So --

We have the three points of view on Nigeria.

There are those who blame everything that is intrinsically wrong with Nigeria on the government and the administration.

There are those who think (even though they may or may not be Nigerian) that all Nigerians are loud stupid, criminal idiots and deserve whatever maltreatment they get at home or abroad.

And there are those who think that the mass exodus of geopolitical, economic, literary and philosophy minded individuals (the erudite elite - so to speak) from the country is what has left us in this quagmire. That all our best and brightest are abroad so the country is seriously lacking its intellectual resources.

My question is this --

What are your thoughts on how we can slowly but surely begin to move this country back to where it needs to be - not utopia - but a place where man pikin fit on light and e go work, where man pikin go open tap water go comot where university and polytechnic no be glorified secondary school, where pride go dey attached to the name, "nigerian" where our leaders dey accountable for all their actions and where corruption no go too dey rampant.

What can those abroad do to help?
What can those at home do to help?

Let me have your thoughts please.

not waiting for the government to do stuffs but see what we can do to change the situation no matter how small
being patriotic and not coming on nairaland posting alllll the negatives about nigeria without any solution to it
repping nigeria positively anywhere we are
investing in the country and the people

You that you are over there, what have you done to help yourself? Why are you looking for messiahs from abroad? Lazy thing! Or don't you know it would involve a lot of human sacrifice? Why don't you go first since you understand the system more than those abroad.

The best thing for those abroad to do is to stay abroad since they are not part of the bad eggs ruining the country. I for one will rather go to Iraq or Iran and die there!

I think those abroad can contribute because we have been exposed to a different way of doing things, especially where the running of institutions are concerned. I think we can also help by getting involved politically, by voting.
If the government are willing to work with those abroad to impliment new systems or frameworks into existing institutions like the police or various educational institutions or hospitals we can get somewhere. for example the retraining of teachers, police.
If we are talking about non governmental contribution we can have things like training schools, investment into agricultural sectors, business etc specifically targeted at young people or recent graduates at least to help provide employment and access to adequate healthcare.

I think people have to be re-orientated though. Those coming from abroad and those back home need to be on the same page, what we need to focus on is investing our expertise and experience, not necessarily money. There are even existing efforts which would gain from access to those abroad.

Xiomarra:

You that you are over there, what have you done to help yourself? Why are you looking for messiahs from abroad? Lazy thing! Or don't you know it would involve a lot of human sacrifice? Why don't you go first since you understand the system more than those abroad.

T[b]he best thing for those abroad to do is to stay abroad since they are not part of the bad eggs ruining the country.[/b] I for one will rather go to Iraq or Iran and die there!

If any of my relatives falls victim to a cannibals knife abroad, serves him or her right.  Nigeriana own too much.  Disgrace everywhere.  HABA!!!

Nigerians deserve what they get outside and inside Nigeria[b] because they are useless[/b]

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see xiomarra oh.

Which one should people believe? Are the Nigerians abroad bad eggs or good ones?

I think you're just trying to mess with people's heads here.

many steps from moral to traditional to innovation to political etc

a few of them are:

*Massive willingness to change the country from the bottom up.

*innovation in science, technology, and laws.

*letting pride go and being discipline in watever field u are ie division of labor and people respecting other people's occupation and existence.

*reducing the powers and balancing the powers an example would be a free and fair election, reducing or eliminating the powers of/or traditional rulers in order for a one equal Nigeria to build.

*Education, education, education, all without cheating and it can be achieved by giving students many trials.

and many more

Xiomarra:

You that you are over there, what have you done to help yourself? Why are you looking for messiahs from abroad? Lazy thing! Or don't you know it would involve a lot of human sacrifice? Why don't you go first since you understand the system more than those abroad.

The best thing for those abroad to do is to stay abroad since they are not part of the bad eggs ruining the country. I for one will rather go to Iraq or Iran and die there!

who me??

tpia:

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see xiomarra oh.

Which one should people believe? Are the Nigerians abroad bad eggs or good ones?

I think you're just trying to mess with people's heads here.

Really?   The bad eggs are mostly in Nigeria of course. The reason the country is in such a terrible state. Those bad ones abroad are finding their way back to Nigeria in chains via BA and Spanish airlines where they belong.  Good to know that foreign countries are capable of dealing with the Nigerian bad eggs all over the world as soon as they rear their ugly heads.

The basket of bad eggs outside Nigeria is nothing compared to the home-grown farms of rotten eggs in Nigeria.  Big difference.

naijaway:

many steps from moral to traditional to innovation to political etc

a few of them are:

*Massive willingness to change the country from the bottom up.

*innovation in science, technology, and laws.

*letting pride go and being discipline in watever field u are ie division of labor and people respecting other people's occupation and existence.

*reducing the powers and balancing the powers an example would be a free and fair election, reducing or eliminating the powers of/or traditional rulers in order for a one equal Nigeria to build.

