By Binta Spikin
bintaspikin@gmail.com
There are times in our lives when we know we have to be honest, to ourselves and the entire society, and we do that as an act of service to humanity. In all seriousness, happenings in the social media cycle dictates that I, as a person, should, at this point, stand in my truth and own what I am- which is a Nigerian.
Today, I write as a Nigerian, a patriotic one at that, doing what I should do, and by so doing, I hope other Nigerians will appreciate what we are as a people, even if they don’t blow a trumphet over it.
As a country, Nigeria is blessed. Just how so? We need to read about hardships in other African countries (Niger, Ghana, even Egypt, Sudan etc) and beyond. Their hardships are endured and celebrated. Unfortunately, not so Nigeria. We wail and cry and stamp our feet at every opportunity, atimes, without even a proper grasp at what is at stake, why a certain policy or decision and its impact, on the short or long run. We have, unfortunately albeit unknowingly, crowned ourselves the title of Africa’s (if not the world’s) wailers in chief. We see nothing good in what is ours. So today, I am just out to celebrateNigeria, not as a member of APC (even though I am) . So lets go people.
From the inception of democracy to date, Nigeria has always been polarized based on promodial sentiments, (being a Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani, Ijaw, Igbo, etc; or the Muslim/ Christian; North/South divide). Therefore immediately a person from any particular social divide becomes a president, the others start a field day looking for his fault. Let us take Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our example.
His Excellency Bola Tinubu became the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the People’s mandate. He was elected and won fair and square. He is from the South West, a Muslim and Yoruba. He has, from our antecedants, more than enough points to tug at- The Hausas from the North could holler, at the top of their voices that appointments are skewed to favor his yoruba- ness while we have 19 States in the North. The Igbo would shout marginalization at every point in time. There were agitations from all sections of the country as if there would be no tomorrow.
Now, I have to admire President Bola Tinubu for his swiftness in responding to issues. He is in fact, a listening President, a through-bred democrat who understands the dynamics of this country. So where possible, he made adjustments. Where he didn’t do that, he offers explanation on why not. Plus he apologizes when necessary and takes full responsibility for his actions. That is a president, a leader worth his salt.
The fuel subsidy removal is one decision taken by this administration that plunged us (the masses) into untold hardship. The President knows that. I think for him, it is a bitter pill to
Swallow so that this country develops. However, in our typical Nigerian way, we have ignored the increase in the monthly allocation from the FAAC to state Governors who are supposed to be closer to us, and who should ideally come up with initiatives and programmes that will make money trickle down to the poorest of the poor through service delivery. We have ignored the 5 Billion worth of palliatives to every State in cash and kind to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal. We are equally not saying anything about the 50 Thousand cash transfers Nigerians recieve randomly . We are not talking about improved security in some Northern States.
Therefore, at this point, I, as a Nigerian want to celebrate how far we’ve reached. It is not the end of the journey and we are still struggling with security and economic issues. But, Nigeria is not the worst country in the world. To assume it as one is false. I am standing in my truth- I love Nigeria.
