In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

“O! Allah rescue us from this village the inhabitants of which are unjust; and raise for us from thyself a friend and a helper.”

DEAR Brethren, a couple of years ago, I was, with reference to the challenges facing our country, an optimist without limits, a patriot without barrier. No matter the frustration, I was always expectant of the day the sun would shine on this country: a day when we shall be blessed with quality leadership, when we shall have constant supply of electricity and water; a day when Nigerians would travel from Maiduguri to Lagos in the dead of the night without fear of night marauders; a day when women would enter the labour ward and would be delivered of their babies with minimum pain; a day when our hospitals would not be glorified mortuaries. I had to take on the garb of an optimist and adorned the cap of a futurist because Allah decrees in the Quran that the believer is not and should not be a pessimist.

Brethren, thus each time I travelled out of this country, I always told myself it would not be long before Nigeria becomes the America of Africa, before Lagos becomes the New York of Sub-Sahara Africa, before Kano becomes the Beijing of the black race. As we mark this year’s democracy day, however, all evidences point to that direction where my country still suffers from arrested development. My aspiration that a paradise would emerge out of Onitsha, that the Garden City of Port Harcourt would transform into the Golden City of Nigeria, is yet to be realized.

Brethren, my vision for a great country has so far become still-born, not because the ordinary Nigerians are failing in their responsibility, but because the greatest resources of this land are under the control of a political class majority of which have no vision, a great lot of which appear incapable either of seeing or doing any great thing.

I remember that on a similar occasion two years ago, I did a brief comparison between the late imperious Libyan leader, Muhammad Qadhafi (MQ), and our leaders in this country. I pondered thus: “If MQ deserved a bullet in the head despite the posterity he bequeathed to Libya, how many bullets do our leaders deserve for foisting moral depravity and economic adversity on this nation?” Some of the issues I raised in that sermon still resonate and appear to be highly germane to the events of today.

Brethren is it not true that it is only in Nigeria that you have government officials who can afford to shrug off all cries and moans from Nigerians for good governance; it is only in Nigeria you have leaders, rather, “dealers”, who appear to have become denaturalized beings; call them demons or jinns. Thus they behave as if they have drained the cups of sins to its bitterest dregs and have thus resolved to inflict more pain and poverty on the nation. In their materialist reality, there is going to be no end to life, no Qiyamah, the day of resurrection.

Brethren, my recent travel between two Nigerian cities compelled the conclusion that two types of governance styles appear to be in operation in this village presently: one for Abuja and the other for other parts of the country. Or how else do we account for the refusal of those in power to repair the road that leads to the Muritala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos despite the window-dressing that is currently going on under the name of Airport remodeling.

How do you make sense of a situation that despite series of campaigns and appeals, that road continues to be neglected as an extension of the neglect being suffered by other critical national infrastructures. Presently, when you drive out of the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport in Abuja, you get a sense of a country “that is working”. When you emerge from the MMA, you begin to ask yourself: “why were you born into a country where you experience good governance through its absence?”

Brethren, as we mark this year’s democracy day, majority of the issues, which are dear to the heart of my compatriots, are yet to enjoy the attention they deserve. My people in the village still trek kilometers in search of water. My brothers kept “migrating” from the village because of lack of basic infrastructure. Young women in the cities are now selling their pregnancies, not for millions, but for less than N50, 000.

Great minds and young scholars keep running away from my country because the home is largely unhomely. Brethren, it is only in your country that the wife of a village-head, seated as it were in her saloon of arrogance, marooned as it were in the perfidious lucre of her infamy, would send a memo to the Oga in that ministry to provide N800 million to oil her fancies and fantasies, to lubricate the illusion and delusion of her Excellency. It is only in Nigeria.

Brethren, I do admit that some of our politicians are good- natured at the “bottom” only to become ill-natured at the top. Meet them on a podium, they would dispute with you in order to show their superiority. If your arguments happen to be weak, they would dismiss you as a fool; if you happen to defeat them, they become scurrilous. Three types of businesses are dear to them: money, women and more money and more women.

Brethren, it is common knowledge that the most heinous crime being perpetrated by government officials is corruption. Rather, I meant the only business that gets done today is greed and dishonesty. Once “oga” takes N1, 000, 000 from the contract, the subordinates would ensure they take N10, 000, 000. There in Abuja, a 20-kilometer road costs N80 billion naira! Here in my village the construction of an ordinary motor park costs close to N300, 000, 000. Here in Nigeria contracts are awarded and are never executed! Do you know how many times the Lagos-Ibadan expressway has been awarded and yet the road remains a deathtrap? If you have a flight to catch in the MMA tomorrow, plan to sleep in Lagos today, otherwise you may need to board the airplane on the expressway between Mowe and Julius Berger bus-stop in Lagos.

Brethren, face-to-face with the above, the question that arises for you and me is this: what can you and I do to effect change? Shall we continue to lament our circumstance and expect the Almighty to send angels down to us to act on our behalf? Answers to these questions are in the negative. In fact, the Almighty has said in Q12:11 that he would not change the evil condition of a people for good until they themselves take steps to change it.

Thus, I propose we take our destiny into our hands. Begin with your family. Show your children how best to run an administration. Teach them, in words and action, the greatest virtues of Islam- of taqwa (God-consciousness), love and honesty. Teach them the values of accountability and integrity. Once your home and mine become good, the journey to a better Nigeria would have started.

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