Nigeria is like a veritable paradox. And paradox, like irony
and ambiguity has always had sensational appeal to the intellectual. No wonder
Nigeria has an enduring Fascination for the genuinely restless and enquiring
mind. Those who fail to appreciate the disturbing proportion of the Nigerian
condition are those who devalorise paradox as the eternal index of confusion
and hesitation.

But paradox is itself the element of the human condition.
Human beings have contructed inventions that have taken them to the outer space
and the moon yet they are unable to fashion out a means over which the problem
of humanity such as war, hunger, corruption and pestilence can be fixed.

Against the annual rituals of regrets or sorrow over the calamities that had befallen nations, against the tear drops for the victims of the recklessness of wars, nations have continued to consummate even more encompassing and conclusive methods of human destruction. Ouer peek into the depth of hopelessness or despondency has only galvanised our resolve to live even more dangerously.

Dismayed by this endless circle of human imbecility,
Levi-Stranss, the great French anthropologist, in a moment of deep dejection,
once observed that the world began with the human race, and will terminate
without it. If we alienate ourselves from this hopelessness it is not because
we think something has not gone wrong with us as a nation, but because we hold
solidarity in derangement, which annihilates our national folly within a more
global Lunacy that holds out a paradoxical assurance that all is not yet lost
for Nigeria.

At 52, the Nigerian condition still remains paradoxical
indeed. Only those who appreciate how in the dialectics of history, natural
blessings may turn into national burdens and how natural curses can, by the
force of human will be magically transformed into nationally blessings, will
comprehend the extent of our collective predicament.

On the one hand, we are
a nation blessed with  natural and
human resources. But on the other hand, we are a nation that has consistently
succumbed to a curious paralysis of the will when it comes to judiciously
harnessing the resources for our good. If nature has endowed us with so many
resources, the same nature cannot be held responsible for our bleating
resignation in the face of self- inflicted disasters.

This nation has the singular aptitude for throwing up her
worst when her best is required. It is probably the only country in the world
that is yet to evolve  an organic
national character but which allows politicians and its leaders to toy with its
destiny. Nigeria is the only country where the cry of millions of men, women
and children of vision is answered by fortune tellers and “babalawos”.

But in spite of these, Nigeria still remains a robust
reality, and so cannot be wished away. It does not matter if certain aspects of
that reality fills one with appalling fear. And the inscrutable nation itself
continues to confront her own reality with the glorious assurance of a
sleep-walker. What is ambiguously re-assuring about this nation is its ability
to consistently fool professional obituaries, by simply walking away from the
operating tables after being pronounced clinically dead.

A unique characteristic of this country is that its capacity
to shock and scandalize is infinite. In moments of deep national despair and
disillusion, when everyone appears reconciled to the permanence of desperation
or hopelessness, a miracle always occurs abruptly to remind us of our potential
for greatness. But miracles as they may be, cannot take a nation far.

As we celebrate our 52nd independence anniversary, has any
one considered what the essence of our national problem is? Has any one
pondered why instead of being the giant of Africa, we have become a graceless
giant that produces unwieldy ironies and national contradiction? What then is
our problem? Does it have to do with the sheer size of our nation?

Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was once said to have contemptuously
dismissed Nigeria as “big for nothing”. But single individuals have been known
to rule over bigger nations with consummate skill. For instance, when compared
to China, Nigeria is a minor province, and compared to the United States of
America (USA), it is only but a state, a minor nationality in a melting pot of
nationalities.

But going by the Chinese experience, for example, size is an
advantage. Only those who have lost contact with contemporary reality will
repudiate the fact that the bigger a country is the better its prospects for
future greatness.

Nothing advances the cause of a country and its development
than patriotism. This is what we lack. This is the essence of all our problems.
For the supreme example of this devotion to one’s fatherland, we might as well
borrow the illustration of Charles De
Gaulle of France. Nothing can serve as a more shining specimen than the
exemplary career of this patriot.

France was De Gaulle’s enduring love. He dreamt France. He
ate France and cultivated France. This patriot had mystical faith in his
destiny and the destiny of France. His sense of history was superb and the
ancient tradition of his country weighed over him like an albatross.

Where are our patriots? Where is our De Gaulle? The long and
short of these is that the time for real change is now, and that Nigeria should
save itself by its exertion and perhaps other African nations by its examples.
And this cannot be achieved by substituting the cultivation of slogans for the
cultivation of patriotism.

Patriotism thrives on three principles: justice, equality
and fair play. Without these being enshrined in its national life, no nation
can subdue mediocrity.

At Nigeria’s 52nd anniversary of its marriage to mediocrity
and mutual destruction, my passionate plea to President Good luck Jonathan is
to grant us a divorce from our incompatible partner. If this plea is granted,
we might soon witness the emergence of a nation from the ashes of defeat and
despondency to greatness.

Arnold Alalibo