- Photo: Prof Adedimeji*
BUILDING A NIGERIA THAT WORKS FOR ALL: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
By Prof. Mahfouz A. Adedimeji
Vice Chancellor, Ahman Pategi University,
Patigi, Kwara state,
Nigeria
www.apu.edu.ng
www.mahfouzadedimeji.com
Paper presented at the National Conference Public Lecture of The Companion at Afe Babalola Auditorium, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos , on Saturday, Safar 3, 1445/ August 19, 2023
*Prof Adedimeji*
BUILDING A NIGERIA THAT WORKS FOR ALL: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
Preamble
All thanks are due to the Almighty Allah, the Master Planner of the universe and the Creator of the heavens and the earth; the One Who puts everything in its right proportions. May His peace and blessings be upon the noble soul of Prophet Muammad (SAW) who was raised to perfect us as his project. May the grace of the prayer be upon his beloved household, committed companions and the generality of the believers, including The Companion, till the dawn of the Day of Criterion, the Day of Judgement.
It accords me a great privilege to be at the University of Lagos again on the invitation of this leading Association of Muslim Men in Business and Professions, The Companion, for this engagement. I appreciate the resourcefulness, versatility and dynamism that the Association has brought to bear on Islam in Nigeria without leaving anyone behind, especially the women and the youth. I have a feeling that if the model championed by this foremost Association is adopted by other Islamic organisations, it would go a long way in addressing many challenges and redressing many social ills that have become fossilised in the society.
- Photo L-R: Prof Adedimeji; Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan, Chairman/CEO National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON); Prof Tajudeen Gbadamosi and Alhaji Waliu Onibon, The Companion Board of Trustees during the lecture*
I recall that a major programme of The Companion was a 1434AH Public Lecture organised on the “Contemporary Socio-economic Challenges and the Muslim Ummah” at Kwara Hotel, Ilorin, on 19th Rabiu Thani, 1434 or 2nd March, 2013. That was 10 years ago and I stumbled on one of the photographs of the event recently. I have been privileged to participate in the programmes of the Dawn in-between. I appreciate the leadership of The Companion under the President, Engr Kamil Olalekan, FNSE, and acknowledge the Chief Imam of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Nasir Abdul salam, just as I pray that the Almighty Allah continue to lift the Association and its members to greater heights.
The topic of today’s National Conference Public Lecture is both apt and relevant. It is the beginning of a new Administration in Nigeria anchored on renewed hope, an admission that our hope had been dashed before. This renewed hope engenders a new beginning and the expectation is that the new Federal Government, led by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will build a country that works for us all, not just those who can send prayers to email addresses. It is an opportunity for Nigeria to make a fresh start and a new beginning in the cause of nation-building, which is a collective responsibility. The National Conference also coincides with the beginning of the new hijrah year. The implication of this is that just as there is need to build a Nigeria that works for all now that a new Administration is on board, it is also imperative for us as Muslims to commit ourselves to re-building our faith. There are many distractions that dog the path of believers and the new year 1445 A. H. offers us a new opportunity to re-dedicate ourselves to the Straight Path.
Introduction
Two weeks ago while speaking at a forum with members of the Nigerian community in St Petersburg, Russia, Vice President Kashim Shettima promised Nigerians that Nigeria will work again. As This Day newspaper reported it, “Nigeria Will Work Again Under Tinubu, says Shettima” (Elumoye, 2023). According to the Vice President, “be rest assured (sic) that in the next nine to 12 months there will be a swift change in the fortunes of Nigeria.” He noted that the current administration would harness the vast human and material resources to put Nigeria on the path of sustainable development and growth while also reiterating that the President passionately believes in the Nigeria project. What is the Nigeria project?
The Nigeria project that the Vice-President had in mind is the totality of efforts spearheaded by critical stakeholders to forge a cohesive country characterised by peace, development, security and social justice, a country where the hopes and aspirations of the citizens will be attained. The Nigeria project is all about “the national effort to resolve the contradictions underpinned by the multi-ethnic nature of post-colonial Nigerian state in order forge a peaceful, united and prosperous nation out of the diverse nationalities wielded into a geographic entity by a common colonial experience” (Onuaha, 2019).
