URVIVING BEHIND DEVELOPMENT by T.B.A
Many a times, I listen to the complains of the people of my country about the incompetence and inadequacy of the government, and the negative effect it has on its citizen and economy. The question I ask is “What would you as a Nigerian have done differently”?. And most times the answer I get are very disturbing and I wonder if Nigeria can ever meet the standard of a developed country because as far as I am concerned we are not even a developing country but under-developed. The last person I directed my usual question to, said “I would provide light, water, roads etc” hmmm..took a deep breath. That was well said but to me that sounded like what every of our leaders had always said in the past, then it dawned on me that an average Nigerian sees the problem of the country as a survival of the fitest, that is why we extremely do everything illegal or legal to survive, pursue political ambition for personal interest at the slightest opportunity in our loosed government entity. Life's are lived like its only for a day and leave the future to handle itself, 'cut corners' at our work places, take bribes and other unimaginable things all in the name to survive and this has become a way of life which has eaten deep in our subconscious. I then realized that the problem of the country inability to develop is not the government but the people. There is a saying that the greatest asset of nation is its people which means that the people makes up the nation not the nation making up the people and the mindset of the people reflects the status and the value of a nation. Take for instance, if in Nigeria we flush out the current government out of power and replace with a totally different set of people, I can assure you that we will experience more economic wreck, why? because the people who makes up the nation, makes up the government and as long as this survival mind set is embedded in the people then we just swore in new set of thieves..Lol ,who would be more desperate than the previous ones who left power. Looking at Ghana as a reference point: It has constant electricity and all basic amenities but yet still dint make the list of developed county in the world, and what does that tells us? it simply means that the strength of a nation is not determined by the sustenance of its amenities or infrastructure but by its economic power, and the economic power is determine by the production power of it people. And not until we start conceiving the thoughts of development we will keep surviving and surviving behind development. …to be continued