Our very own ‘yes we can’

Before proceeding I feel it’s important to offer a little advice to PMB’s administration; for it seems to have completely lost touch with the people. Throughout last week we were bombarded by news of the government’s town hall meeting. At first I was excited that the government was finally reaching out to us – finally!!!  But the more I read the more irritated I became with the belligerent chest beating; as it seems they care less about our pains and struggles, and more about defending their policies and performance.

My advice – if you want to reach out to a people that are in deep pain, the first thing you do is apologise. Tell us you’re sorry and that you feel our pain. This instantly softens us up and encourages us to be receptive. Then tell us why things are so difficult, how you plan to alleviate our pain, and when we should start feeling some respite.

The very essence of a town hall meeting is for the people to have their say, ask questions, and vent if they so wish. I’ve seen no evidence from any of the reports regarding this meeting that the audience was given an opportunity to have its say. The Town Hall meeting was such a missed opportunity to finally connect with the people that it ended up doing more harm than good, as nobody actually believes anything the respective ministers said.

Listen to the audience’s grievances first before you start blabbering on about ‘Change’.

Right, let’s proceed with the real matter at hand.

Challenges

Comfort zone: There is a strong resistance to coming out of one’s comfort zone in Nigeria. Too many of us are happy to just mind our own business as we struggle with the nation’s shockingly uncomfortable norms. 

Self Centeredness: To buttress this particular point I think it best to quote a comment that was sent to me personally.

‘‘Personally I believe Nigerians do not want any change, they only want personal improvement and a seat at the table – not a system that works for all.’’

In my view this statement is a sum of the majority of us. The acute difficulties of the Nigerian terrain have conjured up a people so focussed on personal aggrandisement that there is very little room for anything else. Our minds are so preoccupied with acquiring personal wealth that the mere suggestion of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good seems farcical at best.     

1. Persecution

There will in all likely-hood be resistance to such a group / party / movement from those that want Nigeria to continue on the same haphazard path – for the sake of their own personal gains of-course. This will most likely be done via all manner of smear campaigns and threats to lives and lively-hoods. To imagine otherwise would be foolishness of the highest order.

2. Infiltration

Opposition parties will send pretenders to infiltrate such a group in order to spy, pollute, and cause general disarray.  To be expected. 

3. Lack of Belief

The last is not only not the least but in my view the most important. Do You /I/ We Believe we Can Seize Back Our Nation by working together to place dynamic, Selfless, Enlightened, Progressive and Determined individuals in the right and relevant places in Local Governments, National Assembly, Executive, and Security? 

In truth it is an extremely tall order. But if we work together we can build a ‘Unity’ we have rarely experienced since independence. Add such a united front to a power that can never be taken away from us and you have a movement that is unstoppable.

And what is that Power? – People Power. Power will always reside with the people. This is why this new party must be one that catches the imagination of the people – creating a Free and Fair Nigeria in which every man and woman, boy and girl is given an equal opportunity to soar as high as he or she wants to; a Nigeria in which every man and woman is his / her brother’s / sister’s keeper.

Sounds a little far-fetched?

Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, once said:

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

This is not a call to physical arms or combat.

Neither is it a call for a change of government. President Buhari was freely and fairly elected into office in 2015, and as such has the mandate to govern to the best of his abilities until 2019.

This is a call for all individuals that love this nation, and who want a better future for our children and grandchildren to shake out of slumber and prepare for 2019. 

This is a call for unity of vision and purpose – to use our Minds, Talents, and Will to seize our country back before it’s too late.

Olusegun Akande