The quest for nation-building or to build a Nigeria that will work for all has been the aspiration of the successive governments of Nigeria but the reality is that Nigeria is currently for the privileged few. It is in the interest of the all-important Nigerian project that everyone contribute their part towards its success. The government carries a heavy responsibility because leadership is everything. But the government cannot do it alone without the sincerity, support and sacrifice of the followers.
Nigerians are still contending with problems associated with poverty of the majority, inequality, corruption, unemployment, education, health, infrastructure and insecurity. For instance, the Davos 2023 Inequality Report noted that three of the richest Nigerians are wealthier than 83 million Nigerians. This inequality is at the root of Nigeria’s developmental challenges and it is critical that Nigeria must work for all Nigerians regardless of who and where they are.
This lecture essentially delves into Nigeria’s past with a view to understanding the present. It situates the challenges with Nigeria within the context of the broken windows theory and reiterates, based on Adedimeji (2022), the challenges confronting Nigeria. It then highlights the steps that must be taken by the new Government of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to build Nigeria and restore confidence in the country.
Nigeria through the Lenses of History
Given that we are products of history and there is no today without yesterday, it is important to recall that the African condition was sealed in Berlin in 1884/5. That was when the vast African lands were partitioned among European powers at a conference where Africans were not represented. Africa is the world’s second-largest and second most populous continent in the world. With a population of 1,464,780,791 people (as at August 16 2023), Africa is regarded as the oldest inhabited territory on Earth. The Berlin conference gave the scramble for Africa a boost, though it had started before then. Nigeria, either by accident or design, came under the colonial force of Britain and the process that had started in 1851 was consolidated.
It was in 1851 that the British first bombarded Lagos. A decade later, after expelling the king then, Kosoko, for insubordination and installing Akintoye in-between, Lagos was declared a British colony. Other parts of Nigeria were also captured one after the other and by 1900, most of Nigeria had effectively come under British rule administered by the Royal Niger Company. “Nigeria”, the name our country bears, was coined by a journalist, Miss Flora Shaw, in her 1897 dispatch to the Times of London. The name was subsequently adopted by Brigadier General Fredrick Lord Lugard, the first Governor-General of Nigeria, who was impressed by the coinage and later married Flora Shaw.
For the administrative convenience of the British, the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates was made and modern Nigeria was born in 1914. This amalgamation unified a cultural and linguistic mosaic numbering about 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages across Nigeria. The process also laid the foundation for what would later be a marriage of convenience among the ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse people of the most populous African country (Adedimeji, 2009).
One thing that is evident in the history of Nigeria is that rather than create a system that would make the country function as a true nation, the colonial authorities ignored the fault lines in the vast territory and exploited the philosophy of “divide and rule” to maximum advantage (Omolewa, 1986). As a result of this foundation that served the interest of the colonialists, we had a country right from the start and not a nation. So, when the anti-colonial struggle eventually resulted in the political independence of October 1, 1960, the ground had been prepared for mutual distrust, ethnic rivalry and religious bigotry which were evident in the political parties of the independence era.
So fragile was the politics of post-independent Nigeria that barely six years after Independence, Civil War erupted in which millions of lives perished for the 30-month period it raged. Ethnic, religious and political differences have divided Nigerians since then and rather than abate, the division appears to be getting further entrenched with peaceful coexistence being threatened with calls often made by some agitators to dismember what some people regard as a “Lugardian contraption” (Adedimeji, 2020).
In spite of the wobbly foundation and the challenges thereafter, Nigeria has survived the various forces against her soul. She survived the two world wars, she survived her own civil war and she survived the various political forces massed against her for about 110 years now, including the tyranny of the military. Nigeria was so blessed at a point that the problem she had was how to spend money, not money itself. Though the situation was not perfect but people had hopes and Nigerians were not trooping out en masse as a result of the dysfunctionality that pervades the horizon. It is against the backdrop of the potential that Nigeria holds as an economic powerhouse and a massive concentration of talents that she can be the best in the world.
The Broken Windows Theory and the Problems with Nigeria
The thesis of the broken windows theory is that visible signs of disorder and misbehaviour in an environment tend to encourage further disorder and misbehaviour, which ultimately lead to serious crimes. In other words, the idea expounded by the theory is that each problem that is unattended to in a given environment affects people’s attitude towards that environment and leads to more problems.
