By Sylvester Onyemalechi
Man was created to be progressive. No one wants to remain on the same spot. Everybody wants improvement and a better life. Nobody wants to be static or move backwards. When one finds himself in an ugly or unpleasant situation, he will do everything within his power to get out of that situation.
In the same way, Nigeria as a nation was created to be progressive and should be progressing. Unfortunately, Nigeria is struggling with a growth problem. We have as a nation earned for ourselves unpleasant names “one of the most corrupt nations on planet earth”, “a nation of scammers and fraudsters”, “a politically unstable nation”, “an undisciplined nation”, “a nation of bad managers and looters”, “a nation of religious intolerance”, “a nation of suicide bombers and terrorists”, etc.
These challenges have slowed the growth of Nigeria in many ways. In some cases made Nigeria to retrogress. Today, we have many mismanaged companies and institutions, abandoned projects, dilapidated buildings and facilities crying for immediate maintenance and overhaul, terribly bad roads that keep consuming billions of tax payer’s money but never good enough to last up to 6 months, and unpredictable infrastructure. Our electric power generation, transmission and distribution is a big shame for an independent nation of 52 years with enormous natural and human resources.
The military thought the civilians are not able to manage and move the nation forward, they forcefully took over the government. They failed also. Corruption grew under their leadership more than it was during the civilian era. The second and third republic also failed to solve our numerous problems. Is there any hope for Nigeria? I believe there is hope. As long as God is and the people want a change, we will be changed for the better.
My submission is that Nigeria needs an overhaul. We don’t even seem to be a nation. There is no unity. We are too tribalized and self-centred. The North wants to rule us forever. They believe it is their God-given right, yet they are very bad managers who failed the nation woefully for over three decades. In moving Nigeria forward, we need to honestly and critically take a close and detailed look at our nation and analyze and identify our real problem and solve them headlong.
- WE NEED TO REVIEW THE PAST AND PRESENT TO FIND OUT WHY WE ARE WHERE WE ARE.
Why are we where we are today? Why are we going through what you are going through? Why is our nation not doing well? Why are investors leaving the country and people losing their jobs? What role have you as a Nigerian played in the overall condition of our country? Are you part of the reason why we are where we are today? How have you been conducting the business of running our government? Could it be that Nigerians are the cause of our downfall or someone else?
There are lots of questions we must ask ourselves to identify the reason why we are where we are today. If we don’t know how we got to where we are now, we will probably not be able to get out of there. If we don’t know the circumstances that led to where we are, we can’t get out of it. We must know the factors that contributed to the present circumstances, and then give ourselves to searching for solutions to the problems identified.
This calls for critical analysis of the past and present. I am talking about an honest and sincere review of the steps we have taken so far to get to where we are. We need a review of our techniques, method, attitude, ethics, politics, education, policing and judicial system, constitution and laws and every other factor that needs considering to find out why we are where we are.
If it is difficult to pinpoint the cause or causes, then we have to look to God to reveal and help us identify them. We have to be sincere with ourselves. We can’t lie to ourselves if we want to move forward. We need to call a spade a spade. Acknowledge our mistakes and deal with them. We have to identify the problem first and then search for solutions.
There are dimensions to problems. The nature of each problem determines the dimension to consider.
SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
The spiritual state of any man determines his physical state. In the same way, the spiritual state of any nation determines its physical state. As Nigerians, we need to check out our spiritual lives to find out if our problem is spiritual or not. A nation where many in politics and civil service practice occultism and Satanism cannot but experience great challenges and backwardness. People sell their souls to the devil for position and promotion, wealth and protection.
They cut covenants with the Devil to commit fraud and be protected from arrest and prosecution. When a person enters into a new position and office, he brings in his own spiritualist to cleanse the office taking away what the previous occupant planted and install his own gods and do sorceries for protection.
