Fire On The Mountain. Who Cares?

Fire on the mountain, run, run, run, run. This was a game we played as children.

This phrase came back to mind as I pondered about my nation, Nigeria, being assaulted by its own leaders and men who took a vow to protect them.

In the past few days, I have watched two videos that reminded me that we must be our own helpers. So how can we remain the problem if the solution lies in our hands? A tipping point has been reached and we must awake from our slumber.

In the first video, the speaker talks about why Africa must remain impoverished for many others parts of the world to maintain their standards of living.

He shared the harsh truth that they must retain access to the raw materials that Africa is richly endowed with and they need to continue to get them cheaply knowing that this is to the detriment of the people. But who cares?

The message really is that Africa must remain distracted so others can continue to rape her. Sadly this is not a new strategy but they need Africans to cooperate in their own destruction.

In the second video, another man said America had not officially intervened on certain issues in Nigeria because frankly speaking it’s not a priority. They had interests in other countries. Again, who cares?

A world leader refers to many countries as shit-hole countries and there was an outrage but everything soon died down. Really, who cares? These shit-hole countries will become important when there’s something to be gained from them.

Our leaders must wake up to their responsibilities. Many of them have enabled the situations we are in. Corruption has been an endemic issue but a huge part of the proceeds of the corruption makes its way to countries that don’t care.

So the madness must end. Nigerians must wake up. It’s time for us to realise that we have been blessed with all that we need to be a great nation. Others know it and dread the day the African continent wakes up, unites as one and values the lives of its citizens.

No one else is going to love or value the black race the way they deserve except their Creator and themselves.

As I was told as a child, when you point a finger at someone else, the others are pointed towards your direction so we must look at the person in the mirror. We are responsible for the state of our nation and for the solutions.

We must care about accountability

Accountability is a priority. We must hold ourselves, others in all levels of society and our appointed leaders to account.

There has to be transparency in awarded contracts so its clear what to expect and by when. We must go after defaulters for uncompleted work and become watchmen over our communities. Change must start with us.

As Rumi said, “Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

We must care about others and the collective good

A huge issue that we have is selfishness and self-centredness and this cuts across the entire society. People want things at the expense of others. Before we point a finger at the leaders, we must check to see what we do on an individual level. Have you taken advantage of others to benefit yourself or your family?

Many of our leaders amass wealth they can’t spend, hide it in places where it helps other economies and accounts remain dormant after their death.

We must care about all generations

The recent peaceful demonstrations by the youth of Nigeria was effective until it was hijacked. Generations must be appreciated for the struggles that each one has faced or will face. We must unify because there is power in diversity of knowledge, skills and experiences.

Our power lies in our unity because together, we outnumber all leaders. So we need to be smart about protecting that unity and reminding leaders that they are privileged to be chosen to serve.

Leadership is not a birthright or an entitlement they get to keep regardless of performance.

We must care about fake news

Billions of Naira worth of damages have been caused in Nigeria in the past few days fuelled by fake news. As Mark Twain says, ‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.’

Atrocities were committed and there was abuse of power but the devastation that followed was encouraged by some news that were later debunked. Sadly as hoodlums burned down many parts of our nation, purveyors of fake news remain interested only in whipping up sentiments and garnering followers.

We must care about the power that we have

We all have a power to vote and this is something that must be exercised. We must register to vote, start an educational campaign, stay united, carry along the disenfranchised who present the risk of being a weak link, volunteer to be part of the election monitoring process and most importantly vote.

We must use the power that we have to remove leaders for non-performance.

The events of the past few days in Nigeria have reminded us that no one will be safe unless we wake up to our responsibilities and address our problems.

What options do we have if we destroy our country? This is a call for us to arise and protect our nation.

We are already a praying nation, but it’s time to step up in action too because everything that we need to make Nigeria great is available to us. We will be used to answer our own prayers. And having done all, we stand together in faith to see our nation change.

Thanks for reading my post. Please share it and have a great week.