Philip Zambardo, a Stanford psychologist, conducted an experiment in 1969 that later became one of the most famous experiments in the social sciences in general and criminological studies in particular. The experiment was that he left two cars with unlocked doors and missing number plates in two different areas: one in a poor neighbourhood and the other in a rich neighbourhood. The passersby in the poor neighbourhood soon began to steal the car parts and vandalise the vehicle within a few minutes till it was completely destroyed in three days. It took a longer time for the passersby in the rich area to start destroying the car, forcing Zambardo to intervene by breaking one of the car windows before people started breaking more windows and stealing from the car. It took the same time as obtained in the poor neighborhood for the whole car to be turned into a scrap (Zambardo, 1969).
Taking the experiment further, in 1982, two other scholars, Kelling and Wilson, followed researcher Zambardo by conducting similar studies on buildings and other properties in different areas. They promoted the “Broken Window Theory” and summarised it that neglecting to address any problem in an environment, no matter how small it is, will negatively affect people’s attitudes and behaviour towards that environment, leading to bigger and more serious problems. Their solution essentially is that there is a need address very low-level crimes, restore order to the neighbourhood and prevent more violent crimes from happening. This is because addressing small problems quickly will lead to a better environment and better behaviour among the people.
One significant observation in the studies of Zambardo and the duo of Kelling and Wilson after him is that the people who intentionally vandalised cars and buildings were not criminals, most of them were law-abiding citizens. However, the broken windows sent a secret message or code to the passersby saying: “No one cares, and probably there are no consequences for destroying what was already broken.”
As one observer noted, if there was a broken glass in a house, there would be no consequences as such if a child broke it and no precaution would be taken in throwing it in the bin. As it happened during the unfortunate ENDSARS protests of 2020 in many parts of Nigeria, when ordinary people saw that shops and warehouses were being looted, they joined to perpetrate the crime. When they realised that vehicles and cars were being destroyed in the cities, they gleefully joined in destroying private and public properties. The implication of the theory is that when small problems are ignored now, they lead to bigger problems in the future.
In Nigeria, the small problems of the past have led to the big problems of today. It was a small problem leaving children without proper care, attention and good education but it has led to a big problem of untrained children being recruited into Boko Haram, banditry, criminality and terrorists. It was a small problem that graduates were not securing employment but it is a big problem that unemployed graduates have turned to cybercrime defrauding innocent foreigners and denting the image of the country across the world. As a matter of fact, the failure of successive governments to pay adequate attention to citizens’ welfare and wellbeing has made ritual killing, kidnapping and insecurity assume new dimensions today.
There is no doubt that our educational, environmental, economic and social challenges that have become monstrous problems are products of minor wrongful actions that were ignored in the past. It was when Yahoo Yahoo (cybercrime) was ignored that it became Yahoo Plus (money ritual). When alcoholism was ignored, it degenerated into substance abuse all in the quest of ‘getting high’. When examination malpractice was not addressed, electoral fraud became the outcome. When parents became too busy to attend to their children, the children have grown to become irresponsible adults who are still serving as role models for the impressionistic youth without parental attention.
For Nigeria to work for all, we must collectively be active in addressing problems as they arise and fix broken windows that emerge in order to redeem the present and make the future of the coming generations better. This is because as bad as things appear to be, there are indications that they may get worse. So, the best time to start fixing Nigeria’s problems was yesterday. The next best time is now.
As noted in Adedimeji (2022), the problems or ills facing Nigeria are many and the first step towards curing an ailment is its prognosis. We can only overcome the challenges when everyone plays their role in confronting them. These problems are poor leadership, bad role models, acute greed, religious bigotry, economic banditry, pervasive corruption, ethnic jingoism, political harlotry, general indiscipline, corrosive materialism, social injustice, impunity or ‘no consequences syndrome’, moral meltdown, anti-intellectual mindset and criminal mentality.
Nation-building and the Prospects of Nigeria
It is urgent that Nigeria wrestles herself from the grip of challenges that stymie her growth and reclaim her leadership in Africa. This cannot be achieved outside nation-building, the process of constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. It is thus narrower than what Paul James calls “nation formation”, the broad process through which nations come into being. Nation-building aims at the unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run. Nation-building can involve the use of propaganda or major infrastructure development to foster social harmony and economic growth.
