INSIGHTS ON LIFE

Can Nigeria be Utopia?

After reading one of my previous post, Activating Your GodSelf, someone doubted if Nigeria could reach the level of development that I pictured in the post.

As an introduction to the subject, I painted a picture of Utopia. Utopia is an idea of a futuristic world where human society has reached an almost perfect level and the qualities of human life are the same as what you can find in the most advanced community. Law, politics, economy, customs, and social conditions have so improved reality is a picture of heaven.

After this reader re-imagined this utopian world in the Nigerian context, she expressed her doubt of Nigeria ever reaching such level of development or even going beyond its present level. To be honest, it was a candid view any Nigerian who has lived under the harsh sociopolitical climate could make. The past decades of the Nigerian experience have really promised little or nothing and the present situation has deprived many of faith in the system. But the fact is that Nigeria has everything to transform into a utopian society. Only two factors can make this work: Vision and Leadership. Vision captures the possibilities of the Nigerian human and resource potentials and the leadership to channel these to that social state that is envisioned.

The background behind the doubt of the reader is that people in Nigeria are evil-minded. And she is right on the ground that as much as living in Nigeria is as sweet as living anywhere on the earth, there are customs, traditions, and practices that bear no definition other than evil. This aspect of the people’s life undermines their mental development and the cultivation of that vision that should drive all endeavors towards a developed future.

So, in the fact that evil thrives in the land, my reader is right. But on the irreversible doubt that Nigeria can’t reach utopia, I here make a defense. Nigeria can develop into a formidable world power where everything works – education, security, governance, health, agriculture, science and technology, and where the effulgence of the light of truth outshines the well-packaged lies and deception that rule the people. If strong passionate leadership can drive a holistic vision for the land and its people, the country can reach Uhuru.

Victor Negro is based in Lagos. He writes on matters of life and existence as he thinks, preferring a better understanding of common questions.