Nigeria And The Blame Game

There was just no vacancy to absorb the pain in their hearts; they had staked so high for a win but were disillusioned when Chelsea nailed Manchester United with a 4-nil win at Stanford bridge. Club administrators, fans and players had none to blame but the coach.
It is the nature of man to blame continuously as he dislikes taking responsibility for his actions. Originated from the first man and woman (Adam and Eve), who when asked about the fruit in the garden, kept pointing accusing fingers to the serpent.
Blames according to the Mariam Webstar Dictionary is “an act of saying, or thinking that a person or thing is responsible for something bad that has happened”. It is an irresponsible act of shifting blame for one’s actions or inactions.
Unfortunately, the blame game has become part of our national life in Nigeria, with the government always at the receiving end. Doctors blame the government for unavailability of drugs and services in both private and government owned hospitals, traders blame the hike in food prices including crayfish and pepper on the government, while pastors also blame the low offerings in churches on the government’s economic policy. Even the political class who constitute the government blame whatever go wrong on the government. Who then is this government?
Surprisingly, Nigerians blame those who are in power with their mouth while exploiting those below them with their hands.
According to Dr. Robert Anthony, “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.” In that sense, the blame game across the socio-political divides in Nigeria leaves one with a big question, where would change come from?
Permit me to establish here that, if the only solution we can decipher to our current economic recession in the country is to blame each other, then we surely will blame recession for depression.
It is, however, surprising that, in spite of the loud noise we make about economic recession and the attendant blame games, we are still witnessing endless queue at ATM stands; Nigerians still go for the upgrade of their phones, from less expensive to very expensive ones and Nigeria has not dropped from number one in phone usage in the global market. Thousands of Nigerians still troop to supermarkets like SPAR for high quality products.
Meanwhile, bookshops, book stands witness little or no patronage as nobody wants to stake his or her depreciating resources to buying books, unknown to us, that the way out of the recessions is in the books.
The fact that Nigeria has fallen from its number one position in Africa does not mean she cannot rise again. All we need is to pull backward our arrows in order to generate speed that will in turn enable it meet its target. We should see Nigeria’s economic recession as a challenge that must propel us to rise from a developing country to a developed country with our less dependency on monolithic oil economy.
Every developed country today had at one time or the other, passed through turbulent times as Nigeria is currently. The secret of their rise to stardom lied in their abilities to take responsibility for their woes and their determination to succeed.
I believe with our creative abilities, together we can deliver this nation from the claws of recession. It is high time we turned our gaze away from the oil wells of the Niger Delta and quick rich business like the MMM, (as they all have expiry date) and embrace agriculture and entrepreneurship.
Akpan is a student of Federal University, Otuoke

Linus Akpan