Songs of Freedom

The global community has a long list of query; some even wonder why we should celebrate. But dear friends, today, we will celebrate our achievements and tomorrow we will continue on the road that will make our aspirations worthy of celebration.

I read through reports and all I see is gloom, miles beyond what I see in our streets. The pains I see is incomparable to the horrors brought to me live as I thread a foreign land. Does that make the pain acceptable? Definitely not. The whining has continued about where Nigeria is even though it took years of painstaking contributions from the developing to get the developed to where they are.

We have been the source of power to neighboring communities, yet, we still cannot boast of uninterrupted power supply. But in a country where the noose is not hung around our neck for taxes, I really wonder what we expect. In a country where we only recently began to trade in our parents’ ethics of spending only our earnings for cute credit cards, I really wonder what will now become of us.

I visited a city in Europe and was shocked at the percentage of immigrants; dem drive dem commot? These aren’t nations with porous borders yet they have through the pen and ink snatched all the good seeds from our wailing lands. Our hospitals have become lean by the day as other nations through the power of bills and coins continue to magnetize our best brains. Our oil reserve dwindles as we sell our products at dictated rates. Our education is said to be in shambles, yet our best brains garnish universities all over the world. Isn’t it colleges from this same nation that laid the foundation on which others now proudly build?

No doubt our leaders have been corrupt. While I cannot hold forth for them, evidence of the West’s divide and rule is partly responsible for the corruption that has taken over our land of milk and honey. While the world planned and schemed to oust an Abacha who drove us against the walls, we having no exit strategy, danced to our own music. Then, we did the unconventional thing – PRAYED and GOD took care of business. The world may not always play by the rules of the West. The day we understand that lesson will be the day we truly begin to encourage nations to apply local solutions to indigenous problems. That day, nations will truly begin to breathe the air of peace.

I have come to accept, that whereas the West is seen through tinted bifocals, African countries and indeed one whose population may have an over bearing effect on the world, is analyzed through mounted binoculars.

If I had a wand, I will wave it to bring about a day when we learn to truly celebrate our achievements and aspirations. One day, when all we do is celebrate the inputs of our fore-parents who wrenched us from legalized slavery and the contributions that connect us to the rest of the world via technology; a day devoid of the many hands that spoil the soup.

For Associations of Nigerians at Ohio University, we have chosen to bring about that day when we share our rich cultural heritage and celebrate what binds us as one great nation.