By Taiye Olaniyi

Chief Obafemi Awolowo once described the situation in Nigeria as one so deplorable thus raising a clarion call for Thinkers to further burn their midnight candles stating thus:

” When those in the position of rulership and leadership are in clubs mingling with men of shady characters and women of easy virtues, I and people of like minds (Thinkers) are in our rooms thinking about the problems of Nigeria and how to find solutions to them. Only the Deep is Called to the Deep,” he inferred.

The problems of Nigeria are so vast for thinkers to work on till they burn their candle lights and work tirelessly, get exhausted in that process, dehydrate, lose weight if they ever, or/ and fall dead in that process.

Such thinkers/ workers are those the Yorubas refer to as ” Awon ti won sise bi Erin ti won jeun bi Eliri”, ” They that dissipate their energy thus working with the power of an elephant but gets little as tiny as that of a land squirrel.”

Workers are prepared to be who they are because of hope for a glorious future not minding not benefitting from the Nigerian society as would be commensurate with their noble thoughts, words, and actions for a virile nation of Nigeria.

In hearts and minds are attuned with a great mind as that doyen of theatre late Hubert Ogunde when in his mystical musings in his Yoruba rendition, he sang” Aaaaaa oni lari ola a dara, Eni ba se Ise o oogun osi lo ma se, ti o ba wu ola Oluwa ola a dara, aaaaa ola adara o.”

“It’s today we know, they who work real hard prepare a panacea against poverty and insufficiency if God wills it, tomorrow surely will be better”.

That was the hope for a better Nigeria then at the Inception of 1st Republic but today at Round 9 what can we honestly say Nigeria is?

As far as realities on the ground Impose on my thinking faculties, only the gluttons who feed fat on the Nigerian commonwealth to strictly their pecuniary advantage would lay claim to good days in today’s Nigeria.

They and their generation of vipers milk us real dry, and in their unholy communions in shifting cultivation, they coup together, de-coup, camp, de-camp, re-camp and regroup with all sinister motives to the peril of average Nigerian masses.

They and their wards like locusts are a pest that invades and infests but as nature usually dictates its tunes and wrests its unalloyed “Just Justice,” as “No Respecter” of any individual or class like the growing poor they in their ostentatious lifestyles pride in depriving. Nigerians mostly eat what Bob Marley referred to as the ” Bread of Sorrow”.

We all daily bemoan and say this is not Nigeria’s “Heroes” of the past once envisioned at Independence.

Maybe not the Nigeria Lord Lugard amalgamated more than a century ago.

Hmmm, Let us “Think” and “Reason” together for only those who think great, and work great truly build a great Nation and not a Goliath that simply falls just at a throw of stone from the economic catapult from another nation.

According to the era of “War Against Indiscipline” in Nigeria, the philosophy once had it, yet relevant that :

“The Present Generation of Nigerians and even the upcoming ones have no other place to call their home. NIGERIA belongs to all and we must all unite and remain here to build it Together.”

Peace Profound so prays the Son of Man.

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