Gambari (2007) identified many components of nation-building, According to him,
Nation-building has many aspects. Firstly, it is about building a political entity which corresponds to a given territory based on some generally accepted rules, norms, and principles, and a common citizenship. Secondly, it is also about building institutions which symbolize the political entity – institutions such as a bureaucracy, an economy, the judiciary, universities, a civil service, and civil society organizations. Above all else, however, nation-building is about building a common sense of purpose, a sense of shared destiny, a collective imagination of belonging. Nation-building is therefore about building the tangible and intangible threads that hold a political entity together and gives it a sense of purpose. Even in these days of globalization and rapid international flow of people and ideas, having a viable nation remains synonymous with achieving modernity. It is about building the institutions and values which sustain the collective community in these modern times.
As a process through which a society or a group of people with diverse origins, histories, languages, cultures and religions comes together within the boundaries of a sovereign state with a unified constitution and legal dispensation, a national public education system, an integrated national economy, shared symbols as equals, nation-building aims at eradicating divisions, fostering unity, promoting national consciousness. It consists of developing economic, social, political institutions which protect human rights, guarantee rule of law and promote justice.
The development of Nigeria depends on building a nation from the country and de-emphasising differences along ethnic and religious lines in the interest of our shared common values. No nation-building can succeed without improving the quality of life of people and improving the standard of people’s life essentially lies in a strong economy. For nation-building to succeed, Nigeria requires collective support and sense of patriotism, good governance that rests on accountability, transparency, efficiency, responsibility and responsiveness as well as committed leadership.
Other components that deepen nation-building are political culture that embodies the principle of national interest, public service, probity and statesmanship, power sharing, universal education, national character, the mass media, responsible intellectuals and professionals as well as national integration, which is the process of uniting people emotionally, psychologically and politically.
The prospects for Nigeria lie in many factors that have to be harnessed. These prospects include our large population, vast arable land, abundant mineral resources, massive trade, oil and gas as well as manufacturing. These prospects are explained briefly as follows:
Population: It is trite that Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Meanwhile, the world is in need of human capital where there will be as many as 65 million talent deficit globally by 2035, with the United States of America, Russia and Brazil suffering six million deficits by then. If the burgeoning Nigerian youth population is galvanised, it will not only power the development of Nigeria but also other parts of the world where there is acute human talent deficit.
Arable Land: Nigeria has a vast but untapped agricultural potential with about 84 million hectares of arable land but with only 40% of it utilized. Nigeria also has 279 cubic metres of surface water beside 58 billion cubic meters of underground water with three of the eight major rivers systems in Africa. In September 2012, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture noted that 56% of arable lands in Nigeria are not in use. If Nigeria were to harness her food production potential, there would be no need for the country to import food from anywhere.
Mineral Resources: Research indicates Nigeria has not less than 44 solid minerals found in 500 locations in commercial quantities. Some of them include barite, kaolin, gypsum, feldspar, limestone, coal, bitumen, lithium, lignite, uranium, gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, granite, laterite, sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst and garnet among others. Despite the existence of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, these resources are yet to be fully harnessed for the development of the country.
Trade: Trade accounts for only 17% of Nigeria’s GDP and 25% of employment and it has been the largest driver of growth in Nigeria over the past one decade according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Trade is to be the largest sector of the Nigerian economy in due course as consumption is projected to triple more than before, rising to almost $1.4 trillion in 2030.
Oil and Gas: These account for more than 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings, which makes Nigeria to be a monocultural economy mainly dependent on oil. But with Nigeria’s oil reserves estimated at between 16 and 22 million barrels with some sources even asserting that there could be as much as 35.3 billion barrels of oil reserves in Nigeria, the potential of oil and gas has not been fully harnessed. As most of Nigeria’s oil reserves are in the Niger Delta region, environmental degradation and agitations have led to insecurity in the area and if the threats there are addressed, the opportunities are almost limitless.
Manufacturing: As manufacturing helps economies to diversify and make resource rich economy less resource dependent with more high paying jobs, it has the potential of helping Nigeria to overcome her economic challenges. However, poor power supply and decrepit infrastructure are a bane to the quest for industrialisation in Nigeria. If the country sets its priorities right, employment opportunities will be created and life will be more meaningful for the economically disadvantaged and socially excluded majority.
Apart from the foregoing, there are other prospects in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), digital economy and tourism, among others, that can substantially make life more abundant for the Nigerian citizens.