When public office holders and politicians covenant themselves to be led and protected by the devil, how do we expect the nation not to be in darkness with all kinds of evil happening? When any of them is under investigation, they make all sorts of sacrifices which sometimes require costly and outrageous sacrifices of human life or parts in order for the evil spirits to kill the case and help them escape punishment. On the other hand, they connect with their occult members who are in various institutions, ministries and positions to kill the case. This in turn has made many to join many occult groups for this kind of service and demonic favour.
With this kind of setting, we can see why the nation is sinking into more evil and crawling in development. Corruption, wastage, fraud, embezzlement of public funds, poor execution of projects, bad roads, poor electricity supply, poor maintenance of infrastructure and many other problems that Nigeria have, can only be eliminated with a supernatural visitation of the Almighty God. Nigerians need to turn to God. People of this country need to turn away from the occult and turn to God through Jesus Christ. The believers in Christ need to intensify their prayers to cripple and destroy these underground evil organizations and represent Christ wherever they find themselves.
MENTAL OR ATTITUDINAL DIMENSION
A man’s mental disposition gives birth to his decisions, words and actions. And these create his experiences. Our mentality as Nigerians is very bad. It is this wrong attitude that has kept us backward.
Nigerians do not have the right mental attitude necessary for success?
We are not optimistic about our country. Many left Nigeria for other countries because with what they have seen and experienced, they do not have hope or believe that Nigeria will ever make it. Many in the country today do the wrong things they do because they do not believe that things will get better, so, they have decided to join the wrong team and do wrong. For them, the slogan, If you cannot beat them, join them is very correct and applicable to the project called Nigeria.
Many Nigerians are not positive thinkers but negative thinkers. Each time they think about Nigeria, it is always negative. Negative thoughts will always produce negative words and actions against Nigeria. This explains why many curse Nigeria and our leaders and do not make a meaningful contribution to the improvement and progress of the nation.
Nigerians always expect the worst and not the best to happen in any sphere of the country.
How can Nigeria succeed when we program ourselves to see and look forward to failure, disappointment, violence, and many other backward and evil things? It is what we believe we will see that we eventually see. W experience what our faith brings (pulls, draws, delivers) to us.
Nigerians are not excited anymore about Nigeria. Many believe we will break up. Some pray that we will break up. As a result of the violence in the Northern part of the country and the arrogant way our so-called political leaders talk heating up the polity, many have lost their faith in a one united Nigeria. So, there is no more excitement about Nigeria in the people. Some want to impose their religion on others by force and violence. Some believe their region must rule Nigeria or there will be no Nigeria. All these are the manifestation of bad attitudes that work against a united Nigeria. This has made many to lose hope in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians are not enthusiastic about their jobs and businesses. When there is no enthusiasm, productivity is low. This explains why many civil servants don’t go to work regularly and yet they get paid. If the government attempts to sack any unproductive worker, they call out to the labour union that will fight for them and call for a general strike. In Nigeria, unions go on strike for practically everything without cautioning their members and making sure they are productive and keeping to the terms of their employment in their offices. Nigeria will never progress until the labour unions start making sure their members are really working and productive. If you are collecting a salary for a job you are not really doing, you are a thief and you should be prosecuted and jailed.
Do you love your job? Are you bored with it? The answer to these questions explains your unproductivity and the reason why your management is not happy with you.
What is your mental disposition about life, Nigeria, work, following God and righteousness, bribery and corruption, criminality and justice, about change and the future of Nigeria?
What we see in and about Nigeria is what we get. You can only have what your faith can deliver to you.
WORK DIMENSION
There is no gainsaying the fact that the attitude of public and civil servants in Nigeria is appalling. For Nigeria to work as a prosperous nation, we as Nigerians must change our minds and work attitude. We have to stop going late to work. We have to stop staying away from work. Many times we go to work, but we don’t really work. Many civil servants have turned their offices to shops where they sell their own goods. They collect salary for marketing their own wares and pocket the profits. They use government work time to do their own business and still collect salary. How can Nigeria be great with this kind of work attitude?
