A Better Society, Whose Responsibility?

By Oyindamola Abdulazeez

Every day I wake up into a new reality that our own generation is an unfortunate one. The more I turn from this notion, the more I find myself deep into it. Yes, Nigeria is my dear country and despite all the ills I would not leave my motherland, rather I would be a part of her change.

We keep blaming the government for the ills of the society forgetting that the government is a product of the society. The society is not an abstract entity; it is a structured community of people bound together by similar traditions, institutions, or nationality. How a society looks afterwards, is the responsibility of every citizen.

In a very quick one with some of my friends,I asked them what they would each do if given a chance to rule this nation? I was never surprised when Titi bluntly posited that she would take her own share of the national cake. “Oooh unto the chopping things na,” she said. Kemi was not different when she openly said she would fix her family in top political offices, whether they are qualified or not is nothing to worry about.

I paused and wondered the kind of horrible thought that runs through the minds of our so called future leaders, then our dear country is heading to doom. It is also very obvious that with these types of people, Nigeria is likened to a ‘No Future Ambition’ (NFA) country.  

The affairs of our society at a large are driven by greed and selfish interests.  The irony of the matter is that if these two: greed and self centeredness were to motives of our dear nationalists like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Anthony Enahoro, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, etc then there wouldn’t have been  an entity called Nigeria. Our individual actions are total betrayal to the course they fought in their time.

Nelson Mandela is a household name today simply because he fought for his people and when he became president, he never immortalised himself as some would have done today.  We call these people our idol yet we have never put in practice an inch on their way of life.

We have got to pause and ask ourselves “what have I contributed to better the society?”  We want a change but we have forgotten that we are the agents of change. Every individual needs to have a new ‘positive’ mentality that can propel this society of ours to greatness. You are the government and the government is you.

It has come to a time we need to compliment the efforts of the government in all ramifications.  If you drop a wrap of sweet on the road as assume it’s little and as such it cannot make the environment dirty; it means you have forgotten that little drops of water they make an ocean. If we all must have a better society, then we need to change our attitude as charity begins at home.