Fmi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President
Muhammadu Buhari in a new article titled, "Wanted: A Restructuring of
Minds", talked about how Nigerians have lost their morals and is
inability to understand why.
Read the article below:
Hearing some Nigerians
speak (whether based at home or in the Diaspora) you discern that they
are "in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." They
spew out things that give them away as "whited sepulchers, which indeed
appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones."
What
happened to grace? Where did decency disappear to? Are words not to be
seasoned with salt again? What has happened to us as a people? The more
rotten, the better, it seems. The fouler and odoriferous the cesspit,
the more attractive, followed by applause. That seems to be the
philosophy of some people today, and it doesn't matter who they are.
High or low. But we cannot continue that way, if we want to be
acceptable to God, and to our fellow human beings. National development
does not come by a sudden flight. You work at it.
The sing-song in
the country today is restructuring of the polity. We want more states.
We want a return to regional structure. We want a revision of the
revenue allocation formula. We want six vice presidents, one from each
geo-political zone. We want those zones to be the federating units,
rather than the states. And so on, and so forth.
In fact, so loud is
the cacophony of voices over restructuring that if you ask 100 people
what they mean, they give you 100 different explanations. But as a
country, I believe we will get there someday. And soon.
However, is
political restructuring the most urgent thing Nigeria needs now? I don't
think so. For me, what is more urgent is the restructuring of the
Nigerian mind. A mind that sees the country as one, that believes that
we have a future and a hope, that believes that we are one people under
God. But what we see now is ruinous for any country. It is hemlock,
bound to poison the entire polity, and send it to a premature perdition.
On
Tuesday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that we had
exited from economic recession. It was cheery news for majority of
Nigerians, save for those in the gall of bitterness. They spat in the
sky, and collected the spittle with their faces. Who gave Nigeria the
permission to exit recession? Who gave her the audacity of hope? How can
the economy attempt to rebound, when it should sink deeper and deeper
into the miry clay? They were in the doldrums, unhappy because good news
came for the country. In their befuddled minds, Nigeria must never see a
silver lining in the sky. The ravening clouds must ever remain
victorious, must forever possess the sky, simply because of primordial
reasons.
The party in power is not my own, so why should Nigeria make
progress under it? The President in office was not the one I voted for,
so why should he succeed? He does not speak my language, he is not of my
religion or ethnic stock, so why must Nigeria prosper under him? They,
therefore, throw all sorts of tantrums, like a child whose lollipop is
taken away, and attempt to rubbish the news on exit from recession. And
those same people would canvass for a restructuring of the polity. Big
mistake. Wrong priority. They need to have their minds restructured
first, so that they have goodwill towards their own country, and towards
all men. Left to them, they wish that when NBS releases results for the
next quarter, Nigeria should have gone back into recession. Filthy
dreamers! Awful imaginations! They need a restructuring of their minds,
and quickly, too.
Some people spend their lifetime expecting
thunderstorms and hurricanes, so they never enjoy showers of blessing.
Their addled minds expect negative news, so they never enjoy good
tidings. They are the type that swallow poison, and then begin to hope
that it will kill the person next door. Restructuring, restructuring,
that is what such minds need.
Chase after him. If you catch up with
him, kill him. If he outruns you, poison his footsteps. That is the
chant in most parts of the country today. Out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. Hate has become their natural language. When
they speak hateful words, they speak their native language, their mother
tongue. Don't mind the elevated offices they occupy now, or which they
have occupied in the past. They are in the throes, in the paroxysms of
bitterness. Only a restructuring of the mind can save them. My dear
senior friend, Ikemba Obosima, from Imo State, has good counsel for
them, in a text message he sent to one of them recently, which he copied
me:"Pain will follow him who speaks or acts with evil thoughts, as does
the wheel of the foot of him who draws the cart. He is greater man who
conquers self than he who kills a thousand men in war...Love will purify
the heart of him who is beloved as truly as it purifies the heart of he
who loves." But will they listen? If they have not danced too far, and
have not become like the dog fated to get lost, which refuses to hear
the whistle of the hunter. Let them return home, to sanity.
The
National Bureau of Statistics announced our descent into recession. They
embraced the news, almost with sickening glee. Now, the same agency has
announced exit, and they begin to question its impartiality. What kind
of people are they? They want to hear only bad news? May their minds be
restructured, lest bad news dog their footsteps. Malediction? Am I
cursing anybody? Not at all. Just a warning, and a call to new attitude,
new thoughts, new conduct. The things we expect have a way of coming
upon us. Ask the biblical Job. "What I feared has come upon me. What I
dreaded has happened to me."(Job 3:25).
One of the characteristics of
a hateful mind is that it conjures a lot of mischief, and purveys same
as truth. And the gullible laps it up. During the health challenge of
our dear President, a thing common to any mortal, big or small, of high
or low estate, they filled the land with evil tidings. Oh, he is on life
support machine. No, he is dead and long buried. He will never return
to that office, I swear. And then, God did what He knows how to do best.
He showed the Deus ex machina, His Invisible Hands. Now, the reputation
of those people is hanging on life support. If only men would
restructure their minds!
President Buhari says exit from recession is
cheery news, but until the life of the average Nigerian is positively
touched by the economy, he doesn't consider the job done. Very good.
Even the NBS, which brought the good news, says the economy is still
fragile, and the good work must continue, so that we don't slide back.
That is exactly what this government would do. That is the motive behind
the ERGP (Economic Reconstruction and Growth Plan). So, let nobody be
filled with diabolic thoughts. Government does not feel it is there yet.
Action stations! All hands on deck.
A final word for haters,
wailers, purveyors of fake news, or whatever you choose to call them.
Evil minds wax worse and worse. A hater would envy others unnecessarily.
He would conjure evil thoughts that would poison his system. He would
manifest all sorts of negative tendencies that turn him into a proper
child of the Devil. And at the end of it all, his master welcomes him
home with open arms. "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." (Dante's
Inferno). And there will be plenty weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
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