Civil servants in Nigeria see their position and offices as an opportunity to make extra money. Corruption and greed have eaten into them like cancer. They beg to apply for a job they already know the salary, only for them to turn around and complain the salary is not big enough and start putting up a lot of schemes to steal and extort money from the public who come to the government agency they work for services.
Files get missing only to reappear as soon as the owner pays some money. Delays are experienced when under-table money is not paid. Security agencies go all out to make money for themselves and their superiors quoting laws that do not exist or overblown to extort money from ignorant and in a hurry motorist and public. Every government agency, institution, ministry or establishment you go to the story is the same. People don’t do the work they are paid anymore. The public has to pay extra to get them to do what our government is already paying them to do.
People join the police force, customs, immigration and other military and paramilitary agencies not because they love to serve their country but to make illegal money. They use their uniform to aid and abet crime.
They use their uniform to extort money and to escort illegal goods and criminals. They are behind the illegal oil bunkering going on in Nigeria. It is a big shame that with all the parade of military and paramilitary organizations we have in our country, Nigeria is the only country where crude and petroleum pipelines are vandalized and the content siphoned to enrich private pockets. Many policemen and military officers have been caught many times in the act of giving protection to these criminals or being directly the thieves themselves.
How can Nigeria prosper with this kind of work attitude? Nigerians must repent and turn to Jesus Christ to deliver and save them so they can live righteously. Our work attitude must change. All Nigerians must maintain civil service rules and regulations. We must really work for the money that we are being paid. For change to take place and Nigeria to move forward, we must be selfless in our service and work. We must be proud of our Nation and make Nigeria great again.
As a Nigerian:
What is your attitude to work?
It is true you work, but can you at the end of each day; say this is what I have achieved by my work?
Do you just work or you have targeted or focused work?
Are you busy every day, but doing nothing?
Do you work with goals in mind?
Do you love sleep and pleasure?
Are you lazy?
Do you believe in hard work?
Are you a busybody?
Read these passages: Proverbs 10:4; 23:19-21; 21:17; 22:13; 24:30-34; 28:19; 14:23.
WISDOM DIMENSION
Wisdom will teach you that you must know where you are going, how to get there, and what it takes to get there (Proverbs 4:7-9). In Nigeria, people don’t learn from the past. In Nigeria, we repeat history a lot. In Nigeria, people talk first before they think of the impact of their words. Politicians are culprits in this area. A so-called leader who lacks wisdom and does not care about the impact of the words he speaks is a fool and not qualified to lead anybody. It is in Nigeria we have people without vision leading local, state and national governments. We have people heading departments, ministries and institutions of government without direction or purpose.
Wisdom teaches us to define our vision, be resolute about it, and plan with dates on how to achieve them. It is only in Nigeria that visions die with a particular government when their tenure expires. The new government whether in a ministry, school, establishment or agency will abandon it and go for a new program where contracts will be awarded to his or her candidate through whom money will be siphoned. As a result, we have many abandoned visions and projects in Nigeria and so many unwanted and poorly planned projects. How can our nation prosper like this?
We need wisdom. We need to associate with the wise. For Nigeria to move forward, we need to start giving opportunities to those who are well educated and qualified for positions and assignments. Appointing people based on party affiliation, tribal and blood links, religious affiliation and quota system is not good for the development of our country. It is not wisdom at all. Contracts should not be awarded on the basis of a political party and tribal affiliations. It should be on merit, capability and experience.
Wisdom also demands that all projects of government should be well supervised. A situation where government engineers fight themselves over who should supervise projects reveals clearly that there will be no supervision at all.