Building Nigeria that Works for All: The Way Forward
Nigeria is at a crossroads and she cannot afford again to turn to a wrong direction. The way forward has been charted by many scholars like Ighodalo (2013), Adedimeji (2016) and others and the following recommendations are considered necessary:
1. Build Strong Institutions: Nigeria can only work for all if strong institutions replace our weak institutions. A situation in which policies and programmes revolve around only those who are in power is not healthy for the development of the country. Leaders must make institutions work regardless of who is in power. As Babatunde, Adedimeji, Raji, Maweu and Githigaro (2022) observe, building institutional capacity is key to defeating terrorism and other challenges that confront Africa. This is the point that former President Barack Obama made when he said in Ghana in 2009 that Africa needs strong institutions, not strong men. Though both strong institutions and strong men are required, there is no doubt that viable legislature, professional police force, independent judiciary, vibrant press, competent private sector and committed civil society are needed to make Nigeria work for all. It requires strong institutions to entrench social justice, where Nigeria currently ranks number 158 out of 190 countries with a score of 0.534 where 1 is the perfect score. Social injustice fuels agitations, unrest and general disenchantment with the Nigeria project (Onalu and Okoye, 2022).
2. Provide Security and Conflict Management Systems: As the first responsibility of government is the provision of security but this is a major area that Nigeria has been failing, the need to guarantee security of life and property is urgent. Then, security is threatened by poorly managed conflicts and this is why it is important to heal wounds and settle disgreements before pains degenerate into violence.
• Improve Healthcare Delivery: Nigerian hospitals have been referred to as mere consulting clinics because of lack of necessary facilities that support quality healthcare delivery. It was reported that at least, 5,600 Nigerian medical doctors migrated to the United Kingdom alone within a period of eight years (2014-2022). The major reason for this medical brain drain is poor service conditions that characterise medical practice in Nigeria which results in people dying needlessly. A good healthcare system will be in the interest of all, not just those who can afford foreign medical treatment.
• Promote Quality Education: Nigeria needs to seriously invest in quality education with its six features of quality learners, quality learning environment (physical element, psychosocial element, non-violence, service delivery), quality content, quality processes, quality teachers’ working conditions and quality outcomes (Adedimeji and Alabi, 2022). Being the fourth Sustainable Development Goal, Nigerians have to prioritise the elements of learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to develop skills. Quality education will make Nigerians raise generations of those who will learn to live together in peace and harmony with the capacity fight the war on ignorance and poverty. It is therefore imperative for governments and individuals to prioritise it now.
• Address Poverty and Unemployment: While hunger and poverty are the lot of many Nigerians, this situation is compounded by the reforms that Government has introduced resulting in the removal of oil subsidy. Life has become very difficult and unbearable for many Nigerians and Nigeria has been said to be the poverty capital of the world. Deliberate efforts must be made by Government to revamp the economy and rescue people from hunger and poverty. Besides, according to a World of Statistics report, Nigeria tops the list of countries with the highest unemployment rate at 33 per cent. With hunger, poverty and unemployment, security will be compromised and crime will be uncontrollable because of the sheer number of criminals the state will have to contend with. The saying that devil finds work for the idle hands will gain more resonance in the society.
• Confront Ignorance and Illiteracy: In September 2021, the Federal Government disclosed that more than 76 million Nigerian adults, representing 38 per cent of the estimated 200 million Nigerian population, are illiterate. Ignorance is a misfortune and illiteracy is a disease that can only be cured with education. The consequences of illiteracy are many as they are inimical to national development whereas literacy has many benefits including the fact that it reduces unemployment, crime rate, substance and drug abuse, child marriage, diseases, frustration and low self-esteem. Africa is noted to be the only continent where more than half of parents are not able to help their children with homework due to illiteracy. Policies should be made and programmes must be strengthened to enhance literacy rate in Nigeria.
