Let’s take two steps forward

Nigeria celebrated her 56th independence anniversary yesterday. It almost went unnoticed. Many Nigerians were preoccupied, but not with celebrating the independence. No flags hoisted, no signs really suggesting that October 1 still had a special meaning for Nigerians. In the past, as young children, if we were not selected to participate in the march past on Independence Day, we watched the parade on television at home. We looked forward to the day. We wanted to be at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. We felt very proud as Nigerians. But not so, anymore!
Nigerians now carry on as if October 1 has no significance. We have become so disenchanted and  disgusted with our situation, so pessimistic that one keeps wondering whether we are still Nigerians.
The little interest that Nigerians had left in participating in the National Day parade was destroyed in 2010 when the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) chose that occasion to launch bomb attacks on innocent citizens near the Eagle Square venue in Abuja. The bombings left 12 people dead and 17 injured. Henry Okah, the leader of MEND was subsequently arrested in South Africa, tried for terrorism and jailed for 24 years. Did anyone remember those who died on that day? Was any of the deceased given any national honours? Were their families compensated? You know the answers.
If the spirit of the October 1 was hurt in 2010, the wound festered subsequently when government either cancelled the parade outright or restricted it to Aso Rock to avoid possible attacks by  Boko Haram terrorists who showed the world that some Nigerians have the capacity to be the devil’s foot-soldiers, just as numerous are making positive waves and climbing great heights in diverse professions across the world.
Thank God, the Boko Haram insurgency has largely been curtailed and the terrorists can hardly strike in Abuja on an Independence Day. The new excuse for low-key celebration may be economic crisis. But recession or not, the National Day must be celebrated. And such celebration is not in declaring October 3 a public holiday because October 1 fell on a Saturday. The National Day of yesterday was supposed to have been used re-awaken national consciousness in the citizenry. Patriotism and faith in the Nigerian nation have waned. Nigeria is a divided nation in any thinkable sense: leaders vs followers; APC vs PDP; Christian vs Muslim. Biafra vs Nigeria; cattle rearers vs farmers; Niger Delta militants vs rest of nation. It’s all we versus them.
And we now blame President Muhammadu Buhari or the next person other than ourselves for our woes.
Even armed robbers, kidnappers, pipeline vandals and smugglers all blame government for their despicable acts.
Yes, Nigeria has not been blessed with many selfless leaders. Nigeria has not had leaders in the mould of Lee Kuan Yew, the prime minister who transformed Singapore from a third world to first world nation or Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who after his accession in 2006 as vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates,  carried out major reforms to make the UAE one of the best countries by 2021. He is responsible for turning Dubai into a global economic centre.
We had few such leaders during the quest for independence from the British, but they were soon swept away by young military officers who out of youthful exuberance redirected the course and landed the nation in the destination we have found ourselves today.
Nigerians are now so skeptical of our political leaders that even when they say it’s white and it’s truly white,  citizens are seeing black and crying it’s black.
President Buhari recently launched the ‘Change Begins With Me’ campaign  to reorient us towards being better citizens, but the attacks and condemnations that greeted the programme were nauseating. Some said the campaign had become discredited simply, because part of the speech presented during the launch contained sentences copied from an address by US President Barrack Obama. Their argument was that if the president’s speechwriter could engage in a fraud, then the campaign had become tainted and should not be taken seriously. And I ask, so we should continue to revel in our deplorable attitudes and behaviours just because of that?
The fire of the plagiarism scandal was still raging when some guys accused the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed of stealing the  ‘Change Begins with me’ idea from them. Well, some of us did not know that our fellow citizens had packaged into a business deal, the reorientation campaign, which we had been urging the Buhari administration through our writings to kick-start long ago. Just because of this allegation, some commentators ruled that the campaign was dead on arrival, suggesting that our bad habits must not be shed.
Yet some Nigerians  began a counter campaign that the change must start with Buhari and his cabinet. They argued that he still had up to nine presidential jets, that he and his ministers and other aides were yet to show any moderation  in their lifestyles that would give them the justification to ask other citizens to change from their negative ways.
These reflect the low-level of unpatriotic attitudes citizens could descend. Everyone would cook up an excuse to justify the kind of Nigerian he wants to be. The kidnapper would readily tell you he was forced into abducting fellow citizens for ransom not because of greed and wickedness, but because Buhari has not made jobs available.
The businessman who smuggles in rice and other contraband to make quick money would also heap the blame on Buhari who increased tariff on foreign rice to discourage importation and boost local agriculture.
The assassins, rapists, bribe takers, fraudsters, electricity infrastructure and pipeline vandals all blame government for the rot in the nation with the same fervour as  the commercial bus driver who causes traffic obstruction on the highway for selfish reasons.
Nigeria has remained where it is, left behind by Singapore, Brazil, Indonesia and other third world countries with whom she began the journey, not just because of Buhari’s actions or inactions, but by our collective failing. Yes, all of us -incompetent, self-serving leaders and unwise, incorrigible followers- are to blame.
If the country is to take her deserving status and return to the glorious era, we must resolve to live together as a people with a common purpose; uphold equality, fairness and justice; shun ethnicity and religious intolerance; stop greed and destruction of national resources and assets. We must stop insisting that the desired positive change must start, but not with us. We must stop taking one step forward and two backward.