A DIALOGUE WITH MY COUNTRY

Niyi Osundare is one of the few writers, whom Nigeria should be grateful for. Every time I read his piece, he makes me fall in love with the joining down of words over and over again.  He gives me a reason to get better at my writing every time. With his pen, words are entertaining and picturesque. A master of words, he plays with them and gives it to you in a way that always supersedes your imaginations.

Now enough about him, I am writing to review his book “ A Dialogue with My Country”. This book paints clear some of the accounts of our past that we might never know. At different points I take pride in getting acquainted with the heroes past, many that you never knew had done great. (If you are my age) Or even those who are older. Feeling a sweet pride for a nation that never produced honorable men, but then a dampness of the spirit when the repeated horror of the government strikes yet again.   Imagine the scales that fall off your eyes, the gaps formed by the mouth at history and stories made clear.

I hear countless times that history follows the ways of the white man because, he writes the history. We where never the ones at the literate end of the road; nonetheless, we must be concerned about history.

I read the history before Africa started taking their history seriously, when the white man wrote for us and when Nigeria started writing.

That history opens my eyes to the fact that history does repeat itself, especially in our country Nigeria where forgetting the past is the most popular card of the game.  Yet, the advisors on this regard never forget it. We must understand our history (whatever is left of it) as youths (the future of the country) to understand how to tackle the Nigerian problem.

We fight so much without understanding cause-effect the issue of fuel pricing plays again even when it has been played by who so ever in the Nigerian government countless time before.

The ASUU and the universities play out again. When we know our history then we will know how to require accountability as a public. We would know the right questions to ask.

We would know who is talking rubbish and who is not.

Is it ethnicity ignorance, poverty that is the crux of the matter???

We worry about the west, like we are the only country that was colonized. We fight on the defensive and negotiate or ask beggarly like we cannot be inspired by china who is now a major competitor of the U.S (economy wise) even though they are largely copy-cats.

I agree that the problem is leadership but not just leadership in the government, but leadership in every sector and ramification.

Let us sit down and learn to learn!