• Create a New Consciousness and Mind-set: The culture of impunity and indiscipline has to be addressed through national awakening. Patriotism is missing in many Nigerians including those who have been educated by Nigeria without taking loans, unlike their counterparts in the West. It is not sufficient to go to school, it more important to be properly educated to know the right from the wrong and to do the right thing always. Nigerians need reorientation about the dignity of labour and that not everything that counts can be counted. There are values, mores and traditions that must be held sacrosanct across Nigeria. Nigerians should have the consciousness and mind-set of being ‘omoluabi’ (someone who, according to the Yoruba, is hard working, diligent, responsible, serious-minded, fair, honest, trust-worthy, kind, respectful and Godly in all his activities), upholding ‘Ezigbo mmadu’, (meaning good character or moral conduct; when a person possesses Ezigbo mmadu among the Igbo, he is a role model who should be emulated by all as the best of the society) and maintaining their ‘pulaaku’ (which is the ideal code of character that is expected of every Fulani man, with its five major components being bashfulness or having a sense of shame, patience, tolerance and perseverance, kindness and affection for others, manliness and bravery as well as dignity and self-respect (Adedimeji, 2019).
• Protect and Safeguard Democracy: It is worrisome that the menace of military incursion into politics is rearing its head again in West Africa. Between 2020 and now, four elected governments in West Africa have been toppled whereas the military do not have any business with politics. There is therefore an urgent need to devise peaceful means of stopping the trend so that the contagion will not spread further. This is to guard against other militaries being emboldened to topple their governments in the sub-region and return Nigeria, for instance, to the dark period of ruthlessness and lack of accountability that characterised military rule.
• Mobilise Resources for Collective Good: That Nigeria is blessed with abundant human resources is well-known. The mobilisation of human and material resources is needed to liberate Nigerians from poverty and want as done by other populous countries like China and India. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development states that Africans are capable ending the scourge of underdevelopment that afflicts much of Africa. As earlier noted, Nigeria has more than 44 solid minerals in 500 locations in commercial quantities but we have not fully harnessed them for collective good. Rather, what we have is a situation in which $9 billion worth of gold is being illegally smuggled out of the country every year, as just revealed by the human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana (Arogbonlo, 2023). It is the worth of gold alone that is disclosed or known, the worth of other minerals being diverted for personal benefits is unknown.
• Combat Greed and Corruption: Corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s development and until deliberate efforts are made to combat and defeat it, Nigeria cannot work for all. Though efforts have been made in recent years to tackle the monster of corruption, the 2022 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International reported that Nigeria is the 150th least corrupt country out of 180 countries. Forms of corruptions like bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyisms, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft and embezzlement have impacted negatively on the society by undermining development goals, engendering economic loss and inefficiency, widening poverty and inequality, failures in infrastructure and promoted public and private sector dysfunctionality, organised crime and terrorism as well as public frustration and cynicism. One way of combating corruption is by severely punishing the corrupt or its perpetrators.
• Launch Moral Re-armament: During the heady days leading to the commencement of the Second World War, European countries started to re-arm themselves militarily in preparation for the dire situation ahead. However, Frank Buckman jolted the sensibilities of world leaders that military re-armament was not the only solution to the impending calamity. He, therefore, launched a campaign for moral re-armament at the East Ham Town Hall, London, on May 29, 1938. Buckman contended that the crisis confronting the world “is fundamentally a moral one” and stressed that “nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery. Moral recovery creates not crisis but confidence and unity in every phase of life.” Evils and social vices have become so widespread and there is nothing being seriously done about the situation. Like the proverbial untrained child that will eventually sell of the house of his parent, citizens without moral scruples will undermine national development and betray the society. Nigeria appears to suffer from acute moral crisis which reflects in the sins being accepted as normal way of life and religion being considered a problem instead of a way of life that guarantees good code of conduct.
Five P’s for Personal Development
It is fundamental that Nigeria cannot develop beyond the quality of Nigerians. It is in this regard that if Nigeria must work all, every Nigerian, especially Muslims, must work towards personal development. To succeed, it requires a lifestyle, a set of attitudes and a worldview that make individuals stand out. There are at least five p’s that can transform Muslims especially and everyone in general from the abyss of ordinariness to the pinnacle of glory and excellence.
One is prayer. The human mind is a powerhouse of tremendous energy which can be accessed through the power of prayer and meditation. Prayers work but unfortunately many people are confused to the point of making the first last in their agenda. If you make it a habit to ignore the cacophony of daily living and the hurly-burly of contemporary lifestyle to devote time to prayer and meditation everyday, you will discover inner peace, alternatives and options that clear the fog and show the way. As a matter of fact, prayer helps you to achieve self-understanding, reduce your pain, lower your stress, connect better, improve focus and minimise brain chatter. This life is full of mysteries, mishaps and disappointments; so, everyone needs some divine insurance. We are not just physical beings, we are also spiritual beings. Prayers are powerful and through them, you earn divine guidance on the steps to take at each point and stage.
