By Taiye Olaniyi

Once upon a time, we used to sing with pride the maiden National Anthem, “Though Tribes and Tongues may Differ, in Brotherhood We Stand….,” but today we seem to be losing touch not only with brotherhood but most painfully too, the fatherhood of God, the Creator of every living being everywhere.

Why? We have lost touch with the history of the struggles of the early nationalists, and the labors of our heroes past are going down the drains, we pride ourselves in wars fought, battles unleashed, and the burdens of previous agonies without realizing that only in an atmosphere of peace, of harmony and self-achievement that true nationhood and nationalism thrive.

We burden ourselves much more with fleeting affluence anchored on ill-gotten accumulation, promote and hero-worship traders of evil doings, and claim them illustrious beings from our tribal enclaves and religious inclinations.

Our youths are through our thoughts, words, and actions molded into ready hands of violence and as we age and lose all strength in health, we seem more candidates of shanties of health facilities, ghettos of medical aids, mortuaries, and graves where maggots feed so voraciously on both the rich and the innumerable poor.

Do we love and pray Nigeria continues to be what it is presently for us as the current generation and for the upcoming ones? Do you pitch your pride on what America, Britain, China, and even Chad could give to us as aid and support for us to survive as a nation?

By the way, are you and I created by the Creator of the entire creation to be a puppet in the hands of others, of other nations of the world, or are we to remain in warped thoughts and thinking, words and actions that our redemption can only come through violent revolution?

I concur with the mystic and philosopher, H. Spencer Lewis, when he admonished us aptly too, “The world cannot be moved positively by revolution but by evolution.”

Could we, therefore, try to raise our consciousness towards what an illustrious son of Nigeria, a maiden President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, late Chief Nnamdi Azikwe affirmed to us as admonition in 1963 during his inauguration as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I quote::

“To no person no matter how rich should we mortgage our conscience, to no nation no matter how powerful should we mortgage our independence “.

Could you and I, therefore, now and henceforth send our consciousness inwards and reflect on how individually we are part of the project of building a virile nation Nigeria as a creature of God using the creative, constructive talents that God has imbued in us for His glory and happiness?

Think about it and take this challenge once thrown at us during General Muhammadu Buhari’s first journey to the State House:

“The present generation of Nigerians and even the upcoming ones have no other country to call their home, Nigeria belongs to all, and we must all remain here to salvage it together.”

May God, the Divine, pilot us in Light, enrich us in Life and infuse us with Love unimaginable for the love of God, fellowman, Nigeria our beloved nation, and the world at large.

Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman, of the Nigeria Postal Service, is based in Lagos