Save Our Land, O Ye Generation of Talkers -By Israel Dara Sobaloju

Nigerian Youths

From a research I did late last year, 67 people replied well to the interview, 98% of them identified one or four problems, 50% knows the solution to the problems they identified, but just 22.3% of them has applied the solutions they know to the problems.

22.3%? – that just represent 2 people out of the number. It is true, daily, almost everyone sees a problem. Why should the government increase the price for P.M.S (Premium Motor Spirit)? We don’t have a regular power supply, corruption is killing us. We have many of that daily, many think their educational level makes them a problem identifier, but no, even illiterates identify problems. They complain when it doesn’t rain on their crop, when the government raise unfavourable policies and all. Our political office holders understand problem, they know it, their manifestos say a lot more about this. But yet our nation is not growing. The social media has given everyone a voice, to speak, and make the world hear in a bit of a seconds. Many have under the intense pressure of problems lose their quality.

We live in a problem prone nation, where even kids understands the nation is hypochondriacal. Problems fly around every day, with some taking advantage of it to exploit, some others utilizing it for the best and some moping over split milk. The exploiter find solace in their exploitation, believing it for the greater good, but the moping ones have done more harm. Our nation needs more than we can do presently, it has seen a lot of problem identifiers already, it needs more than they’ve offered. I visited one of the best opinion blog in Nigeria – Opinion Nigeria, I see how people vent their thoughts on the present state of our nation, the inhumane policies of our government and the likes. Then I wonder what is sauntering us from our dreams.

Those that has turned the world upside are the ones who has applied solution found by someone else to the world’s problem accurately. The world needs heroes, but they don’t know who this heroes really are. Maybe they are the problem identifiers, solution finder or solution activators. Most people we vote for during election processes are problem identifiers – little wonder why our nation has refused to develop. They only know the problems we are facing, because they watch it over news, we take to the street and protest, or because they have once had a synonymous experience. Those little assumptions make them believe they are capable, and they take advantage of our naivety. Problem identifiers only do a little of the work. We must note that no company will pay anybody for identifying 100 of its problem because they already identified a thousand.

I was once involved in a community service which involves a matter which had been trending in the community for a long time. I invited people including intellects and writers who has been writing aggressively about it, they promised to come. On the said day, I only saw 2 out of the writers I invited, the rest were people who never talked about it. We’ve a lot of writers already, we need actors who can stand up to jump-start the tweak we have been envisaging. Everybody know what’s right, but few people do it, why? Because our world celebrate solution provider as they have seen less of its activator.

Democracy should be a self-government, where we rule ourselves and determine our future ourselves. Our future should not be determined by a shared majority. Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook Owner in his commencement speech at Harvard university graduation 2017 said “To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational challenge — to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose.” We need to understand that this world belongs to us, and we need to take care of it with a sense of ownership as the democratic world it is. The world have seen enough of problem identifiers and solution provider, it needs the solution activator. As we mark the democracy day of Nigerians today, I join my voice with the slogan of ScholarZine Nigeria as I say let’s change our world through collaborative exploration of ideas we already have.

Israel Dara Sobaloju is a journalist, public affairs analyst, poet and student of Obafemi Awolowo University. Twitter @Darasobaloju