Good People, Great Nation?

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Nigeria is not yet the great nation our current slogan says we are and in my opinion two things stop us from achieving this potential:

1. The Death of Values in Nigeria
We lack a sense of the common codes that preserve our ability to live together as sane and good people. Our societal values have been slaughtered on the altar of making money. In Nigeria today, anything done to make money is seemingly justified if not during the money making act itself, after the fact.

When a Nigerian makes money by committing a blatant criminal act, as long as he/she is not caught by the law, we are all fine with it. They flaunt the results of their ill gotten wealth and we all want a share. In fact, we give them national honours and "thief"tancy titles.

We have sold our soul for the proverbial bowl of porridge and in our collective poverty, high crime-rate, infrastructureless-despite-investment paradise, we feel the effect.

2. The Dearth of Value in Nigeria
Ours is a society where the easiest means of making money involves doing things that do not contribute any real value - ventures that add NOTHING to the country's GDP. Politics is the way to go if you want quick profit. It's just a big game set up to defraud the country at the detriment of the masses.

In our dysfunctional system, people run away from value-producing ventures to value-sapping ventures 'cos that where profit is.

Sadly the task of creating the enabling environment for value-producing ventures to function efficiently for the benefit of people engaged in them is left in the control of the value-sapping vultures. These value-sapping vultures used the necessity for efficient power generation as a means to steal billions of dollars.

Sadly  the death of values and the culture of not appreciating value has seeped into every facet of our society. If we are to again achieve our potential as a nation, we have to address these twin ills one mind and one act at a time...

I look forward to day when we are truly "Good People in a Great Nation"

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone