THE NIGERIAN DREAM: DO WE NO LONGER CARE? By Iruoje Emmanuel

“There is fire on the mountain, and nobody seems to be on the run”. For those of us who are familiar with our very own Asa, the gifted soul artiste, that quote is from one of the lyrics of one of her best songs titled ‘fire on the mountain’. That particular line embodies what I am writing about and what some of us must have been thinking seriously about in our closets. It is the summary of one of the biggest issues facing our generation: The indifference and insensitivity of most Nigerians today. It is a very deep-seated problem that is slowly but surely killing us, this state of mind that most of us now have, and whether we like it or not we’ll have to pay for this attitude in the nearest future, unless something is done. Never in the history of this nation have we been faced with such trying times. Never have we been this tested. Never has there been a better moment to demand for change. Our economy is ailing, our children are failing in their thousands, our borders have become porous, and ergo one of the chief reasons behind our security problem that has become a behemoth. The level of corruption and greed is at an all time high, unemployment is no longer an anomaly, abuse of power is at its peak, hundreds die monthly of avoidable deaths and the Nigerian has become a laughing stock amongst other African nationalities and an object of scorn and embarrassment at various airports worldwide. Lastly and most notably, our existence as a unified nation is constantly under threat as a result the heated political climate. Yet with these entire myriad of problems, we are not concerned. Why is this so? What has gone wrong? Don’t we have cause to be agitated? Or do we actually think all is well and we are safe? Make no mistake, I am not advocating for a call to arms, a bloody revolution or anything of the sort. If we have to resort to that option eventually, nobody will really have to catalyze the process as things will spiral out of control to a point where we would have no choice. I earnestly pray we don’t have to go down that road. What I am calling for is the increased consciousness of the society we live in, we have to stop being too passive about the state of things going on around us. This attitude has to be nipped in the bud quickly, and in the shortest possible time. I remember when the Aluu massacre made the news and was the topic of discussion on various social media platforms and television shows; one would think that most Nigerians would demand justice-a speedy one at that-for the victims of that barbaric and dastardly act. One would think that that situation would serve as a wake-up call for us to ask for an end to jungle justice immediately, but it wasn’t so. About a week after that incident, we all went back to our normal ways of living- our mental states, by extension also went back to their default settings too-and pretended as though nothing had happened. Those four young men were murdered before our very eyes, no be say dem say, the entire world saw it! It was up to us to correct that situation and make sure such evil didn’t occur amongst us again. But we didn’t do anything. Even as I write this article, justice is yet to be done on that issue and we are not concerned, isn’t this worrying?! There are countless situations like that in our country: the Otedola-Farouk Lawan saga, the baga massacre, the more recent killings in Mamudo, the brazen display of arrogance and hubristic nature of the first lady, the jaw-dropping take-home pay of our lawmakers and the constant lack of electricity that has bedeviled us for over forty years. The list is almost endless, but I’ll stop there for now. All this have happened right in front of us and we still act as though nothing has happened. Is it until things get to a point of no remedy that we would begin to ask questions? Have we become that numb? What is going on with our minds? Perhaps the group responsible the most for this insensitivity is the youth of this country, which I happen to belong to myself. Simply put, most of the Nigerian youth these days are pleasure oriented, simple minded and myopic in thought. As harsh as that might sound, it is the bitter truth and we all know it! Go online and see for yourself. You will be surprised at what is coming out of our minds. We take nothing serious; everything is quickly turned into a joke. Other than sending irrelevant broadcast messages on our blackberry devices and promoting bland and tasteless music, there’s almost nothing we are good at. Frivolity is the new cool, the love of money and material things is the only motivation most of us have and those who work hard to make a honest living are seen as fools. Is this normal by any stretch of the imagination? Is this acceptable by any sphere of thinking? This kind thing make sense? haba! Let us remember that it’s we who are most affected by most of the issues we are contending with today. Young entrepreneurs are not where they are supposed to be today because local production of goods and services isn’t encouraged. Young people constitute a huge percentage of the various terrorist groups in the country today; the exceptionally brilliant ones are no longer in the country and we are also the ones used whenever those in power want to intimidate or oppress their political opponents. We constitute over sixty percent of the populace and yet we live as though we are just ten percent. How disheartening. Of course it is easy to defend our attitude by saying the state of things made us so. We are quick to say we became numb because that was the only choice left. You hear stuff like ‘’ Nigeria don scatter my brother, na all man for himself now’’. ‘’If you no struggle to chop your own comot, na hunger go kill you’’.’’ Everybody just dey try to survive now. Na the only important thing now be that’’. ‘’ As far as dem no bring their wahala come my side, I dey kampke’’. All of these statements are not enough to serve as an excuse as far as I am concerned. These sound like the voice of a people who have resigned to fate, who have given up on themselves just as they have given up on their country. These sound like the voice of a people who think they will never amount to anything again. Just because everyone is doing or saying something wrong doesn’t make it right. Let’s wake up, We are better than this! We can’t continue to live this way, as though we don’t care. We can’t continue pretending that all is well with us simply because it’s not our relatives that were killed in Aluu or because our friends didn’t get slaughtered by blood thirsty terrorists in borno state. We can’t assume that all is well simply because where we reside is safe, even though others are not living in safe conditions. This e no consign me attitude to issues has to stop. This passive mindset has to cease. This indifference must be checked before it is too late. We’d be sorely mistaken to think nothing will happen if we continue to tread this path, let us remember that all those who now have to pay with their lives or means of livelihood today were once comfortable just like we are now. The least we can do is speak, post a comment or tweet about it. It might not look like much, but it is better than nothing. An Old Bulgarian proverb says: “grain on grain, a loaf of bread; stone on stone, a palace”. Let’s be more conscious of our reality and do the little we can to make it comfortable for ourselves and our unborn children. That’s the only way the Nigerian dream can become a reality. Enough said.