Two is planning. It is said that proper planning prevents poor performance. The Prophet (SAW) encouraged us to plan and Allah commands us to prepare. As individuals and a country, we cannot achieve our goals on the basis of heedlessness. If one does not know where one is going, any road can lead one there. As a nation and as individuals, we must plan and this planning includes empowering self and others educationally, economically, socially, physically and in all ramifications. From planning each day, each week, each month and each year, one can achieve so much that will not have been achieved without prior planning.
Three is practice, which is acting on the plan made. After praying and planning, we must act, execute what is planned or walk the talk. Without practice or action, all learning is useless; without action, all education is wasted. Purposeful action gains traction with time and such efforts create results. Without hitting a tree with a machete or firing an arrow at the palm top, you cannot open your mouth under the palm-tree and expect palm juice to drop! It requires some prior effort as nothing happens for nothing. Students should study, workers should work and everyone should act by doing something meaningful and impactful to achieve success because as the saying goes, no pain, no gain.
Four is patience. When action is taken, it isn’t a once-and-for-all process. It is repeated or done habitually. This is where patience comes in with its associated determination. You should not waver of falter even when you do not succeed at first. Rather, you resolve to be patient as you continue to push, to work, to strive and to toil till the goal is achieved. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Also associated with patience are discipline and determination. With discipline, you exercise self-control and self-restraint as you keep your eyes on the ball and avoid distractions. With determination, you develop the will-power to pursue your goal and pay the price, including rejection and failures. Success is not often achieved immediately. We don’t harvest immediately we plant. Rather, we attend to the crops, patiently weed the plants, water the farm and wait for a bumper harvest later. Challenges are bound to dog the path of success. With patience, discipline and determination, you overcome the hurdles and attain your goals.
Five is persistence. The previous processes are not to be done on a once-and-for-all basis. Rather, to live a meaningful life as an individual, persistence is key. Therefore, prayer, planning, practice and patience have to be persistently repeated and recycled. While persistence subsists, it also gives room for reviewing each of the P’s to determine where modifications are necessary. While the goal remains the same, methods may vary. At each point, you determine where you are coming from, where you are and where you are going to determine the need to review prayers, plans and actions. A Turkish proverb says, “No matter how far down the wrong road you’ve gone, turn back.”
Conclusion
With the swearing in of a new president, Nigerians are still wondering whether it will be business as usual or that their fortunes will change. What is sacrosanct is that we must trust the capacity of the government and keep hope alive while we do our bits in our various corners to make Nigeria greater. Certainly, the solution is not in breaking up the country and the no one cuts the head to cure a headache (Adedimeji, 2021). If everyone focuses on their responsibility and discharges their duty with diligence, Nigeria will work for all.
In this lecture, I have attempted to review the past of Nigeria and highlight the present with a view to attaining a brighter future as the future is in our hands (Oloyede, 2022). Through examining the broken windows theory, I have examined the challenges that Nigeria faces and the importance of addressing them because whatever is bad is likely get worse if it is not treated. While challenges manifest in identified 15 illnesses that plague Nigeria, the first of which Achebe (1983) considers the trouble with Nigeria, the prospects lie in nation-building and the conversion of our population, arable land, mineral resources, oil and gas, manufacturing sector and others like digital economy and tourism to national development. While 11 general recommendations are made for Nigerian government and the people at large to build strong institutions, provide security and conflict management systems, improve healthcare delivery, promote quality education, address poverty and unemployment, confront ignorance and illiteracy, create new consciousness and mind-set, protect and safeguard democracy, mobilise resources for collective good, combat greed and corruption as well as launch moral rearmament, recommendations are always provided for individuals. These recommendations border on the five P’s of making prayer, planning, practice, patience and persistence key drivers of one’s life.
It may be gainful to conclude with the story that illustrates the stochastic probability theory that in spite of the challenges we face or the clouds that pervade the horizon, everything will still turn out favourably for Nigeria. It only requires focusing on the task at hand, the task of nation-building, the task of national development, the task of contributing our quotas in our corners to the good of the country just as the Singaporians and the Emirati did, the results of which are evident in what both Singapore and the United
