Sometimes, mostly at
critical moments, one cannot help but wonder where our beloved country, Nigeria is headed-boom or doom. At such points, it is easy to be carried away by the blues offered by either the boom advocate or his doom  counterpart.
In either case, it takes a truly critical mind to identify and appreciate both phenomena. It also takes some level of boldness for such persons to declare same for what they sincerely stand for, and decide to do that which is societally right, as relative as the “right” might sound.
At such points, it is easy for one’s mind to soar high into what now appears to be the misty reminiscence of the vision of those who fought for, and founded the geographical enclave called Nigeria.
What was their dream? How did they hope this dream can come to pass? Specifically, what step-by-step approach did they think would be followed to achieve the dream?
In all modesty, those who fought for, and even sacrificed their lives at various stages of Nigeria’s development for a united, egalitarian and indivisible country may not have envisaged its development, both positively and negatively, thus far.
But they may not have bargained for a child that would still be struggling to learn how to stand at over 50 years.
No matter their inclinations, it may not be correct to say that at this point in the life of the country, they would encourage mediocrity at the expense of the country, especially when it has to do with who occupies what position in governance.
It is difficult to state that if those our forefathers were alive today, they would throw merit to the wind and settle for “man-know-man”; that they would hail the one for doing something they consider right merely because he is considered a friend, and recommend the other for the gallows for doing same because he constitutes a perceived foe.
Or that they will compel the one to be perpetually lazy, and the other to work for both himself and the lazy one, while always considering the interest of the lazy one first when it comes to benefits.
Who would, infact, think that Nigeria’s nationalists would have worked in unison to do all they did in the name of one Nigeria if they had reasoned that in the midst of plenty, a relative few will live in continued affluence, as of right, by milking the nation frail, while the majority live in abject poverty with little or convincing hope of a  better tomorrow, as each day dawns, and with no energy to ask why?
From the manner in which “Nigerianism” (the wherewithal to protect your action) is practised, unless it has gotten to the souls of those nationalists, they surely would be wriggling in dismay in their graves as the melodrama in Nigeria unfolds scene after scene.
Now, as the country gets set to elect another President in the fold of incumbent Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) or General Mohammadu Buhari (GMB), the question on the lips of true partners is “Who will save Nigeria”.
Who will save Nigeria from the doldrums of acute, paralysing corruption in high places warranted by seeming deliberate refusal of a privileged few to come up with a constitution that would be detribalistic, non-ethnocentric and grinded by a genuine zeal to build a Nigeria that would place generations to come in good developmental stead.
One that would genuinely create the environment for individual aspirations to be developed and protected in strict adherence to the so unbiasely amended constitution, that must be obeyed to the letter.
It may not be favourable to everybody at the same time, but one certainly is that it will always be favourable to those who act with the knowledge that the law can and will catch up with them fast, and the subsequent repercussion will not be palatable.
There’s no doubt that Nigeria needs a saviour. What may be in doubt is who that saviour will be, or under whose toga the saviour will manifest.
As Nigeria, prepares to vote for a perceived saviour in the fold of either GEJ or GMB, what the country does not need is a leader or president that would compromise structural change in accordance with modern development, which should rightly start with restructuring the constitution.
This will enhance development in its strict sense, as against the current prejudiced sense, dictated by individualistic, group and ethnocentric considerations.
Different countries in the world have had their own experiences, but have managed to come out of it victorious, with the entire citizenry becoming better off even when some of them had to pay steep prizes.
When Ghana, for instance, was in trouble, God sent a Jerry Rawlings to save the country. Those who can still remember know what drastic action Rawlings took to turn the former Gold Coast into what it is today. Currently, people the world over, mostly Nigerians, would do anything to go there to acquire education, or for business and tourism.
In the same vein, when South Africa was in diare need of a saviour, God sent Nelson Mandela; when India needed redemption, God sent Mahatma Ghandi; and when the United States of America needed to be rescued, God sent George Washington.
Even in the Bible, God had to send the only begotten son, Jesus Christ, for the world to be saved following the sins of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
So, who will save Nigeria? Is it GEJ, or GMB? Or we still have to wait for our own saviour?

Soibi Max-Alalibo