OURS’ IS NOT YET INDEPENDENCE Fellow Nigerians, For more than two score years, we have always stood to honour the flag in respect to what our fathers fought zealously to win. We have refused to erase the momentous moment that took place when most of us never knew of our luck in the fight with nature that we would be called beings. And we have continued to sing from street to street, village to village, and from city to city that October 1st is a great day, and great is the day indeed because it offers us hope in anticipation. To the ordinary Nigerian, a mention of this date brings a set of visions that to one who wishes to reason better than an idiot, tears are forced to surface. These tears are hardly restrained because these visions obviously succeed in explaining the current realities in the society. And as a sociological novelist, the realities force a way into the hearts of their hearers and even shred their very eyes such that their desire to pocket the tears fails to be fulfilled. They compare the issues facing the Nigerian man and conclude that they are certainly worse to those experienced in the three score years that preceded this date that in schools and places of work, Nigerians observed – the 1st October 1960. We have toddled for a long while in the wilderness and now, it appears that unless we all: men and women, parents and children, traders and academics, clergies and their congregation stand to understand the realities that have fallen on this land, we shall forever believe that for a nation to rise up and complain bitterly against her legitimate discontent is sheer ingratitude. We celebrate an independence of a nation that still houses the same discriminations that our heroes past rang an alarm to be eliminated in the colonial days. How then can we pretend to be free; or, my religious leaders, remain silent because to seek a right consistently is an act of ingrate? Nor can we forever put on this pretentious dance over a drumbeat that fails to rhyme with our song’s lyrics : …Nigeria calls obey, to serve our Father land, with love and strength and faith, the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain… one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity? No! We will not because even in heaven it was not – the devil was thrown down when he interrupted with the strings on the drums in Heaven to alter the union between the beats of the drums and the lyrics in Heaven: Love, Unity, and Peace. My fellow comrades in the sun, I am pleased that my position is based on an allusion from our book of reference in faith – the Bible. It triggers happiness in me; fellow believers that even in Heaven, the strings were amended to produce a better beat that rhymed with the song’s lyrics. So must we; also, if we believe in the tenets of our religion. Yes! We can no longer continue to dance on this drumbeat that fails to rhyme with our lyrics, and understand that our truism can only surface when we pause this pretentious body move and adjust the strings on our drums to produce a better beat that rhymes with the lyrics of our song. We must rise up to understand that the memories and demands of our independence day are different from those in the western part of the globe. While to us it’s a reminder, for it reminds us that a word like INDEPENDENCE should exist, to the westerners it calls for celebration for its existence. But this is what we too should search with the hope that for us also, and with time, 1st October would be a call to celebrate the existence of independence. We, Nigerians cannot continue to wallow in pains that we would forever be compelled by theses pains to relegate a date that our Fathers died with its memory. We, as a people must strive that the freedom in which our founding fathers based their principles of struggle must be ascertained by these Nigerians. And we shall always understand that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; and that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action – we cannot leave it altogether to these leaders, the poor-rhymed drumbeats! The education that the Nigerian child passes through sweltering summers to acquire must be addressed. We must understand that Government is a thing of stewardship and, of course, accountability. We must protect our rights, knowing that to claim to have guaranteed one a right that one is unable to exercise is fraudulent! We must make realistically God’s command: “...the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” We must realise that an ideal society is one that lives on the principles of liberty and democracy. We, as Nigerians do not reject the construction of castles in the air, for that is where they should remain; so let foundations be put under them because foundations shall surely take base from the ground, and on these castles we shall search for freedom. Collectively we shall search for liberty that would put smiles on the face of our nation since we understand that true independence is when the wages of an honest labourer are able to unshackle a poor family from the manacles of hunger! It cannot be anything else, fellow citizens. Our independence would come when a child born of Nigerian parents knows that he is free – and because he is a Nigerian, he is protected. But in realising these I offer a challenge to our religious bodies. Our clergies must stop their unctuous behaviour and understand with us that extremism for the right cause is not evil, putting forth altruistic character that would make them stand and with the buttress of sociological criticism, present realistically the nation in their sermons at worship centres for a brighter future. And if they fail to do these, then they have joined in the league of vandals! Obviously the sweats of these street Nigerians shall certainly testify before God whom with His words; all men, we are told are made equal. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people. And we must do them with soulful forces too, and shall not - in the words of a great human rights activist; “quest our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” Let us overlook violence and bloodshed by embracing civil revolution in this struggle for independence. And to those who have been questioning our intellect for refuting Nigeria’s independence, let them know that an independent nation cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. Let them understand, also, that an independent nation must be one that rewards to all her citizens their individual efforts as a way of encouraging them to work harder, and earn higher. These two, our nation does not possess. The world agrees that freedom has never been given except demanded, and so we shall continue to demand until the glory of God is revealed. We are counterparts of caged birds – and consistent opening of the beak is a natural law of all caged creatures. We have never seen where the beak of a caged bird remained shut – our mouths would always be open to utter sounds calling for freedom until it is guaranteed when, from the thick forest of Enugu to the High Lands of Jos, one would see liberty and justice. And from the shores of Lagos Lagoon to the plains of Sokoto, the Rule of Law shall reign; and Nigeria shall witness the law’s supremacy right from our Cross River Basin up towards the Chad Basin that shall last till dew! That moment we shall lift up a Green-White-Green-robed and celebrate the independence of a new but old nation with songs that shall have dominion over deafness – FOR OURS IS NOT YET INDEPENDENCE! VANGER FATER JIGA
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 03:42:31 +0000
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