The future is bright regardless of what Nigeria or Nigerians may wish. The future is bright for all and sundry and the generality of Nigerians. Let us all stop complaining and try to make things work. Let us all roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty.
A lot of things can still be done in this our country of great resources. What is the reason for my optimism – I look at Nigeria, country of 150 million odd people, now that is vast human resources, that is an amazing collection of knowledge, intelligence and human supply.
I look at Nigeria with her huge land mass, now that is substantial land material, enough to farm and feed the world. Now that is something.
I look at Nigeria with all her mineral wealth, coal, oil, diamond, gold, columbite, bauxite, tin, now that is a lot of natural mineral, that is amazing amount of potential wealth.
I look at Nigeria with all her agricultural products, now tell me, what does not grow in Nigeria, what crop do we not have – yam, cassava, rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, beans, pineapples, mangoes, palm oil, potatoes? What do we not have or have the potential to grow? It’s amazing. Even flowers are grown and exported in Nigeria. What do we not have? What can we not grow?
Look at our vast water ways, our seas, rivers and oceans, look at the abundance there from, fish, prawns shrimps, eels; look at the amount of hydroelectric energy they can generate, their availability to provide salt, to water the earth, to irrigate. Look at our climate, warm all the year round, constant and consistent. The rain comes as ordered by God, on a regular basis; the dry season comes as instructed at the due time. No hurricanes, no snow, no earthquakes, no tornadoes. Look at our animal husbandry, cows, goats, sheep, poultry, pigs, elephant, rats and even camels abound naturally in this same Nigeria. Vast vegetation of all kinds, from rain forests to savannas, to sahels to mild deserts, which all have economic values. We have hot and humid places like Lagos, cool and dry places like Jos, hot and dry like Maiduguri, cool and wet like Port Harcourt. We have warm springs in Ikogosi, cattle ranches in Obudu, game reserves in Yankari, beautiful beaches in Lagos, and all sorts of other different historic forests and landmarks, the Oshun shrines. The Edo kingdom relics, the Olumo rocks, tin mines of Jos, birthplace of Uthman Dan Fodio, the Sahara trade routes and all such places that people in other parts of the world pay good money to see.
What then is the problem of this great country of vast resources? None I dare say for we have all the basic tools and ingredients that will make the white man green, no black with envy. We are so naturally blessed. It is unbelievable and unfair to the rest of the world that we are not succeeding and rather are struggling. Consequently, I look at us as virgin territory with an extremely bright future, extremely bright, if only we had people with foresight, honest, clean and uncorrupted people available to take us there.
We should aspire towards the kind of leadership that will make our dreams come true, give us all hope and take us to our assured bright future. What we require from our leadership is not much, just a commitment to the cause and general good of Nigeria, an ability to recognize our vast potential and to acquire by one means or another the technology we presently lack (our only short coming) to harness it.
No more uneconomic contracts, no more selfish accumulation of wealth, no deals that are not in our collective best interest, no kickbacks, no bribes, nepotism or corruption. No more planlessness and poor utilization of our vast resources. No more petty rivalry and mundane demands. No more narrow-mindedness and shortsightedness. No more preventing us from achieving our bright future, and meaningless accumulation of personal wealth. Rather wealth should be attained through honest reward for honest hard work. Indeed if a leader has performed well, we should collectively congratulate and reward him because he deserves it, not because he has taken it without our knowledge.
