Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Nigerian Dream III


DREAM OR VISION?
WHO’S RESPONSIBILTY: THE GOVERNMENT OR THE CITIZENZ?
At this stage, I believe sincerely we all have the belief that we need a Nigerian dream and we have a better idea of what the dream should be. Like we said, this dream is the picture of our preferred future. The question then arises that who should be the dreamer. For so long, we have put the responsibility on our government to do the dreaming for us. We believe that because they are in charge of our resources, they must tell us how it must be done. To some extent, we are partly right but mostly wrong. The truth about government is that it is an institution that God recognizes and places much value on. For any government to be in power, it has to do with God’s approval. So if the government gives to us the dream of our preferred future, it’s a great idea but where I disagree is that this dream is not the picture of the government’s preferred picture but the picture of our preferred picture. No institution or person can tell us how bright or colorful our future is to be. We, the citizens must be responsible in doing the work of dreaming and then working with the government to actualize it. We need to start dreaming and voicing out our dreams. We need to open up to the government what we want our tomorrow to be like. One funny thing is that it is we the citizens that get into government and most times, we go in without any idea of what out tomorrow will be like. This will forever lead to waste of resources. Our dreams must become our expectation which when they meet with opportunities brings about great results.
Let Nigerians begin to dream of how
Our educational sector should be like – where quality education is free for all.
Our political terrain should be like – where people go into politics to serve and not to embezzle.
Our economy/policy making sector should be like – where our naira will be well valued
The road network and housing schemes should be like – house for all and roads free of potholes.
Our social, arts, media should be like - let me talk on the media. The government has no business owning media houses. It is the citizen’s duty. They should work to say the truth as it is and not adjusted. We need individuals to dream, fight this cause and take over the media from the government. Fact is that it’s only in developing nations that we still have government controlled media houses and when the few privately owned media houses do their work, they either get closed down, harassed or locked up in jail. We must stand against this. But first we must dream of the right situation and then actualize our dream. Very soon, the Bureau of Public Enterprise might be selling media houses that are presently government controlled. We must start dreaming of a day when all media houses are controlled and owned by the citizens so that when the opportunity to buy comes up, it will be the good case of expectation meeting with opportunity. If we don’t dream now, foreigners are doing the dreaming for us and when such opportunities come up, they will be the ones buying them up.

Let’s be free to dream. It’s our responsibility. I am looking forward to when each one of us will write to describe the Nigeria of our dream. These collective dreams will change this nation for good.
IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILTY TO DREAM
OUR DREAMS TODAY IS OUR FUTURE TOMORROW
NO DREAM TODAY, NO PREFERRED TOMORROW
WAKE UP THE SLEEPING GIANTS.
BE FREE TO DREAM AGAIN
I would recommend a book written by Sam Adeyemi titled “The Second Revolution”. It will be of great help. I do hope to review the book one day on this blog.
Also, there are some very good initiatives on a new Nigeria. you can visit these sites for more details

Afolabi, Albert Abiodun
daalberto@yahoo.com
08034424156,07028754801

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