Remedies to Nigerians’ Woes

Of recent, Nigerians are bedeviled with myriads of problems ranging from epileptic power supply, poor education, incurable diseases, bad roads, unpatriotic leaders, unemployment, kidnapping, to high rate of insecurity. The sweet dreams of our yesteryears leaders have not come to fruition; but rather, had turned into nightmares. During independence and post independence, Nigeria played vital roles in enthroning and establishing democracy in Africa; but today, its very own is being endangered.

Now, I had termed this maiden piece, Remedies to Nigerians’ Woes because from my analysis, the problems looking us on our faces today are the consequences of our negligence and misdoings. The Almighty Allah stated that He doesn’t change the condition of a people unless they change that which is in their souls; meaning What You Do is What You Get (WYDiWYG). As such, if we want to have a  new lease of  life  where light will  be  stable 24/7, quality health care and education flourish, every person is gainfully employed,  leaders are good and compassionate to their subjects, and  above  all, have  peace  of  mind  in  this  world  and  hereafter, we need to look  up ourselves  in  the  mirror, reject and discard the  bad  characters in us and uphold  and  continue  the good ones. Else, we will continue to wallow in darkness and suffering. We seek refuge in God from these! Amin!

So far, I have identified four predicaments bedeviling the Nigerian state: bad leaders, poverty, disease and insecurity. Because these foursome replicate into  other  problems, I strongly believe  that  if  the  heads  of  these  monsters are  cut  away  Nigeria could then aspire  to  be  a member of  the comity of developed  economics such  as  Indonesia, Malaysia, India  China, etc; nations, she  started  the  marathon race of national development with. I proffer here ways out of the doldrums of the country called Nigeria, which excels only in negativity: corruption, election rigging, fraud, poverty, prostitution, diseases, etc.

The first on the list of problems is bad leaders. A nation or state without good and visionary leaders is on the verge of collapse because leadership is a necessity that distributes available resources amongst its citizen, provides security, good health system, employment and basic amenities, and coordinates the day-to-day activities. A society which is devoid of a good leader is just like a rudderless ship, which Adamu Adamu of Daily Trust said, “even if it doesn’t sink, it is not going to reach its destination”. Do you wonder why we have been dilly-dallying around one point, taking one step forward and two steps backward?

Do you also ask “How do we get quality leaders?” Simple! It is just by changing our attitudes. These leaders were not imported from Mars; they grew up from our midst. They knew our weaknesses and strengths. They are aware that many of us cheat by beating the sides  of cans  and jerry cans when  measuring, misappropriate the  trust given  put on us by our brothers, bosses or community, refuses to give out Zakats,  and  encircle  their  homes praise singing them to be given peanuts. Why will they be afraid to steal when they know we are also guilty and gullible? Then when the elections come by, they splash out their ill-gotten money on us; we collect, rejoice, campaign for them and give them our mandates again. We deny the good and trusted ones just because they didn’t ‘see us’! And therefore the vicious circle continues.

The ball is in our court; we can stop it from rolling by shunning all wrong doings, depress selfish desires of our souls, and become industrious and productive. When we do this, I assure you these people we employed to look after our affairs will become subservient to us. In short, let us all become the   potential quality   leaders we dream of. As Mahatma Gandhi puts it, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” WYDiWYG!

Poverty, the second scourge that needs  to wiped  out  of  the  surface  of  Nigeria, also contributes to present predicaments  plaguing  us. It is an upshoot of bad leaders. Many  shallow-minded individuals  have  been  pushed the  wrong  ways because  of lack  of  sufficient money  to cater  for  their  basics  needs. For a long time, the average Nigerian had been reported to be living below N168 only per day. Poverty had ruined many homes, turned some people to armed robbers, prostitutes, and others to destitution and begging. It is  no longer news  that  Northern Nigerian  is the poorest region  in Nigerian which has the highest   number of beggars which it export to other regions of the country. When you see a beggar in Auchi of Edo State, Uyo in Akwa-Ibom, Port Harcourt or Lagos, you need not to ask of his or her identity. The status quo would always is that they are from the Northern half of Nigeria.

The antidote to poverty, no matter what district, state, region, country or continent, it  is for  the citizenry to be hardworking, persistent in  their  work, be  prayerfully   and  above  all  give out from even  the  little in  their possessions. Prophet Muhammed  was  reported to have said  that every morning, two angels  descend from heavens  and  one of them prays, “O Allah give replacement to he who gives,” and the other supplicates, “O Allah make he who refuses to give out lose.” It is a golden rule, “give and you shall receive.” The onus is rests on us, the led. What we do is what we get!

