I was born in Italy after the Nigerian
civil war and I grew up knowing a nation
that private martial music above you
know organizing people to achieve it
cause so the only time when we actually
did you know notice a change is when you
hear the sound of martial music that
will go this way Fela Nigerians and at
the end of it all we will come back with
our stories of disappointments and then
we listen to another round of martial
music but another set of so-called
revolutionaries saying that it can make
things better and this went on and on
and on and on but we did not see the
change we desired
now let’s look at it this way all the
time one of the guys who actually sang
that martial music and spoke to us
telling us that the route to the future
will be brighter suddenly this I was
time to give us democracy and he shifted
the goalposts a couple of times and at
the end of it all
he decided I’m gonna step aside and have
you guys just run your own affairs at
the end of it all there was so much
strife so much you know a lot of people
died and somehow another martial music
came and then we we began again the game
of musical chairs until somehow by
divine intervention democracy arrived
now we’ve been a democratically run
country or so to speak in the last 19
years going on 20 years but are we yet
ignition and that’s the question that is
actually at the root of a lot of the
social tension we’ve seen in Nigeria any
couple of since this democratic
experiment started but but but let’s
take a look where are we coming from
Nigeria beyond independence is actually
a hundred and three years old right a
beautiful country
and whether by the imaginations of the
British or whether by design or Divine
Design a man named Frederick lugar
decided that to get economics of scale
it will be better to actually March
essentially to protectorates did not
earn and the Sodom Protectorate with the
colony of leaguers to kind of like get
ignition so that you could then build
real networks that could connect these
two protectorates to the pots at the
colony of legos and probably in calibre
to get cash crops through the ship to
the West and that was how Nigeria was
born and in given back nation we just
suddenly found out that this nation
became the most populous black nation on
earth with a lot of potential and a lot
of people speculated about it becoming
the next superpower and so in 1960 a
whole lot of there was a whole lot of
fever-pitch
and anticipation as to the you know the
fulfillment of the destiny of this
nation but all of a sudden we started to
notice that a whole lot of things you
know are not quite there yet with
nationhood because our aspiration in
1960 was to join the league of the
greats
so you could talk about great britain
haven’t been together for forever you
could talk about the United States
fighting to wrest control of its destiny
from British Overlord in 1776 with
mantra structures life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness you could talk
about France hasn’t been a nation for
over 1,000 years but with an interregnum
that defined that their cost into the
future which was when Queen Marie
Antoinette said if you couldn’t afford
cakes oh if you couldn’t afford bread go
eat cakes and then of course we’ve seen
that just one revolution has been the
source of the creative energy that has
built a nation and as will get people
together you could talk about Japan
there has been a nation for over 2,000
years with
less people and actually was a colonizer
of china the nation with today
celebrates all right but are we about to
join the league of these grapes because
this is what we have a vested wrong
values wrong thinking hating ourselves
been our own the worst salesman of
ourselves that we could possibly find
anywhere in the world so you if you
really want to sell nigeria badly you
don’t need third party all you need to
do is speak to a Nigerian and I’m one of
them those who read me on social media
find that I’m very critical of
governments but I still hold one thing
true we can only go as far as our nation
travels and that’s why if you give birth
to a child in America and you give back
to another child in Nigeria and both of
them were endowed with the same
potential possibilities are the
environment will determine their future
so how in this kind of environment can
we possibly determine the future of
Bright’s our young people all fitted
around this corner and hoping for a
better time so a moment to reflect how
do we build that nation because the
nation can only be built out of
consensus it can be built out of strife
of course we can disagree but we must
never take entrenched position to the
extent that it starts to hurt that Union
then you will have no nation because
indeed a nation is more than just a
geographic location otherwise Falkland
Island wouldn’t be part of Britain
because it’s so far flung from Britain
so it’s not the you know about having
Geographic possibilities that define a
