One of the finest products of the golden generation of Nigeria, Chinua Achebe (16 November, 1930 – 21 March, 2013) identified the trouble with Nigeria as essentially the disability of the ‘heads’ of Nigerians. Achebe, regarded as the father of African modern literature was the author of the classical novel THINGS FALL APART (1958). In his multum in parvo, entitled THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA (1983), Achebe submitted that the trouble with Nigeria rests squarely on the inability of the Nigerian leadership to enable Nigeria and Nigerians.
What Achebe meant was that Nigeria had been disabled by its leadership. Two years later, another Nigerian golden generation finest products and Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka concluded that the golden generation had been lost. He revealed this in an interview with the BBC in 1984.
Evidently, the result of the trouble with Nigeria is insecurity and poverty. Meanwhile, insecurity and poverty are the opposites of peace and progress, the consequents of Nigeria’s national motto: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress.
It follows that if we must change the world of Nigeria from insecurity and poverty to peace and progress (that is, if we must regenerate our lost generations), then, we must abide by the mind of Nigeria,
as expressed in its motto and its other national symbols, namely, the national flag, coat-of-arms, anthem, pledge, currency, constitution, etc.
It is the avowed position of the Good Nigerian that the solution for the trouble with Nigeria is for the minds of Nigerians to change from the negative spirit of disunity and faithlessness to the positive spirit of unity and faith. As for the meaning of mind, the Good Nigerian adopts the definition offered by Utama, namely: “The image and likeness of God in man, without which man is like any other beast”. Note that the mind can be expressed as ‘spirit’, ‘thought’, ‘head’ or ‘brain’.
When rarefied, the mind becomes intangible asset, and if condensed, it becomes work (the very spirit of faith, the mover of mountains). One’s world is a creation of one’s mind. The American author, Ken Keyes Jnr (19 January, 1921 – 20 December, 1995), put it thus: “You should always be aware that your head creates your world”.
So, while the politician is concerned with 2023 elections, the Good Nigerian focuses on the next generation. The British statesman and former prime minister, Winston Churchill (30 November, 1874 – 24 January, 1965) consigned the British Empire to the dustbin of history when he remarked that: “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind”.
For you to revolutionize Nigeria, change must begin with you. And the real you is your mind. Gilbert Scott-Herson (1 April, 1949 – 27 May, 2011), an American poet and musician, rightly stated that: “The first revolution is when you change your mind”. Similarly, the great pan African revolutionary, Marcus Garvey (17 August, 1887 – 10 June, 1940) regretted his not putting priority on changing the people’s mind. He lamented: “My mistake, you ask? Well, I tried to change the world without first changing the minds of men”.
So, the Good Nigerian House is calling on all Nigerian compatriots to arise and reset their minds positively. This is indeed, the solution to the trouble with Nigeria!