Photo credit: the Cable
The Yoruba have a saying, it is: While the place we’re going to may not be far, the various side attractions delay us in getting there.
In 1952, the Irish writer Samuel Beckett wrote a tragicomedy named “Waiting for Godot.”
The play consists of conversations between two characters – Vladimir and Estragon, while waiting for the arrival of the mysterious Godot. Godot continually sends messages that he will appear, but never does. Vladimir and Estragon are human beings who don’t know why they were put on earth. They feel Godot will explain their purpose in life to them.
There’s an interesting debate about whether or not Christ is the Messiah. While Christendom believes he is, the Jews are still expecting him. Indeed, they not only believe in his coming but also wait for the establishment of a messianic era, which they believe will be a time of peace, justice, and redemption.
The Yoruba also say that a person who finds money in his dream and becomes happy should return to bed because of hunger. That’s where Nigerians are making a grand mistake.
Most Nigerians believe a God-sent leader will descend from the heavens and touch them with heavenly hands, and presto, everything will be fine. And, like most romance stories, everything will be merry after.
I always say Nigerians are wasting God’s time by either praying to him for a good leader or pleading with him to help solve the problems we’ve created for ourselves.
Pray, how many nations are as blessed as Nigeria, in terms of climate, mineral resources and quality manpower?
But then, we waste the resources by failing to do what we ought to have done and doing what we ought not to.
Nigeria’s problems lie in the citizenry or followership. Let’s start our leadership from the family level. From there, we go to the community level, and so on. At each level, we should fill the available leadership positions with people who have distinguished themselves in various ways. That will differ from the present weaponization of hunger, aka stomach infrastructure.
Then, we need to develop institutions and not personalities. Of course, institutions will outlive personalities. Institutions as structured systems and organizations,, significantly shape human behaviour, cognition, and mental health.
When you develop personalities without institutions, you create a situation of each man finds ways to survive on their own,
The current situation has left things in the hands of godfathers, and with them, it’s a winner-takes-all situation!