*Education, education, education, all without cheating and it can be achieved by giving students many trials.

and many more

Good write up.  But I think we are stuck at the implementation phase. How do we go about these without poisoning ALL the inhabitants of the Nigerian Devil's Island to make a fresh start?   If you want to kill pubic fleas, you first have to shave the whole area before pouring dettol plus Izal , to kill all the invisible eggs.

Total sanitation I say.

lucabrasi:

who me??

Not unless you are related to the famous "Mr. Ayo Omotade of the British royalty.

Data collection. We (all Nigerians - right from birth) should all have some sort of "unique" ID that is issued by the govt and stored in a database;
something akin to a Social Security Number in the US.

This will help in so many ways - planning, tax remittance, tax breaks, fighting crime, fighting diseases (vaccinations etc) and so on.

Many western countries are storing biometrics as part of the ID cards for their citizens.

Resolve our power situation

Law Enforcement

Better usage of Science and technology At this point in time, we should be using forensics to fight crime.

Appointing people into top positions based on intellect/competence and not based on "federal character"

There is no need mentioning so many things at last we end up doing nothing.
2 things we need MOST of all.
    1. INFRASTRUCTURE   
    2. DISCIPLINE
   The rest can follow there after.

omoovie:


My question is this --

What are your thoughts on how we can slowly but surely begin to move this country back to where it needs to be -

Are you saying we move the country back still? I feel we should think of moving it forward.

By being all of the followin-:

Discipline

Patriotic

Truthful

Loyal

Honest

N best of all,be our brothers keeper.

Let every citizen be DISCIPLINE
Disciplined parents should ensure proper upbringing for their child/children ( no matter the cost). These children of today determine the future of Nigeria tommorrow.

Let me add that we should begin to see ourselves as one. In a case where an Hausa man feels superior to a yoruba or an Igbo man it becomes very hard to get any meaningful achievement. If I had the power I would split Nigeria - let the various tribes stand on their own. Nigeria has never been united it is better when the YORUBAS, HAUSAS, IGBOS, NIGER-DELTAS, etc do their thing their own way

only one thing we can do . . .

free and fair elections. . .

every other thing will fall into place with time.

. . . prolly a resolution.

Darfur is right. we can start by free and fair elections. what can we do? and, what we should do? this are two deferent questions that i ask myself every day. I feel the pain of our people and the struggle we go trough every day. i cry and pray and yet i see no changes but more corruptions. i see people running away from there home to better themselves. Nigerians stop running. it is time to fight. we must go to war.( i know Bleep this guy is talking about?) i hear you loud and clear and i wish i could say the same. but it is time for some one to stand up and lead our people. do you know our problem my Nigerian brothers and sisters? our problem is fear. we fear the government. we are blinded by greediness. we seek not the future but today, and we fight not for our children but ourselves. One thing i know for sure is no matter how hard we pray and fast, God cant do noting about it. believe me he is trying, but no one is ready no one is ready to receive his power. God is looking for a man that will make a change. and trough that man he will answer our prayers. you ask What Must We Do To Fix Nigeria? noting we can do noting. the only thing is to wait for the right man to come forth and lead us then we can do something. i am sorry if i disrespect anyone but i am just giving you the reality of this issues.
here are my opinion.
you cant fix a country if the government is corrupted. so the best thing you can do is fix the main source of the problem then the rest will fall in place.
2. rebuild the economic, building better hospital, with emergency car, free health care for our children, more jobs with good pay,24/7 light on, lower oil, stores will be build, police station will be build with police car, . better prisons will be build for criminals, landlines phone will be better than ever, wireless phone will be provided in all areas, cable tv stations and satellite tv stations will be build in all areas, more food will be provided, shelter will be build for poor, better home land security, all states will have its major, police department, and much more, price. rebuild poor areas, better street. building market places, better and more reliable transportation, for city and out of city. tools for our scientist to do experiment, better technology. I can go on and on non stop but we can do noting. utill some one rises. so please for our children future and for future lets make a different. the question now is who will rise among us.


i am sorry for any misspell words. I was in a hurry.

Only special circumstances fit change Naija

Deliberate intent to forment change no go do am at all at all. Too many obstacles.

Oya, make una dey go contact your local dibia for special favour from the life forces.

free and fair elections ---> politicians will be careful or else they will loose re-elections----->only reasonable nigerians will be elected----> when elected they will be sensitive to nigerians-------->they'll be under pressure from their party members who would want a good party record so they can win elections when they are party nominees------> they are under pressure from the natn assembly who want their constituents to see they are good and who may want to be popular so they can contest elections-------> they are under pressure from the press who are looking for pitfalls to make news and sell their papers-------> with all these pressures they want to leave a legacy------> they build schools----->hospitals------>create jobs-------> intelligent naijans from universities will have a chance to build their own nation - -----> those withou jobs will have hope that they'll get jobs later and stay back in the country----> reduced immigration and increased home effort------> etc ---> better nation

very simple, free and fair elections

the rogues in power know this, they know it will hurt them, so they fight to keep flawed elections. our fight should start on election days. dont let them rig. it can be done, bishop obinna did it in owerri in 2003 and made sure it was not rigged. . . owerri sent the only APGA candidate to natn assembly from the south.