nation but then who is a Nigerian how do
we identify ourselves a lot of us will
identify ourselves first in our own
little corner you know maybe I identify
myself as a Yoruba man before identify
myself as in Nigerian but again are we
then going to have 371 Nations because
that’s that’s the only way some people
push that there could be peace while
we’re just going to start by having
three first and align ourselves also
back and
and fights like South Sudan is currently
doing after gaining independence from
the almighty Sudan so how do we see
Nigeria that identity crisis is
constantly the thing that stands as a
krahgg in the in the wheel of
development I don’t see we address that
identity crisis me to say that we may
possibly be going no way because a
nation is about shared identity and
shared prosperity because if we don’t
believe that we are selling the same
boots how can we possibly sell against
other tide beyond just that which we
battle internally so how do we get there
how do we attain the status of a you
know of a group of people with different
identity choosing to bury their micro
identity or subsume it under a bigger
identity how do we travel that journey
it’s a question a lot of people are
asking it’s a question of you know how
do we manage diversity how do we lower
social tension and be able to actually
come to the table with ideas that can be
world beaters and deliver to us that
Nigeria which we desire because until we
get to that point where we’re beginning
to ask ourselves those questions we
simply are not going to go anywhere and
that’s why a lot of people have come to
say we don’t have an insurmountable
problem some other people have come to
describe that problem as economic that
if you could guarantee prosperity for a
greater number of people you possibly
will be able to address that national
question some other people have then
said look you couldn’t possibly even
guarantee prosperity for the majority of
people if you don’t address this
question because it’s a question of how
do we manage different jurisdictions how
do we decongest
the already populated exclusive
legislative list with the military be
quitted on to us that says that the
politics and the economic of the nation
must be so centralized
that it takes away initiative from the
local or the smaller units that can
gråvik that can actually galvanize the
kind of energy needed to great nation
and then how den do we deal with the
question of contest for power like
babies fighting over toy instead of
seeing the possibilities that lay ahead
of us just remain the questions that are
militating against us actually moving
forward but of course well your
arrangement around the superstructure is
something that a lot of people are
dealing with a lot of people some other
people have also come out to say these
are elite arguments that have no basis
for developments progress and happiness
and the fulfillment of that desired
Nigeria because if you don’t address the
issues related to the sub structure the
superstructure will continue to crumble
so if you don’t manage visual idea of
inequality and having focus on the
people a situation where what we have is
a situation where the the Statehouse
clinic has more budgets than a teaching
hospital or a situation where a governor
continues to enjoy security votes while
the civil service people are not paid
their dad salaries as a trend you so
which one is security there all right so
if we don’t address that issue then it
becomes a real big problem really
talking about a veneer nation but I
believe that we’re yet on a journey
because I like to say this China was at
this point in 1978 when it chose on that
the enzyme in to smash the iron rice
bowl and to say look we can no longer
guarantee the security of your job or
guarantee order state you know sponsored
welfare programs but what we can
guarantee for you is that if you choose
to actually aggregate and from yourself
into groups to deliver economic benefits
to yourself the government will be an
enabler and today China is home to over
8 million economic enterprises little
wonder then Wentworth has moved you know
from the 1990 1978
we had mass unemployment through the 90s
so today when it’s the second biggest
economy in the world aiming to be number
one and aggressively sooo in such a way
that maybe tomorrow my children will
learn more Mandarin then they will learn
English but let’s face it how are we
going to build on Nigeria if we don’t
tell the stories of the good things that
we are currently doing because stories
inspire and stories throw up
possibilities all right so we’ve got
heroes beyond just the leaders that we
complain about we’ve got heroes from our
founders to those who daily toil you
know on the creative part to deliver you
know what you would call globe world
standards that people celebrate we’ve
got achievements Iran is in diplomacy
where we define first Africa as the
centerpiece of our foreign affairs and
