I penned this down last year...

IF WE HAD WAITED......

I do not want to link this to the sagacity, or as many people believe(d), pride and ambition, of Obafemi Awolowo. I will try to dissociate this from the education, exposure and eye-for-good-things of Nnamdi Azikiwe. I should be careful not to subsitute it for the tenacity of Ahmadu Bello, the meekness and eloquence of Tafawa Balewa and the outspokeness of Anthony Enahoro.

But we could have waited. We could have tarried a bit. Our freedom fighters could have exercised a little patience. The regional states were growing. They were developing at a very high rate.

The then political leaders were busy, busy creating platforms for growth. Western region was massively and 'furiously' developing the area with proceeds accrued from sales of agricultural products. There was free, qualitative primary education. OAU was founded and has since remained one of the best public schools in Nigeria. A friend said none of the schools founded years after independence can stand the ones created earlier. I couldn't argue it!

Even as dictators, with no mercy and consideration on majority of our political situations pre-independence, we gained a lot. But we didn't wait enough. We couldn't learn the rules before we sent them packing.

Yet, fifty-six years after we took what "rightfully belonged to us", we still run to them for assistance. We carry our empty bags, jump on the next plane and turn corporate beggars on foreign soils. As if that wasn't enough, we would bring them here. The whiteman, with his pointed nose and words struggling to escape from his mouth, would tell us he has come to alleviate our poverty. The poverty we know the causative organisms!

Earlier this week, Governor Wike and his boys rolled out the drums to welcome the Minister For MiddleEast and Africa from the United Kingdom. This nearly broke my heart. So these people still give us alms after we chased them out over half a century ago!

My mother said she worked on coffee and cotton farms while growing up in the Akoko hinterland. I'm sorry I haven't seen coffee beans before neither have I come across a cotton tree, except in books. Today, NESCAFE import raw coffee beans for processing. Where are even the textile mills to use the small quantity of cotton planted?

If we had waited, Nigeria would be boasting of many major cities now. It is pathetic that we do not have ten cities in the whole of Nigeria. They say Warri is a city. Ondo town just became one. My governor built Mega Schools, Mother and Child Hospitals, Medical Village, tarred the roads in St. Joseph CAC Secondary School in the ancient town and pronto, it became a city!

If we had waited and tarried a bit, we would not be sleeping at their embassies hustling visas to escape from Nigeria. We would not be complaining of medical tourism abroad, of potable water, experiencing blackouts and electoral violence.

I studied the countries in Africa that got their indepedence around when we got ours and discovered they are still struggling to find their feet. South Africa got theirs 1994 and are taking over everywhere. I conclude they waited that long and are reaping the fruits of their endurance, perseverance and struggle for freedom from the Apartheid regime.

Should I wish you a happy independence?

Nice piece,kudos.

Nicely said..

ZanyABC:
I penned this down last year...

IF WE HAD WAITED......

I do not want to link this to the sagacity, or as many people believe(d), pride and ambition, of Obafemi Awolowo. I will try to dissociate this from the education, exposure and eye-for-good-things of Nnamdi Azikiwe. I should be careful not to subsitute it for the tenacity of Ahmadu Bello, the meekness and eloquence of Tafawa Balewa and the outspokeness of Anthony Enahoro.

But we could have waited. We could have tarried a bit. Our freedom fighters could have exercised a little patience. The regional states were growing. They were developing at a very high rate.

The then political leaders were busy, busy creating platforms for growth. Western region was massively and 'furiously' developing the area with proceeds accrued from sales of agricultural products. There was free, qualitative primary education. OAU was founded and has since remained one of the best public schools in Nigeria. A friend said none of the schools founded years after independence can stand the ones created earlier. I couldn't argue it!

Even as dictators, with no mercy and consideration on majority of our political situations pre-independence, we gained a lot. But we didn't wait enough. We couldn't learn the rules before we sent them packing.

Yet, fifty-six years after we took what "rightfully belonged to us", we still run to them for assistance. We carry our empty bags, jump on the next plane and turn corporate beggars on foreign soils. As if that wasn't enough, we would bring them here. The whiteman, with his pointed nose and words struggling to escape from his mouth, would tell us he has come to alleviate our poverty. The poverty we know the causative organisms!

Earlier this week, Governor Wike and his boys rolled out the drums to welcome the Minister For MiddleEast and Africa from the United Kingdom. This nearly broke my heart. So these people still give us alms after we chased them out over half a century ago!

My mother said she worked on coffee and cotton farms while growing up in the Akoko hinterland. I'm sorry I haven't seen coffee beans before neither have I come across a cotton tree, except in books. Today, NESCAFE import raw coffee beans for processing. Where are even the textile mills to use the small quantity of cotton planted?

If we had waited, Nigeria would be boasting of many major cities now. It is pathetic that we do not have ten cities in the whole of Nigeria. They say Warri is a city. Ondo town just became one. My governor built Mega Schools, Mother and Child Hospitals, Medical Village, tarred the roads in St. Joseph CAC Secondary School in the ancient town and pronto, it became a city!

If we had waited and tarried a bit, we would not be sleeping at their embassies hustling visas to escape from Nigeria. We would not be complaining of medical tourism abroad, of potable water, experiencing blackouts and electoral violence.

I studied the countries in Africa that got their indepedence around when we got ours and discovered they are still struggling to find their feet. South Africa got theirs 1994 and are taking over everywhere. I conclude they waited that long and are reaping the fruits of their endurance, perseverance and struggle for freedom from the Apartheid regime.

Should I wish you a happy independence?

We should have waited for who, what and till when??