Change as is commonly said is the only constant or permanent thing in life. The dictionary and everyone has his/her unique definition for this word CHANGE, this is based on their personal or do I say unique views. For this reason I won’t be giving any definition for this word yet.

Change is a process, so it definitely can’t be accomplished in a day as most of us “should” have realized by now, so in order to effect change one has to be extremely patient. Now, that’s enough on CHANGE because that’s not the topic.

Before I go further, I’ld like to state categorically that this write-up is dedicated to the good people of my great nation NIGERIA, but it’s not restricted to us (Nigerians) alone.

This write-up is for those of us that:
– Go about castigating, insulting and pointing accusing fingers at those that are in positions of authority/power.
– Do not see anything worth celebrating/commending rather we only see things worth complaining about the nation.
– Love and appreciate this beautiful nation of ours NIGERIA.

Actually, I’m not here to blame anyone of us who falls in the first two categories rather, I’m here to  try give us a change of perspective. I’m certain some of us would be wondering what I have to say that could change our perspective on this nation.

Well… here it goes :
1) Take a look at Aso rock, it’s a civilian that’s in power, go back some 17 years (early 1998) when the Late Gen. Sani Abacha was in power, there was never the slightest hope for democracy. Yet we had a seamless transition to democracy (yes, I know it has its own peculiar challenges), no blood was shed, then compare us with the “Arab spring” nations (Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria) who  have had to pay and are in fact still paying for ousting their leaders and in the case of Syria has escalated to a civil war just to oust a civilian leader. These countries have lost thousands of lives and property worth millions of dollars have also been destroyed.

2) Nigeria has 3 major tribes and about 371 tribes in total and with all our ethno-diversity and inter-tribal conflicts, notably the civil war that lasted about 3 years (1967-1970), we haven’t lost lives at the rate which RWANDA that has 2 major tribes HUTSI’s and TUTSI’s and 3 tribes in total lost lives in an inter-tribal conflict between the first two tribes. Shouldn’t we celebrate?

3) NATURAL DISASTERS: Asides flooding (which I won’t term a natural disaster rather a product of bad drainage channels) NIGERIA has nothing to worry about “mother nature’s” forces. Not too far from us here in neighbouring CAMEROUN, they suffer the wrath of volcanic eruptions. AMERICA with all the Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Hurricanes, most notably the Hurricanes Katie and Isaac that tore through the land. ASIAN countries always hit by Monsoons and Typhoons, ever fresh in my memory is the Typhoon Temple that ravaged TAIWAN and both ends of the KOREAN people that’s the NORTH and SOUTH. Lest I forget, Tsunamis always have a score to settle with the Asians… Fukushima anyone?

4) NATURAL RESOURCES: This country has been blessed by GOD with numerous natural resources; TIN, GOLD, COAL, COLUMBITE, CRUDE OIL, a very fertile soil for agricultural produce etc. Most of these resources haven’t been harnessed at all with our over-dependence on “BLACK GOLD”, this land is truly a haven of GOD’s riches and benevolence on us. Truly the land is GREEN (thanks TY Bello).

5) By my own rating this is by far the most important of them all; HUMAN RESOURCES: We’re overly  blessed with the best of people in every sphere of life. Yes every sphere, from the Leaders to the least significant citizen (if there’s anything like that) in the country. This point is where my topic comes to play, like I stated earlier NIGERIA is blessed with the best of HUMAN RESOURCE, the only challenge is that most of these human resources have just sealed their heart with the notion that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, good can come out of this nation, but I want to counter this notion. All this country needs is someone somewhere to begin that change, I’ll give instances.
– We’ve been known to work with “African” time and that’s the reason a 2 hours meeting that’s to end by 12pm by original schedule would just be starting by 11:15am (an alarming 1 hour 15 minutes late). This is the case in a lot of gatherings or meetings that is associated with time, now that happens because everyone involved in such meetings/gatherings believes that other participants of the meeting will also come late, so they consciously decide to go late for the meeting even when they could have been 30 minutes early. This cliché “AFRICAN TIME” can only stop when we all decide to come on time for every of our meetings. You’ll be surprised how this little change will positively change our lives.
– Also, some of us just decide to break rules because we believe that we can always “bribe” our way out of trouble because the official in-charge is corrupt. We haven’t realized the fact that we (the people giving bribe) are actually the corrupt ones and for those that may say they were forced to give the bribe, have you considered what will happen if you just do what’s right? You won’t have to face any charges, the official will have no one to collect bribe from, hence turning or do I say transforming the official to a noble citizen (that’s one better human resource) for the country.
– PATIENCE; we’re known to be “RUSHians” which has led to several/numerous mistakes (most notably fatal car accidents). We also rush to condemn our leaders, elders, friends, subordinates or younger ones. We don’t give them the opportunity to explain themselves, we seem to forget what the BIBLE says about the tongue (life and death are in the power of the tongue), we rush to curse and condemn people yet we want them to perform, how is that possible? It’s really difficult… Please mind what you say about anyone because it may just come back to haunt you, remember words are like eggs once they’re out of your mouth (break), you can never get them back.
– I cannot help but add the ability to concede defeat for the greater good of the nation and not keep fighting for your own selfish interest as our outgoing President did in the last elections. I know that it’s a very rare happening in this nation but if we can all go about with a changed attitude like this, I can assure you that our beloved nation can only get stronger.

There are many more but I’ll stop with these few for now, remember NIGERIA is ours whatever becomes of HER is up to us.

No one could have put it better than Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the World”

BE THE CHANGE, it begins with YOU.

GOD BLESS NIGERIA

GOD BLESS AFRICA

GOD BLESS THE WORLD

GOD BLESS YOU