BY God's grace, today by 10 a.m, we will be making a presentationof 800 ' yes 800! ' pillows to the University College Hospital as part of the drive to put a pillow on 10,000 hospital beds in Nigeria. Last week, I gave the figure of 400 because that was all we had at that time. But on Thursday, 29th September, the Latter Rain Assembly under the leadership of the enigmatic and irrepressible Pastor (Dr) Tunde Bakare, as part of its Missions Outreach programme, gave us enough funds to get additional 600 pillows! That is indeed a huge leap! So, we have 1000 pillows in all so far out which 800 will go to UCH for every bed in the hospital! Folake Aremu, if you are reading this, please forgive me for omitting your name from the list of donors a fortnight ago. Thanks to Vitafoam Plc for strategic partnership on this project. They have given us some generous discounts and are eager to see this succeed.I am so excited that because of people who cared, a patient can sleep more comfortably tonight or whenever the pillows are deployed for use! One of them could be your relation!You can join the team of those who will make the difference. E-mail me for details on how you can join this train. We have complained enough about how much this country has NOT done for us. Let's turn the tide and start thinking of DOING something to be the change we desire. And there is no better time to do that than at this period when we celebrate Nigeria's 51st independence anniversary.When you look at our national landscape, what with the 'haram' of Boko Haram hanging petulantly around our national jugular like the sword of Damocles, the worrisome security situation (I was kept awake all night last week Friday by the sound of gunshots in my area!), our collective 'ogbanje' that has reincarnated several times under different names like ECN, NEPA, PHCN with each incarnation becoming more like the famed odious 'Ajantala' prodigy of D.O Fagunwa literature, you are tempted to ask yourself if there really is anything to celebrate.Our President compounded our collective dilemma on Sunday last week when he denounced all of us for not noticing all the accolades he was getting from all over the world while we were busy knocking him for not being decisive enough about our national calamitous dance to a precipice. Truth be told, I think Mr. President should sleep easy tonight knowing that Nigerians have never really desired a Pharaoh or a Nebuchadnezzer for a President. He does not also need to be a General before we love him. Afterall, as our Commander-In-Chief, he is to command all our Generals, serving or retired! We just need a Nigerian like us who can show us rays of hope and direction that can make us become convinced that there is indeed a light at the end of this seemingly interminable tunnel in which we all seem to be groping ad infinitum.Somebody please tell the President that Nigerians love him, else they would not have voted for him as 'overwhelmingly' as they did. They voted because they believed. They believed because there was a promise. They set hopes based on the promise. They just need to see that Nigeria will work again. There's no better time than now to show them definite steps in that direction.Nigerians are some of the easiest people to satisfy. Provide good roads and infrastructure that actually work. Prove to them that they can sleep easy at night. Guarantee power even if for only a few hours per day. Provide potable water. Let factories come alive again. Create an enabling environment where non-speculative investments will thrive. Let the public hospitals have working tools. Let education become a priority again. Let 'legislooters' become true legislators. Let an Abubakar feel comfortable living in Ibadan as an Ikechukwu feels comfortable living in Maiduguri. Make it easy for me to celebrate Id El Fitr with my Moslem neighbour as he is celebrating Christmas with me. Surely no one needs a Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzer to do these ' or am I too idealistic' Even local chieftains that provide a semblance of these are celebrated to high heavens!We just need to be shown the compass. We will follow if and when we know where it leads. When that happens, we will not need external people to assess our President and give him marks based on some esoteric parameters defined by pecuniary and socio-political interests. We will celebrate him ourselves and invite the external assessors to the party!Great leaders listen more to critics than to praise-singers. Not to flog, but to stretch themselves and raise the bar of even their own expectations. Your praise singers owe their living to you. Your critics don't. So the critic tilts closer to truth than the sycophant. He does not love you less than the verbose sycophant who needs to massage egos to survive. We may not like the language of the critic but we need to listen to the point he is making! Again, just thinking...A belated Happy Birthday Nigeria.Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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