so delivered you know the fight against
appetite and then send it technically
eTCO across africa to begin to train
people and to begin to gather nice
development across africa we’ve got a
rich culture we’ve got a brilliant
cultural tapestry that speaks to a
diversity and shows some kind of unique
energy that is needed to actually grow a
great nation we’ve got hard-won
traditional values which a lot of people
have spoken about here of trust
integrity honesty which economics may
have eroded but is nonetheless there we
need to celebrate it we need to
celebrate our intellectual capacity we
need to celebrate even the fact that
we’re an economic powerhouse we need to
enter in to that new Nigeria way it is
not just simply about telling tales of
our name but also telling tales of
Technology developments that are better
at companies like system spec paga Iroko
innocent we’ve got all that so why are
we not telling that story
all right we’ve actually raised unicorns
from creating hubs like see co-op to and
Ella
that’s driving global grits like Mark
Zuckerberg and the global CEO of Google
here to work with our youths because
they see that after India we are
probably going to be the next technology
destination we’ve got a vibe that I’m
insane that even without government
participation has been able to grow so
much muscle that today has attracted
global attention such that even the
Nigerian fashion is becoming you know a
global fad Nollywood is celebrated
everywhere now
and we’re even talking about a
contribution of well over five billion
dollars to the GDP without government
supports all right even a dance from
sake to dab has become a global
phenomenon I mean we’ve got a vibrant
pop culture that speaks to that energy
and youthfulness that it takes to grow a
great nation so while other people be
mourned by having that aging population
are be mourning that the lack of the
energy to go into the future we’ve got
well over 70% of the population below
the age of 40 isn’t it something to
celebrate
or of course you just warned you know an
opportunity to go to the World Cup in
Russia but beyond that you are the first
to win the under-16 World Cup in 1985
isn’t that worth celebrating so there’s
a lot to us that we can celebrate but no
one grows a great nation just by wishful
thinking we’ve got to start now and
we’ve got to you know organize because
the if we can only go as big you know if
only we can organize ourselves into groups to champion the positive energy
civil war and I grew up knowing a nation
that private martial music above you
know organizing people to achieve it
cause so the only time when we actually
did you know notice a change is when you
hear the sound of martial music that
will go this way Fela Nigerians and at
the end of it all we will come back with
our stories of disappointments and then
we listen to another round of martial
music but another set of so-called
revolutionaries saying that it can make
things better and this went on and on
and on and on but we did not see the
change we desired
now let’s look at it this way all the
time one of the guys who actually sang
that martial music and spoke to us
telling us that the route to the future
will be brighter suddenly this I was
time to give us democracy and he shifted
the goalposts a couple of times and at
the end of it all
he decided I’m gonna step aside and have
you guys just run your own affairs at
the end of it all there was so much
strife so much you know a lot of people
died and somehow another martial music
came and then we we began again the game
of musical chairs until somehow by
divine intervention democracy arrived
now we’ve been a democratically run
country or so to speak in the last 19
years going on 20 years but are we yet
ignition and that’s the question that is
actually at the root of a lot of the
social tension we’ve seen in Nigeria any
couple of since this democratic
experiment started but but but let’s
take a look where are we coming from
Nigeria beyond independence is actually
a hundred and three years old right a
beautiful country
and whether by the imaginations of the
British or whether by design or Divine
Design a man named Frederick lugar
decided that to get economics of scale
it will be better to actually March
essentially to protectorates did not
earn and the Sodom Protectorate with the
colony of leaguers to kind of like get
ignition so that you could then build
real networks that could connect these
two protectorates to the pots at the
colony of legos and probably in calibre
to get cash crops through the ship to
the West and that was how Nigeria was
born and in given back nation we just
suddenly found out that this nation
became the most populous black nation on
earth with a lot of potential and a lot
of people speculated about it becoming
the next superpower and so in 1960 a
whole lot of there was a whole lot of
fever-pitch
and anticipation as to the you know the
fulfillment of the destiny of this