The next teething problem is disease. Hitherto, Nigerians have a popular saying that “Small diseases no dey kill Africa Man.” This is no longer the status quo today. Small and big diseases now kill Africa man and woman, young and old as well. Cancer, tuberculosis, diarrheoa, cholera, polio, malaria, hemorrhoids (basir), pile, syphilis, gonorrhea, and the gang leader, AIDS, are few of the continuous list of diseases that have been  plunging lives out of the world  citizens.

What is the cause of the multiplications of diseases? It is not farfetched. “If ever immorality spreads in a community and there is no sense of shame on its occurrence or mentioning it, diseases which were not present in time of their predecessors will spread among them,” were golden words of prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) some 1400 years. A cursory look at the above saying reveals our complacency and therefore our predicaments. Nowadays, fornication is no longer an odd thing; it is rampant everywhere and taken as fashion.

Every day, new trends of immoralities are been introduced. There is no more shame for two or more friends to be chatting of their illicit sexual indulgences, and condoms are broadly displayed in chemists for sale and given an enticing name. Today, a married man will indulge in ‘away matches,’ contract these deadly diseases and come home to inject them into his wife or wives.  The vice-versa is also true. It is a pity! Surely, the end of the killer diseases will not be sighted unless we halt our social promiscuities, men and women, young and old.

The mother of all problems in Nigeria, insecurity, has also claimed the lives of many Nigerians and afflicted life-threatening injuries to those saved from the cold jaws of death. Insecurity here refers to bad roads, poor health systems, substandard education, inadequate or absence of portable drinking water, and absence of safety in our homes, on the road, at workplace or places of worship. In the history of Nigeria, she has never been insecure like recent years! “50 people killed in a Road Accident”, “Cholera Claims Dozen”, “158 Passengers Killed in Dana Air”, “84-Year-Old Grandmother Kidnapped, N124 Million Demanded”, “Policeman Killed Bus Driver over N20,” or “84 People Killed in Bomb Attack” are some of the news making the headlines of most Nigerian media. Nigerians are so terrified today that a joke goes round now that “you have to look upward for plane crashes, downward for bombs, ahead for police and backward for kidnappers”.

The cause of insecurity is bad leadership which siphons money meant for societal development, allows corruption to thrive thereby disregarding standards, and applies wrong treatments to undiagnosed ailments and fears God not in most of its undertakings. Having good leaders is not myth; it is a possibility. The  prophetic saying I  quoted above also stated that “if they (the people) renounce their commitment to Allah and  his  messenger, they will be governed by  an enemy who is a stranger to them  and  who will take away  some of what  they posses.” (Ibn Majah) Could this be the reason our leaders are like enemies to us? They hate us, despises us, hunt us, and at times even kill us. They snatch away the hard-earned money we manage to gather through fuel subsidy removal and price hike. So what is the way out of this predicament? Let us all to turn to our Creator and Saviour wholly, do all He enjoined us and shun all He discouraged. When we do this, the whole world will become as we wished.

On a final note, I will end this piece with the hadith I have quoted extensively in this write-up. Ibn Umar (R.A) reported that the messenger of Islam Muhammad (P.B.U.H) said “O muhajirun (this applies to all mankind), beware of five traits. If  ever immorality spreads  in a community  and  there  is  no  sense of shame on its occurrence or mentioning it, diseases  which were  not present  in the  time of their  predecessors  will spread among them. If they decrease the measure and weight, they will be overcome by poverty, their provisions will decrease and their rulers will be unjust. If they refrain from paying Zakah due on their properties, they will be deprived of rain, unless they get it only for the sake of their cattle. If they renounce their commitment to Allah and His messenger, they will be governed by an enemy who is a stranger to them and who will take away some of what they possess. If their rulers do not rule according to Allah’s Book, they will be afflicted by civil war. Allah forbids that these should happen to you.” (Ibn Majah).

As it is now clear to all of us, the woes we are wallowing in were brought about by our own hands. So let us study ourselves very well, identify where we strayed, correct them and work hard towards enthroning a better tomorrow for ourselves, our children and those to come afterwards, in Nigeria and the world at large. The world can be a better place. It begins with me and you!