THE DIRE NEED FOR GENUINE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: IS REVOLUTION THE SOLUTION?

TOPIC: THE DIRE NEED FOR GENUINE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: IS REVOLUTION THE SOLUTION? NAME: HABEEB ASUDEMADE WORD COUNT: 1199 (EXCLUDING TITLE PAGE AND REFERNCES) If there is one revolution that speaks closely to the current situation of Nigeria, then we need not look farther beyond Africa. It is the Tunisian revolution of 2011. For years, Tunisians were buried neck-deep in the pool of unemployment, food inflation, corruption, poor living conditions, and an absence of political freedomi. This perhaps was going to be the case forever, but for the humiliation of Muhammed Bouazizi who, in response to his oppression, set himself ablaze in the front of the Parliament on the 17th December, 2010. This singular act of Bouazizi would later inspire five other self-immolations, lead to the removal of the 24=year serving Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, herald a thorough democratisation of Tunisia, and go down in the pages of history. Treading the same path as the then Tunisia, Nigeria has adorned herself with the robe of world-class poor governance, weaved in various threads of revolutionary factors. Interestingly, for almost all the times revolutions have taken place in different parts of the world, certain indices have been constant. For the Haitian revolution, it was against slavery and terrible living conditions;ii for Cuban revolution, it was against unemployment and terrible water infrastructure;iii for the French revolution, it was against social and economic inequality;iv and for the Russian revolution, it arose from the poor treatment and bloody massacre of peasant workers.v All these point to a few indices: poor governance, growing levels of poverty, absence of political freedom, a high state of corruption, and more importantly, an insensitive leadership. As fate would have it, all these indices exist in Nigeria in no small degree. If one must be honest, Nigeria has been sending several invitations to revolution for a long while. By now, one can sufficiently argue that the panacea to Nigeria’s deep-rooted problems is revolution: and truthfully, why not? Ours is a country where we have battled the same basic problems for decades. Political leaders have over the years recycled Nigeria’s problems as empty political promises. Consequently, the problems remain fertile. Today in Nigeria, there is neither job for graduates nor is there food for the common man. This has created many hopeless individuals who now look towards crime as the resort. Businesses are also not spared from the rod. While SMEsvi are catalysing several economies around the worldvii, Nigerian business-owners are crippled by poor infrastructure, alongside stifling taxes and terrible economic policies. Also, poverty is on an aggressive increase and how will it not be? By now, the $1.8 poverty line has become the roof under which majority of the populace now effortlessly live.viii As though this is not enough, safety has been erased in the lexicon of Nigeria. Insecurity of lives and health has become a daily routine. First, it was the boko-haramists. Now, it is the herdsmen. For years, herdsmen have constantly been in the news for extra judicial killings, abductions, and terrorizing the lives of average Nigerians. Insecurity, like hydra, keeps on reoccurring across different parts of the country, including cases of the police and SARsix shooting citizens at willx. Little wonder Nigeria is one of the least safe countries in the world, even behind Libya – a war-torn country.xi Similarly, many Nigerians are sent to their early graves because of basic preventable diseases which are not attended to, either as a result of poor hospital facilities or over-congestion of the scarcely few ones that exist or simply because of lack of access to one. As a result, good health is now financially the preserve of the rich and all the poor can do is to pray. Yet, the self-centeredness of our leaders is unparalleled. Government has become the exclusive preserve of a few who recycle themselves and their children. The supposed messiah who people thought would fight corruption has only been on a self-serving mission, with several travels around the world and several travails of democracy as well. The culprits of corruption know all they need do to become invisible to the lenses of Sai Baba is to say what Baba wants or simply cross-carpet. This was the case with Danjuma Goje, who was granted freedom from a 20 billion naira fraud charge, for giving up the senate presidency.xii Consequently, despite being the largest oil producer in Africa, Nigeria remains the poorest nation in the world.xiii Yet, due to intense corruption, we remain the 144th least transparent country in the world.xiv Obviously, Nigeria is suffering. Yet, anyone who challenges the status quo will have to continue the challenge behind bars. This was the case with Omoyele Sowore.xv However, while persons can be locked up, facts cannot: and they speak for themselves. So, to answer the question: is Nigeria worthy of revolution? The answer is simply yes. This is because Nigeria is in desperate times and consequently needs desperate measures. But, whether this dire need for revolution will bring about a genuine national development changes the equation. While Nigeria needs a revolution, such political revolution cannot magically overhaul the problems of Nigeria, seeing as not only the leaders are Nigeria’s problems, but also the people. Nigeria is plagued with myriads of problem today because Nigerians themselves have a twisted sense of national values, thereby placing our individual interests above the national priorities. The journey of Nigeria to the promise land of progress will take more than the toppling of the country’s political leaders. A wise adage says: it takes an entire village to raise a child. Assuming Nigeria is a child in the ways of economic growth and national development, it will take the concerted efforts of the entire citizenry, coupled with good leadership, to raise this child to political, economic, and overall national maturity. Revolution is not a magic wand which, once waved in the face of bad governance, transforms it to national development. The concept of revolution is in itself dependent on the readiness of the people to drink from the deep waters of core intrinsic national values. It was Alexander Pope that said: a little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierianxvi Spring. Similarly, if Nigerians are not individually and collectively ready to be immersed in the revolution of self, then they should not bother about the political revolution of their leaders. Case in point is Sudan, where, despite the successful removal of Dictator Omar Bashir, the country is still bedevilled by the military.xvii This tells us that until the people themselves transform their orientations, revolution may only continue to take out the oppressors and bad government, but it will never take out oppression and bad governance. Finally, one thing the Tunisian revolution teaches us is that: sometimes, all that is needed to bring about change is the action of one man. In Tunisia’s case, this man was Muhammed Bouazzizi. Although Nigeria equally has its own version of Muhammed known as Buhari, nothing has changed for good from the actions of this man. However, while it is true that Buhari has failed us, the reality is that our problem in Nigeria is much more than him. Tunisia may have needed just one man to kick-start its revolution, but Nigeria needs all hands on wheels, to drive towards a national development that is genuine. REFERENCES i Al Jazeera: (2015). Retrieved October 30, 2019, from https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/12/tunisian-revolution-151215102459580.html ii WorldAtlas: Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10most-important-revolutions-of-all-time.html iii ibid ibid v ThoughtCo (2019): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, https://www.thoughtco.com/prelude-tothe-russian-revolution-1779472 iv vi vii Small and Medium Enterprises European Commission: (2018). Retrieved october 30, 2019, from https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes_en viii Vanguard (2016): Poverty: 112m Nigerians live below poverty line. Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/poverty-112m-nigerians-live-poverty-line/ ix Special Anti-Robbery Squad x CNN (2019): Retrieved on October 30, from, https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/africa/nigeriapolice-shooting-outrage-intl/index.html xi Thisdaylive (2018): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/06/17/nigeria-one-of-least-safe-countries-in-the-world/ xii PunchNg (2019): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, https://punchng.com/29-days-aftermeeting-buhari-fg-withdraws-charges-against-goje/amp/ xiii CNN (2018): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from https://editionm.cnn.com/2018/06/26/africa/nigeria-overtakes-india-extreme-povertyintl/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&rm=1 xiv TradingEconomics (2018): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/corruption-rank xv PremiumTimes (2019): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/344532-omoyele-sowore-publisher-ofsaharareporters-arrested.html xvi A historical spring of wisdom ForeignPolicy (2019): Retrieved on October 30, 2019, from, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/05/how-sudan-military-overcame-the-revolution-constitutionprotests/ xvii