nation but all of a sudden we started to
notice that a whole lot of things you
know are not quite there yet with
nationhood because our aspiration in
1960 was to join the league of the
greats
so you could talk about great britain
haven’t been together for forever you
could talk about the United States
fighting to wrest control of its destiny
from British Overlord in 1776 with
mantra structures life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness you could talk
about France hasn’t been a nation for
over 1,000 years but with an interregnum
that defined that their cost into the
future which was when Queen Marie
Antoinette said if you couldn’t afford
cakes oh if you couldn’t afford bread go
eat cakes and then of course we’ve seen
that just one revolution has been the
source of the creative energy that has
built a nation and as will get people
together you could talk about Japan
there has been a nation for over 2,000
years with
less people and actually was a colonizer
of china the nation with today
celebrates all right but are we about to
join the league of these grapes because
this is what we have a vested wrong
values wrong thinking hating ourselves
been our own the worst salesman of
ourselves that we could possibly find
anywhere in the world so you if you
really want to sell nigeria badly you
don’t need third party all you need to
do is speak to a Nigerian and I’m one of
them those who read me on social media
find that I’m very critical of
governments but I still hold one thing
true we can only go as far as our nation
travels and that’s why if you give birth
to a child in America and you give back
to another child in Nigeria and both of
them were endowed with the same
potential possibilities are the
environment will determine their future
so how in this kind of environment can
we possibly determine the future of
Bright’s our young people all fitted
around this corner and hoping for a
better time so a moment to reflect how
do we build that nation because the
nation can only be built out of
consensus it can be built out of strife
of course we can disagree but we must
never take entrenched position to the
extent that it starts to hurt that Union
then you will have no nation because
indeed a nation is more than just a
geographic location otherwise Falkland
Island wouldn’t be part of Britain
because it’s so far flung from Britain
so it’s not the you know about having
Geographic possibilities that define a
nation but then who is a Nigerian how do
we identify ourselves a lot of us will
identify ourselves first in our own
little corner you know maybe I identify
myself as a Yoruba man before identify
myself as in Nigerian but again are we
then going to have 371 Nations because
that’s that’s the only way some people
push that there could be peace while
we’re just going to start by having
three first and align ourselves also
back and
and fights like South Sudan is currently
doing after gaining independence from
the almighty Sudan so how do we see
Nigeria that identity crisis is
constantly the thing that stands as a
krahgg in the in the wheel of
development I don’t see we address that
identity crisis me to say that we may
possibly be going no way because a
nation is about shared identity and
shared prosperity because if we don’t
believe that we are selling the same
boots how can we possibly sell against
other tide beyond just that which we
battle internally so how do we get there
how do we attain the status of a you
know of a group of people with different
identity choosing to bury their micro
identity or subsume it under a bigger
identity how do we travel that journey
it’s a question a lot of people are
asking it’s a question of you know how
do we manage diversity how do we lower
social tension and be able to actually
come to the table with ideas that can be
world beaters and deliver to us that
Nigeria which we desire because until we
get to that point where we’re beginning
to ask ourselves those questions we
simply are not going to go anywhere and
that’s why a lot of people have come to
say we don’t have an insurmountable
problem some other people have come to
describe that problem as economic that
if you could guarantee prosperity for a
greater number of people you possibly
will be able to address that national
question some other people have then
said look you couldn’t possibly even
guarantee prosperity for the majority of
people if you don’t address this
question because it’s a question of how
do we manage different jurisdictions how
do we decongest
the already populated exclusive
legislative list with the military be
quitted on to us that says that the
politics and the economic of the nation
must be so centralized
that it takes away initiative from the
local or the smaller units that can
gråvik that can actually galvanize the
kind of energy needed to great nation
and then how den do we deal with the
question of contest for power like
babies fighting over toy instead of
