They built houses, schools, hospitals, hotels, churches, fire stations, police stations, offices, roads and so
on, and over time, people began to migrate to those
towns, and the population began to grow alongside
their economies. Human progress and development
has never been as a function of government but rather
as a function of the individual.
The government that we have all focused all our at-
tention and energies upon was established by individuals. God didn’t come down from Heaven to establish
the United States of America and neither did Angel
Gabriel write the American
constitution (the rules by
which the nation shall be
governed )these things were
thought out and written by
human beings. For a nation
to change, and rise to its
highest potential, its citizenry
must take upon themselves
the mantle of individual responsibility. They must look
at the problems facing their
country with the eyes of duty
and service and not with the
passive stare of complacency
and criticism. They must
identify a sector that they
would like to tackle; anything
from building a school to a
medical centre and everything in between. The nation of Nigeria is not in the
hands of politicians and elected officials but in the
hands of the ordinary citizen.
Nigeria is a nation of pioneers and as such, that
pioneering spirit must once again be stirred up and
activated in the hearts and minds of all Nigerians. We
must stop criticizing and start doing. No matter how
small you may feel your contribution will be, it will still
be a billion times better than those whose only contribution to national development is gossip, slander,
character assassination and criticism.
History only records doers and not critics. What
our nation needs are problem solvers, not problem
35
spotters.
We all know that the healthcare system in Nigeria
is bad but what are you going to do about it? We all
know that the educational structure is in shambles but
what are you going to do about it? We all know that
there aren’t enough jobs for graduates, so what are you
going to do about it? We all know that the nation needs
to put tribal and religious differences aside and work
nation building but what are you going to do about it?
We all know that HIV is spreading across the population so what are you going to do about it?
We all know that there are major security issues
problems.
in the country so
what are you going
to do about it? It is
one thing for you
to sit down and
say “they will do
it” but my question
to you is this; who
exactly are they?
We behave as if the
responsibility of
building our nation
has been given to a
select few, and the
select few that we
always point to are
the politicians, as
if they alone can
fix all of Nigeria’s
Nigeria has the potential to become a G7 nation,
but what you must realize about the nations that make
up the G7 is that their citizens aren’t just sitting down
waiting for their politicians to fix everything. They, in
their own right are pioneers, they taking over entire
sectors of the economy and reforming them. They’re
partnering with one another and generating the capital
needed to birth new schools, companies, roads etc.
Here lies one of the major stumbling blocks to na-
tional progress, the curse of individualism. When you
dwell in a nation where everyone wants to be the biggest boy, it is hard to preach the gospel of partnership,