agree me that the situation in Nigeria is begging for help (not foreign help). It seems as if we are on autopilot, no one is in charge. Federal institutions are not functioning as they suppose, most of our State Governors are absentee Governors, and the local government administration has collapsed into an avenue for looting. We are also faced with a problem of ignorance which often leads to hatred among the different ethnic groups; Religious extremism which leads to pedophilia, child marriages, begging and extortion of gullible Nigerians; Overpopulation which leads to unemployment and poverty; Infiltration of our culture with Western and Arabic cultures which leads to the decline of our African traditional values. I highlighted and proffered solution to some of these pressing issues in my yet to be published book.

We (Nigerians) have sat on the fence for too long as commentators and spectators in the affairs of Nigeria whereas we are all supposed to be stakeholders. We have debated on most of the pressing National issues. I have also taken some time to write some articles on how these pressing issues can be addressed on my blog (https://sacs945.wordpress.com/). We cannot pretend not to know the most pressing of all problems in Nigeria; it is not religion and ethnicity like most people think. The two fundamental problems are CORRUPTION and POVERTY. These two fundamental problems do not have tribal marks or religious symbol. Have you thought of why religious/ethnic clashes do not occur in Government Residential Areas (GRA) or elite settlements? The reason is because they have a comfortable roof over their heads and they can afford three square meals. So they won’t tolerate rioting miscreants to burn tyres in their neighbourhood. People who normally participate in such crisis have no comfort to lose. We can therefore infer that if we all have a relative comfort to lose, we will not partake in any political crisis hiding under the name of religion or ethnicity.

We have discussed most of these issues on Cyber space and raised some level of public consciousness. It is now time to start ORGANISING even as we continue the Cyber Aluta. It is simple; you can call it ‘The people’s conference’. We should start debating the issues in Nigeria in our families, and then we should extend it to the streets or hamlets. Every street or hamlet should reach an agreement on what they feel will be good for the country and how to go about it. Every street should appoint a coordinator who may open a Facebook group page for the street/hamlet and update their suggestions. The coordinators in a council ward should then meet and harmonise their suggestions and they should take it back to the streets/hamlets for further debate and harmonisation. Every Council ward should then appoint two coordinators who should represent them at the Local government Level. Every participant in the conference should contribute the sum of N100 which will be used for logistics. Nobody should be allowed to contribute more than N100; this is to prevent politicians from hijacking the conference. This process should follow to the State level where every state will produce an acceptable agreement on the way forward for Nigeria.

The Coordinators should not be paid any salary but they should be given some money for transportation; they should volunteer to do it as sacrifice for a better Nigeria. Politicians should be allowed to participate at the street/hamlet level but only nonpartisan persons should be appointed as Coordinators. Candidates for the forthcoming elections should not be discussed or debated upon.

This sounds big but it can be done if our activists on social media channel some of our energy to promote this approach of participatory democracy. This is just a model, it can be restructured. If we really want a new Nigeria, then all hands must be on deck.