seeing the possibilities that lay ahead
of us just remain the questions that are
militating against us actually moving
forward but of course well your
arrangement around the superstructure is
something that a lot of people are
dealing with a lot of people some other
people have also come out to say these
are elite arguments that have no basis
for developments progress and happiness
and the fulfillment of that desired
Nigeria because if you don’t address the
issues related to the sub structure the
superstructure will continue to crumble
so if you don’t manage visual idea of
inequality and having focus on the
people a situation where what we have is
a situation where the the Statehouse
clinic has more budgets than a teaching
hospital or a situation where a governor
continues to enjoy security votes while
the civil service people are not paid
their dad salaries as a trend you so
which one is security there all right so
if we don’t address that issue then it
becomes a real big problem really
talking about a veneer nation but I
believe that we’re yet on a journey
because I like to say this China was at
this point in 1978 when it chose on that
the enzyme in to smash the iron rice
bowl and to say look we can no longer
guarantee the security of your job or
guarantee order state you know sponsored
welfare programs but what we can
guarantee for you is that if you choose
to actually aggregate and from yourself
into groups to deliver economic benefits
to yourself the government will be an
enabler and today China is home to over
8 million economic enterprises little
wonder then Wentworth has moved you know
from the 1990 1978
we had mass unemployment through the 90s
so today when it’s the second biggest
economy in the world aiming to be number
one and aggressively sooo in such a way
that maybe tomorrow my children will
learn more Mandarin then they will learn
English but let’s face it how are we
going to build on Nigeria if we don’t
tell the stories of the good things that
we are currently doing because stories
inspire and stories throw up
possibilities all right so we’ve got
heroes beyond just the leaders that we
complain about we’ve got heroes from our
founders to those who daily toil you
know on the creative part to deliver you
know what you would call globe world
standards that people celebrate we’ve
got achievements Iran is in diplomacy
where we define first Africa as the
centerpiece of our foreign affairs and
so delivered you know the fight against
appetite and then send it technically
eTCO across africa to begin to train
people and to begin to gather nice
development across africa we’ve got a
rich culture we’ve got a brilliant
cultural tapestry that speaks to a
diversity and shows some kind of unique
energy that is needed to actually grow a
great nation we’ve got hard-won
traditional values which a lot of people
have spoken about here of trust
integrity honesty which economics may
have eroded but is nonetheless there we
need to celebrate it we need to
celebrate our intellectual capacity we
need to celebrate even the fact that
we’re an economic powerhouse we need to
enter in to that new Nigeria way it is
not just simply about telling tales of
our name but also telling tales of
Technology developments that are better
at companies like system spec paga Iroko
innocent we’ve got all that so why are
we not telling that story
all right we’ve actually raised unicorns
from creating hubs like see co-op to and
Ella
that’s driving global grits like Mark
Zuckerberg and the global CEO of Google
here to work with our youths because
they see that after India we are
probably going to be the next technology
destination we’ve got a vibe that I’m
insane that even without government
participation has been able to grow so
much muscle that today has attracted
global attention such that even the
Nigerian fashion is becoming you know a
global fad Nollywood is celebrated
everywhere now
and we’re even talking about a
contribution of well over five billion
dollars to the GDP without government
supports all right even a dance from
sake to dab has become a global
phenomenon I mean we’ve got a vibrant
pop culture that speaks to that energy
and youthfulness that it takes to grow a
great nation so while other people be
mourned by having that aging population
are be mourning that the lack of the
energy to go into the future we’ve got
well over 70% of the population below
the age of 40 isn’t it something to
celebrate
or of course you just warned you know an
opportunity to go to the World Cup in
Russia but beyond that you are the first
to win the under-16 World Cup in 1985
isn’t that worth celebrating so there’s
a lot to us that we can celebrate but no
one grows a great nation just by wishful
thinking we’ve got to start now and
we’ve got to you know organize because
the if we can only go as big you know if
only we can organize ourselves into groups to champion the positive energy
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