If you are still in Nigeria, then you need to "shine your eyes" and pray that you do not get caught on any of the roads that are riddled with craters, abandoned vehicles, refuse heaps, bad drainage, and road blocks mounted by all kinds of security men and often invaded by urchins, hawkers, peddlers, armed robbers, beggars, angry mobs, peaceful demonstrators, lunatics and suicide bombers.Now that security is a new song in Nigeria, most roads are over policed, without any impressive record of improvement in the security of lives and property. President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated a large cabinet, comprising ministers and advisers with the ironical prayer, "may your roads be rough". It is not very clear how many of them were able to say or mumble "Amen" to that prayerEver since, the roads have remained very rough. Unfortunately, unlike the poor masses of Nigeria, these ministers and advisers spend more time travelling by air than they do by road. While Nigeria has gracefully been spared the trouble of battling with natural disasters, with all the potential of greatness that she bears as a nation, she seems to have planted her feet on a road that leads nowhere since she crossed that juncture where such a significant event as her 50thindependence anniversary could be marred by a twin bomb blast.It was not the first time that Nigerians witnessed bomb blasts, but it stood out as a unique episode in the history of the country.The explosions announced the beginning of what has turned out to be a major revolt by a section of her population, whose aspirations seem to run contrary to the status quo.This section detests the idea of a secular state. It sees America and the European nations as enemies rather than friends, while regarding Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan as role models that should be emulated at all costIt is a section that encourages most parents to keep their children away from western styled schools and to deny them shoes.The revolt has assumed a political form that appears to thrive on opposition to the man at the helm of the countrys affairs. It has led to the killing of hundreds of people, including National Youth Service Corps members, over the results of an election that was otherwise celebrated as free and fair.After the dust raised by the election protests had settled, columns of smoke continued to billow from scenes of suicide bombing, from beer parlours to police stations. Even the national headquarters of the Nigeria Police and the United Nations building in Abuja were not spared. The situation has deteriorated so much that an average of four bombs exploded in 100 days. It is so bad that, in a country that is known to be very religious, Sallah, Christmas, and such holidays are now vulnerable to bomb blasts. A few years ago, one would have proudly said that Nigerians were not capable of suicide bombing missions, as is associated with citizens of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, et cetera. Now one wonders if these bombers are really Nigerians. Are they rebels from the nether regions of Naijanistan'The trend throws up questions about the structure, composition, and nature of the entity called Nigeria, a product of an amalgamation which some have described as a massive fraud.Thus, we find ourselves on the road to Naijanistan. It is not yet clear what lies ahead of us on this dreadful route, but the drum beats are getting ever faster.With the planned removal of fuel subsidy, another revolt may be underway. Labour is already threatening to shut down the economy. There are reports that lecturers, who are already on strike, are planning to organize student protests.By insisting on subsidy removal, the President on his part has proven all those who have labeled him a weakling wrong. He seems prepared to drive through a mob in his bullet proof fleet, if he has to.Only when we are clear about how we got to this point and where it is leading us can we begin a process that will enable us to steer clear of the doomed path.Spending a quarter of our capital expenditure on security is just a monumental waste of oil savings, for which the citizens will pay the price of inflation in all prices including transport fares on the rickety buses plying those dilapidated roads that lead to Naijanistan.The cause of our troubles lies deep, beyond the symptomatic issues of poverty, corruption, politics, fuel subsidy and religion. It is a problem of utter disregard for the law of homogeneity and balance in state formation as in their further division into component units and in their relations with one another, the various systems, and institutions that surround them. It is a problem of cultural clashes on many fronts, of an unwholesome copying of foreign concepts withoutany consideration for the relevance of such locally or an attempt at adapting such to the home soil.If we had paid attention to these from the beginning, our major local languages would have been so developed that they would serve as languages of instruction in our educational institutions.It would have been so easy to learn to read and write (in one`s mother tongue) that we would have easily had 70 per cent adult literacy and no one would say education is a sin.Everyone would have been educated and independent minded in the original sense of the word. Only then would we be able to say truly, that ours is an independent nation. If this principle is applied in other aspects of national life as well, then the nation will certainly flourish. But our imported system of government and borrowed constitution forbids this. They have condemned us to living a life that will remain foreign to us. Despite our best efforts at imitation, we will only be a mockery of the original and the centre will not hold.If we must avoid a head-long dive in the pit of Naijanistan, prayers and hope will not be enough. We will need to address fundamental issues of national structure and composition. In the struggle to return to peaceful co-existence, we must remember that peace is a consequence of harmony and balance. If you put elements that are not harmonious together, or create unbalanced systems, you will sow discord. Two quantities cannot go together for too long unless they agree. Most people will not readily accept a system that does not conform to their values and belief systems. Even if they do, it will not last.Certain things simply run in the blood, you cant erase them. This is the necessary adjustment urgently needed in Nigeria and beyond, the condition for peace and lasting development.As we approach 2012 with all the available predictions, prophecies and trends that are already on course, it is becoming clear that beyond all the analysis and solutions that man may proffer or apply, spiritual forces are at work on earth in a purification process that awakens and strengthens all that slumbers in man, be it good or evil in such a way that reproves the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.More than ever before, man needs true knowledge of life and existence and of the eternal laws of the Almighty Creator that governs the great and small happenings in life to the minutest detail with perfect justice.To this, man must adjust his life and he will be lifted on the path of light and beauty, otherwise he is doomed to be crushed, now or in the hereafter. As for Nigeria, until the people are ready to address these fundamental issues, she may as well be on the road to Naijanistan.- Mr. Adeyemi can be contacted via adeyemicharles@gmail.com
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