They are only fighting because of the money they will collect from the construction companies to turn their eyes away and approve shoddy and bad jobs that do not meet contractual agreements. It is time supervising officers of government take their jobs serious. Wisdom also demands that provision should be made in the contract for warranty and maintenance of roads, buildings and all installations by the contracting firm. Wisdom also demands that the interest of Nigeria should be put first before any tribal or personal interest in negotiating deals, contracts, appointments and choosing the site of the project.
ASSOCIATION DIMENSION
The companies you keep affect and influence you. Association is a blend of spirits. Anointing, spirits, habits, characters, desires, tastes, ideas, ideologies, beliefs, doctrines, temperaments, visions and dreams, covenants and curses can be transferred and acquired through associations. 1Cor 15:33; Prov 29:3; 22:24-25; 28:27; 13:20; 2Thess 3:14
There is a saying that in the kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man is a king. Nigeria likes to surround herself with people we think we are better off than, who sing our praises as we give them money that we don’t really have. We donate and they call us big brother. Our leaders associate with dictators and those without a clear cut vision for their countries except to rule, control and hold unto power.
This negative association has kept us behind. It has made our leaders believe that we are doing well. The Bible teaches us that those who move with the wise will become wise. Why do our leaders not associate closely with the progressing and developed economies to learn and adapt to our benefit what we learn from them? Why don’t we strive to be like them? Why can’t Nigeria have good roads like these countries? Why can’t Nigerian leaders associate to the level that we can learn from their management skills, civil service culture, their culture of excellence, transparency, accountability, selfless service to their country, politics and dedication to growing their economy and democracy?
MANAGEMENT DIMENSION
Ability to manage men, materials and resources is a key factor in determining the success of any venture. Many a time we fail not because of a lack of resources but the inability to manage what is available to us. Nigeria is a country that is poorly managed. We have thousands of educated men and women, but few good managers. Nigeria is backward because we are good at putting the wrong people in positions they are not qualified or even trained to manage. It has always been a problem of a square peg in a round hole. A man may be good and well educated but when put in a position he has no knowledge, he will fail. Tribalism, nepotism and corruption have made us not to put the right people where they will fit in perfectly.
That a man is educated does not mean that he is or will make a good manager. Management skills are acquired through training and experience. A country where politicians without education and relevant knowledge in a particular field of endeavour are put in positions of authority and management, rather than educationally qualified persons will never work well.
We need to look at the way appointments are made in Nigeria to move the country forward. We cannot continue to play politics with management positions. If we continue, we will kill the country. Managers must take responsibility for what happens in their institutions, companies, ministries, establishments
Check yourself and see where you are and what changes you need to make to improve your management skill and through it improve Nigeria.
Can you say of yourself that you possess quality managerial skills?
Do you have ability to influence people to do what they don’t want to do, and like it?
Do you command respect and influence among your workers and subordinates?
Do you do little things well?
Do you inspire confidence?
Are you ardent or forceful or committed to your vision and beliefs?
Do you have the power of clear decision, or do you allow people to make your decisions for you?
Do you trust those under you, or you are always suspecting them?
Have you learnt how to take advantage of momentum?
What is your attitude towards discouragement?
How do you face impossible situations?
Do you have a good reputation within and without?
Will you prefer someone from your tribe or religion to work with you or fill a position you have the power to appoint someone or influence the decision to appoint though the person is not the most qualified and not experienced enough?
How have you handled your finances?
Do you live on credit? Are you always on the deficit?
Do you love pleasure so much that you cannot draw a line between capital for your business and spending allowance? Proverbs 21:17
Can you gloriously give a good account of your monthly income?
How do you manage your time? Do you know there is a time for everything? Eccl. 3:1-8
Do you have maintenance culture?
Do you possess the ability to secure discipline without having to resort to a show of authority? True leadership is an internal quality of the spirit and requires no external show of force.
Can you accept opposition to your viewpoint or decision without considering it a personal affront and reacting accordingly? Are you at ease in the presence of your supervisor or strangers?
