What Did You Achieve For The Benefit Of Nigeria In 2007?

What Did You Achieve For The Benefit Of Nigeria In 2007?

What did you achieve for the benefit of Nigeria and the rest of the World in 2007?

This question is directed at all Nigerians.

As the year 2007 ends, it is only natural to reflect on what happened in your life and the lives of others in Nigeria and the rest of the world.

How did you fare as a citizen of Nigeria?

My focus is not on how much money you made for yourself or your family, but how much contributions you made for the benefit of your community and the rest of humanity.

Greediness is actually the root of corruption the cankerworm of destruction that has made Nigeria one of the most corrupt and poorest countries on earth.

The acquisition of status symbols of luxury and prestige are not achievements for the benefit of Nigerians, because they do not contribute to the development and advancement of Nigeria. They are just your own trophies and you can celebrate them nevertheless, but if they are not important, relevant, and significant to the rest of Nigerians, they are worthless to Nigeria.

Community service is very popular in the developed countries and the richest countries on earth are notable for community service. We need to emulate them in the nation building of Nigeria.

I have read many optimistic articles and commentaries on the wind of change in Nigeria and I welcome such optimism, no matter how naïve or unrealistic. But we have to stop our fallacies and hypocrisies and the shameless celebration of vain conceit and deceit, otherwise Nigeria would still be groping in the darkness of underdevelopment until kingdom come.

The Collapse of the Nigerian Economy:

Many people are actually ignorant of the fact that the Nigerian economy has collapsed. They only judge Nigeria from their own successful investment portfolios and from the skyline views of the skyscrapers in Lagos and Abuja, without any down to earth analysis of the Nigerian crisis from the urban areas to the rural areas. Many of the Nigerians who have secured very lucrative jobs and businesses live in their "Fools Paradise" and love romantic escapism and ironically the poor majority wallow in pathetic defeatism as they resign their fate on providence with what I call the "God Dey Syndrome" or negative "No Condition is Permanent Mentality".

The collapse of the textile industry in Nigeria is enough proof of the collapse of the Nigerian economy. The fact that the textile industry has collapsed shows me the failures of Nigerian banks, insurance companies, and industrialists, no matter all the bogus claims of Nigerian banks and other companies.

We had the worst elections in 2007. The rigging of the elections last April battered the Nigerian economy locally and internationally.

The multinational oil companies have been battered by the Niger Delta crisis.

The Nigeria media did not achieve any remarkable development as the flagship of Nigerian journalism, The Guardian nearly collapsed when the workers went on strike and exposed the rot in the media house. The Guardian of Nigeria is a disgrace when compared to Guardian of London or even the Herald of Zimbabwe and the electronic media in Nigeria cannot even compete with SABC of South Africa.

The so called boom in telecommunication as measured by the increasing number of phone users did not boost the Nigerian economy, but rather increased the population of Nigerian semi-illiterates using mobile phones. The majority of the over 46 million users of phones in Nigeria are actually consumers and not producers and even the millions of Nigerian applicants have GSM mobile phones.

When we begin to use our guts, skills and wits to use all our natural resources for the benefit of all Nigerians in Nigeria, then we can see what we are contributing to nation building in every capacity of human development.

An artist can show us what he or she has done in the arts for the benefit of Nigeria.

The medical doctor can show us.

The engineer can show us.

The banker can show us.

The farmer can show us.

The teacher can show us.

The trader can show us.

The writer can show us.

The messenger can show us.

Every Nigerian at every level should show us what he or she has done and achieved for the benefit of Nigeria in 2007.

By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.

Michael Chima is the founder of Citizen Journalists Association of Nigeria (CJAN) and the author of Children of Heacven (1987), Scarlet Tears of London (2006), Memories of a Refugee Child (2007), Bye Bye Mugabe (2007), the Editor of The Language of True Love (2006), and he is the Publisher/Editor of the largest Nigerian News Media Network Online. He is also the publisher of The Mandate of MKO Abiola (2007) and other books. You can download all his books and other writings on Kindle