it can be done

yes we can

darfur you speak well. so what do you think we can do now. because is now or never.

for now we can stop hero-worshipping the rich fools that looted our nation. no more kabiyesi greeting for the obasanjos at village meetings but booing them will start. no more cheiftaincy and religious titles, put them to public shame whenever they step out of their homes(but no violence--yet) make their stay uncomfortable, boycot their companies(for those who invested in naija)

then on election days, we fall out for war. make sure they dont rig. follow ballot papers from polling booth to inec
engage the police whom they use to rig, educate those officers that they are the biggest fools b/c they rig the elections, these men enter office and loot and wont even give them. they remain wretched


when we overcome rigged elections, nation building starts. until then, noisemaking prevails.
today it is south africa, very soon indonesia and azerbajain and uzbekistan, india, pakistan, myammar etc will attack the nigerians in their country. and then togo and cameroon will follow suit, and then chad, niger and darfur/sudan will do the same. . . until we are ready to build our nation

[size=14pt]Nigerians are too quick to take sides when it comes to issues___**
The ones that don't know the rudiments of the story are the ones that make the most noise
Everyone roars like wounded lions in the name of patriotism[/size]
culled from another post by dee02

The number one issue we have in Nigeria is we are quick to react and slow to think. This is why we have a whole lot of educated people but tons of problems still. As soon as people start to use their heads more, we will start seeing lasting solutions and fast too.This applies to Nigerian citizens as a whole both at home and abroad. Slow to react and spend more time researching ideas and issues and quick to think to find solutions that will benefit us today and in the long run.

No need to continue to rehash, no need to waste more time and no need to continue to deceive each other; it is crystal apparent to all of us that 95% of our problem falls into corruption.

If this is true, why are we still wasting time and money? Why not immediately modify our constitution and start executing any convicted corrupt individuals? (I guarantee you that after executing 2 or 3 convicted entities, Nigerians in general would respond positively toward this action or new law, and the end result will be favourable to all)
Sorry folks, but this is the only way we'll witness the birth of new Nigeria in our life time.

Anything else will be absolutely business as usual; trust me!

This is the best "gift" any president could give Nigeria as a nation.

And I'm confident to say that this "gift" is coming very very soon.

for sure. for sure. but how do we word this out to people. we need people for this.

I totally agree with londoner. There's a lot Nigerians abroad can do to help in terms of expertise. We need to get involved in our various areas of specialisation and help change the way things are done, for those who want to relocate eventually.

As for Nigerians at home, maybe it's high time they stopped waiting on the government and begin to steer their own ships. For instance, instead of waiting on the government to repair the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, how about getting wealthy philanthropists to contribute towards its repair? I'm sure they would love to have their names up on a bill board showing off their kind heartedness. Just a suggestion.

we can give that a try. so how do we do this.

How about we form some kind of lobby group? We can all put our heads together, come up with ideas: who we can meet, how we can raise funds, get media attention etc. If we're willing to talk solutions and not just problems I believe we can get something done.

The first thing we need to do is decentralize Nigeria, then privatize every aspect of our infrastructures and petroleum, reduce the size of goverment and restructure our police by decentralizing them first.

Caution: when I say decentralize I'm not not suggesting dividing the country I meant reduce the size, role and power of the federal goverment to save money, to ensure efficiency and better management.

i agree with nwansukka lets do that. nwansukka why dont you set that up. get back at us and live us the link to the lobby.

There are those who think (even though they may or may not be Nigerian) that all Nigerians are loud stupid, criminal idiots and deserve whatever maltreatment they get at home or abroad.

first and foremost we need to change our attitude towards Nigeria.

The degree of bitterness people have towards Africa in general and Nigeria in particular is evidence of the self destructive tendency which is pulling the continent down.

Western countries report shocking stories of themselves everyday on the news, yet you'll be hard pressed to find indigenes of those countries loudly blasting and cursing their countries the same way many Nigerians do.

If bad news is reported about Nigeria, some Nigerians will rejoice and use it to justify their attitude. If good news is reported about the country, some will mourn and either disparage it or attack the source.

And its all so self defeating. For example, the naysayers will shout and scream about how bad Nigeria is. yet some south African was pointing out that Nigerians have an annoying reputation for shouting, in their country. As if no one in their own country shouts, but thats another matter.

The fact is even the most vocal anti-Nigerian Nigerian is still displaying the same traits he is condemning about Nigeria. So how does that make sense? Una don turn to anti-Semite Semite.

And how will anything get done if we are busy yelling for change but at the same time waiting to condemn any move in any direction whenever it concerns the country. Misdirected activism.