Do your subordinates appear at ease in your presence? A leader should give an impression of sympathetic understanding and friendliness that will put others at ease.
Do you nurse resentment, or do you readily forgive injuries done to you?
Are you reasonably optimistic? Pessimism is no asset to a leader.
Is your problem lack of fund or inability to manage the little available?
Have you been able to manage the gifts and talents you have to your own advantage and advancement in life?
If you will be sincere to yourself, by going through this questionnaire again, you will be able to identify your problem. When you identify the real problem, the next step is to find answers to the problems identified and Nigeria will be better for it.
- GO FOR KNOWLEDGE.
Having identified the real problems of Nigeria, we need to search for solutions. We need a new mindset to move Nigeria forward. To get a new orientation we need to study our countries problem and situation closely and sincerely take responsibility and stop blaming the British colonial masters and do what has to be done and make Nigeria work. We need to attend seminars and orientation training programs to give us as Nigerians a new and winning mindset. Nation-building requires a positive mind and dogged and faithful commitment.
We need to detribalize and become a nation. We need to break away from corruption and the culture of impunity. We need to break away from the culture of hate and religious intolerance. We need to break away from the culture of poor or lack of maintenance of our facilities and poor work attitude.
We need to do away with selfishness and self-centeredness that has characterized our lives and become nationalistic in our thoughts and actions. Discipline and honesty have to be brought back into our culture. All these changes will take special orientation seminars, workshops, motivational lectures and training programs. The government, donor agencies, NGOs, religious organizations and educational institutions have to join forces to combat these challenges through education and publicity campaign and bring about the change that will move the country forward.
It takes committed people to move forward. There is no substitute for information in the school of success. There is no price too much for information. To be informed is to be transformed. Information will take us from our unpleasant situation to the pleasant place that our heart craves for. Until we know what we must do and do it, we will pray in vain. Knowledge is the key to moving forward.
Josh 1:8
8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
NIV
Job 29:3
3 when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light, I walked through darkness!
NIV
Heavenly information, when properly applied will command earthly attention.
- BOLDLY CHANGE WHAT MUST BE CHANGED.
Change means to turn from something and take on something new. It means to put off the old and put on the new. It means to abandon the old and embrace the new. It means to abandon the normal and usual way, method, lifestyle and attitude that brought us to where we are now and take on a new and better, successful, proven and effective way, method, lifestyle and attitude.
Change is a sign of maturity. Change is proof that one is teachable, and that one has learnt from his unpleasant experiences. Change is evidence of an open heart. Change shows one’s acceptance of his or her imperfections and a willingness to become better.
Change displays wisdom and discretion. Change is the road to progress and prosperity. Change is a willingness to move forward, for without change where and when necessary, there can be no moving forward.
Change is part of the circle of life. Don’t be afraid of it. You cannot do without it you were created to change from glory to glory (2Cor. 3:18). You are expected to be affected and be transformed by the word of truth and by the experiences of life (John 8:32; Romans 12:2).
Change brings one into the path of greatness. Change takes us from the wrong way of doing a thing to the right way where success and prosperity are sure. Change positions us for blessings. Change triggers a movement towards our life goals.
If you refuse to change what must be changed, you will remain on the same spot. He that will not change will be destroyed by his bad habits, sins, mistakes, stubbornness and wrong methods. Proverbs13:13; 15:10; 29:1
If as Nigerians we refuse to change, then, Nigeria will never go forward. We all need to make personal corrections to make the nation go forward. It is time we stop paying lip service to make Nigeria great. It is time we all contribute our quota to make Nigeria work. Do not wait for someone to start the revolution. Start doing your part by making the mental shift that is required of you. Do not wait for the government. It takes a man to start a revolution. Change now and soon, the whole country will be changed. Pray and bless Nigeria daily in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak positively about Nigeria. Keep hope alive and work for Nigeria’s greatness.
God forgive, cleanse, unite and bless Nigeria in Jesus name.