Olu. Thomas: Better Days are Ahead

Better Days are Ahead, Stop Looking back!

I see joy in his face as he talked, remembering “the good old days”. He talked with sense of regret though, but yet he became so youthful and happy talking about those yester years when things are still “good.” This is not the first time we would hear him talked that way, and he wasn’t the only person remembering and clamouring for the good old days! The national anthem seems to be “Give me the old time religion, if it is good for Paul, Peter and John, it is good for me!”

For years I have loved these stories, but recently their fantasies just don’t appeal to me any more… what has happened? Nothing than the stack realities of life then and now… yes some truth never change, but maybe the present time now is the best, why miss the opportunity of living by being dissatisfied with the yester years that had gone and never to return again?

Nigeria celebrated her 53^rd independent anniversary the first of this month, but there were so many negatives and pessimism about the whole brand called NIGERIA. Some one wrote on facebook:

NIGERIA 53 years REPORT CARD

Electricity - F9

Education - E8

Prostitution- A1

Good road - D7

Banking - E8

Bombing - B2

Creativity - D7

Telecommunication- E8

Security - F9

Corruption - A1

Leadership - F9

I wasn’t surprise but what shock me is the hopelessness of the youth and “Gone are the days” of the regretting aged praying for the time to unwind and make them re-live what seem to them as the best part of their years.

But is this true?

I have learnt that, as it is impossible to find the perfect society, so it is impossible to find a perfect country. Life are designed and wired to be lived in the midst of trouble or challenges. You can’t pray or wish that away. Solving one challenge will always lead or develop another challenge to be solved; in fact solving a challenge will automatically design and give birth to another. It’s a cycle, when these cycles cease to exist, life ends. And all challenges are real and vital in their own right.

Nigeria is not as worse as the picture shows. Yes we are not what we ought to be, but yet we are not hopeless or irreparable. I have been looking for the scripture to back this up until today… Genesis 8 gives me the perfect description. It’s the flood story, Verse three declared that after the end of 150 days water abated, but am surprised it took God 9month more before he open the door for Noah to get out of the ark, even despite the fact that it took Noah 7month to ascertain it is safe to get out.

The earth had been covered with water and the water abated for 150 days (5months) for the ark to rest on Mount Ararat in the 7^th month, but it took three months more for the top of other mountains to be seen! Not only that, Noah waited for 54 days to know that the earth is dry after sending the raven and the Dove. Yet God didn’t open the door until another 90days… three month. Why, because the earth is not fully dried for ALL living things in the Ark.

Nigeria?

Yes, we can’t ask for yester years to come again, it is gone and gone forever like the earth before the flood. So why whine and clamour old leaders’ style and method? The fact that their method works then doesn’t mean it will work hundred percent now! And am very sure if they are still alive now, they will think and or approach issues differently. You talk of free education, yes Awolowo did it, but what was the student’s population then? Will Awolowo attempt total free education from cradle to graduate now in face of other social/public infrastructure decay? What was the road network then? How

many serious road users do we have? Sure they can’t experience heavy traffic because there weren’t many road users. We can’t talk of bad roads as such when not much people are using the few existing network. Then the social amenities standard can’t be compare to now. Think of all the good things they talk about then, are they viable now? If they were why not stick to you turn-tables and black and white television sets, and take your take black and white pictures even when ordinary colour pictures has become outdated with everything going digital… are better day behind then?

Do you want to compare communication then with now? Or is it the electricity then will you compare with now? How many are using electricity then? If not much, why talk of not generating enough or evacuating the generated ones?

Recent study by World Bank on what are Nigeria’s top economic challenges, corruption is not number one, neither is it the second. Why concentrate on it? Leadership isn’t the problem because we are not ready to work out the Nigeria of our dream as an individual, we want other to do that for us… we are busy crying over the spilt milk. Someone observed that most Nigeria’s leaders are “accidentals”. Yes I agree, but the majority of our youth are not preparing so that they too won’t be like previous generation. In one Rehoboth Baptist Church facebook group, Rev. Adeotun ask people to say what they will do if they find themselves in leadership position in Nigeria, to my surprise many said, they will seek God’s face and depend on Holy Spirit! Why not seek God and depend on the Holy Spirit to have vision and goals to pursue before getting into the race for the post?

What I know is this: Nigeria is not where we are before, we are moving, the flood came unknowingly upon us but I know as well as u that the water is abating. Agreeing to this fact will only not help us to be positive and be hopeful, it will help us to look into the details as to determine what more to do, and where more to look into!