Sunday 22 May 2011

Segment I: RE-IMAGINING AND TRANSFORMING NIGERIA:

Segment I: RE-IMAGINING AND TRANSFORMING NIGERIA: Why a culture of engaged wakefulness is now the key to national selfhood

RE-IMAGINING AND TRANSFORMING NIGERIA:
Why a culture of engaged wakefulness is now the key to national selfhood

Co-author of Let There Be LIGHT, Patrick Bernard, explains why the New Generation Nigeria must be a top-down community of competence and conscious engagement.

Is this finally the homecoming?

Just in case you are in a hurry to go face-book a friend or tweet away from these pages, this is A Case for Light; Yes, that degree of light in the public space that every purpose-driven nation needs to begin to develop or emerge from “underdeveloped” or developing into the global loop of national greatness. The executive summary of this presentation is simply that:

“No nation seeking to grow and go great should fear the challenge for deep reflection and self-examination. What we must fear is our urge to avoid this.”

Let me tell you the whole story then. Well, not really the whole gist - I take that back. Let me give you as much of the summary of the whole story as can fit neatly into a few pages. Once upon a time, there was this rather understated but smart politician who, despite having known a childhood without shoes for his feet, was now the fortuitous CEO of a big country. Amidst the rants and oversimplifications of opponents who mostly seemed to want to be handed the CEO seat on a platter of gold, this man a very bold statement. The statement was of course hard, if not impossible, to believe. “The coming elections for this seat and all others will be free and fair,” said this low-key leader of a 150 million people nation of the proud and gregarious black man. “Free and fair elections here? Ha, ha, ha! We hear that all the time,” echoed the skeptics – an overwhelming number of citizens for whom the national project had become more like a circus of recycled but uninspired and uninspiring clowns. They no longer saw reason for optimism on the national project front. So the all-too-familiar pushing and shoving “for survival” and for chunks and crumbs of the “national cake” continued. Keep in mind that all this was happening in a blessed, even if underserved and undefended, land that was not and, thankfully, is not at war - except perhaps with itself. Then he named his chief electoral officer, one with a strong reputation for no-nonsense credibility. Still, citizens stayed preoccupied with their existential issues - such as light, water, security and bread for the children - the import of his move understandably failing to register or sink in. The accumulated cynicism of the years would not let most take note. Then it happened. President Goodluck Jonathan said elections must be real and fair under his watch, and Professor Attahiru Jega and his team pulled it off. But wait a minute! What again? Must we witness that familiar but dreadful sign of a national project still starving for collectivity and singularity of purpose once more? In a bizarre protest against a ship that had already set sail, the street soldiers of a fundamentally flawed and outdated bloodbath approach to nationhood, an approach we must now banish permanently to the past, resurfaced. They spilled their brothers’ blood, ostensibly to reset the clock, “In order to move Nigeria forward,” they claimed. Please people! Please stop! Stop trying to get to heaven by unleashing hell on earth! This bloody “kill and burn” war against innocent neighbors is at least 50 years outdated. We are adults now and we are racing to the loop of common sense and decency! No more shedding of others people’s blood so as to make shortsighted and perplexing political statements.
                      
                                                                  
 


                                                                 Seeds of a Nation                                                                     
                                                “Shoeless” but pregnant with possibility!


                                                                President Jonathan 
                                                           From “shoeless” to president!

Decoding the people’s message
Nigerians have gone to the polls, and they have voted both their conscience and their hopes for a nation with eyes on the prize. That prize is a nation of light, a nation of “noble cause” that is decidedly shooting for “great and lofty heights.” Nigerians have voted in the man Goodluck to lead the charge – this time, with a solid mandate and a seal with his name on it. But there is a message in the bottle! To make it clear that their votes are meant for Goodluck the man and the idea (not necessarily for his party and his friends), and for Good Luck for their land, Nigerians have also done something that past election results suggest that they have not typically done. They turned left and right and voted in some other men and women that hold some promise, even where it meant voting out the president’s party in some surprising cases. What message did Nigerian’s send with their votes this time? Think about it!

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