It’s been two years since Akwa Ibom-born music star, Presh, came with my friend, Mr. Anietie Ekong, to see me. Two years is too long a time to remember a casual visit. But not only do I remember this particular casual visit, I also remember its every detail. The visit remains evergreen because of a question I put to him and the answer he gave.

It was nice to see him again. I told him so. He chuckled, like a child. After playing catch-up for the five years that we hadn’t met and prying about the other split, I guided the discussion to the quality of music that songsters like him churn out nowadays.

Presh is a straight up guy. I knew him as someone who says things the way they are. He hadn’t changed. He made no pretences, as he blurted out:

‘The Boss, anyone doing philosophical music or insisting on singing meaningful songs these days would go hungry. No one would buy, no one would listen to it. Music lovers now care about the beats, not the meaning. Right now, you either sing according to the beats or go gospel – or you quit music!’

Two years after, I still haven’t been able to get over Presh’s perfect characterisation of the human race in the geographical expression called Nigeria. Yes, because what he said is not peculiar to just our music sense; it is everywhere on our landscape. We excellencify nonsense and nonsensify excellence. Who’s contesting that hard fact?

Look at our politics: we sacrifice excellence on the altar of mediocrity. We promote people out of their depth and turn around to wonder why we are in such leadership mess. Look at our justice system: we treat equals unequally and unequals equally. We punish or poke fun at the cheated for daring to complain, and yet expect that crime rate would reduce.

Look at our education sector: we discharge millions of half-baked graduates into an over-saturated labour market annually; graduates who remain unemployed because they are as unemployable as there are no vacancies. Yet, we keep graduating more. Look at our economy: we import everything, even things we don’t need; we export nothing. We are gluttonous consumers who produce nothing but who pray and believe that our country shall become El Dorado.

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The hypocrisy is total. Everyone is involved or guilty, or both; everyone pays lip service to everything; everyone barks a little but moves on when it’s time to bite. Government at every stratum, the people across board; leaders, followers, everyone is high on this addiction. Look at us up and down, front and back: how much of excellence do we treasure?

On social media for instance, all we would readily go for between sense and nonsense is the latter. Try checking out this instant: pictures is it! You and I prefer feasting on photographs and gossips to reading even the briefest didactic material. We all prefer the easiest way out, entertainment not work!

What about the politics we play, what I call politics Nigeriana? We play with fire, sorry; we play with corruption, nepotism, injustice, mediocrity, crime, violence, ethnocentrism, vote-buying, vote-selling and strangely still expect a miracle. Is it the same God who created us? So, why are we so different, so crass, so self-hating?

Consider also how we despise patriotism. Which one Nigerian, living or dead, who stood up for Nigeria, who sacrificed for Nigeria, who sincerely loved Nigeria, was ever sanely appreciated and in time? Yet, we expect more Nigerian patriots. More like waiting for Godot because the way we have allowed our past and present heroes and heroines and their labours to rot away in vain, only a fool would die or overwork for this country!

If you need it, one last proof that our DNA needs to be rewired can be lifted from how we accept or applaud criminal injustice as long as it is carried out by our own and we are not the target. This country and we, the people, are dead even if alive until we offer befitting closure to the dark chapter involving innocent school children at Chibok and Dapchi. We are useless and in chains ourselves until we say and do something to free Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, Mr. Omoyele Sowore et al still being held by the centre government long after courts upon courts had granted them bail. Dear compatriots, enough of excellencifying nonsense, enough of nonsensifying excellence; enough of deceiving ourselves that many of our young people won’t dump our country to naturalise somewhere else as this sinkingmania persists!

With our hedonistic and nonchalant mannerism taking us nowhere, now is time we changed tactics. That transformation must show in our mentalities, in our choices, in our actions, in our words, in our altruisms, in our all. We can begin, say, by enforcing a new leadership recruitment process, by demanding accountability and probity from public officers, by insisting on music that makes sense, by reading not just looking, and by saying and doing only stuff that adds value to our humanity and sanity. We have no choice, except we don’t want a better deal for this and subsequent generations. God bless Nigeria!