“IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH”

 

On 20th of January 1961, John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address as President of the United State of America told Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It was in the same address that he gave the warning that:  “If a free society cannot help the many that are poor, it cannot save the few that are rich.”

 

Nigeria became an independent nation on 1st of October 1960 and coincidentally it was in 1960 that John F. Kennedy was elected President of America having defeated Richard Nixon, who had been vice president for 8 years. From the time of Nigeria’s independence to the present time, Nigeria remains a country specially endowed and blessed by God with all the resources that can make Nigeria the envy of other nations and for all the citizens of Nigeria live in comfort and happiness. But alas, in reality, the opposite in the case as Nigeria is being abhorred by other countries and a greater percentage of Nigerians are living in abject poverty while only a handful privileged to be in power and corridors of power have diverted the common wealth given by God for the good of all Nigerians to their private pockets and for their personal comfort and selfishness.

 

This ugly reality is because of greed, wickedness, ignorance and satanic agenda against Nigeria which are manifesting through massive and large scale corruption, mismanagement and other form of wickedness at all the levels of government in both public and private sectors in Nigeria since independence.

In the private sector, there are many institutions which ordinally would have become very big and multi national, but for the greed, selfishness and ignorance of their managers. Such leaders in their greed manipulated the institutions and siphoned the resources of those institutions into their private pockets and projects hoping to make themselves secured not minding their workers, customers, other stakeholders and the general public. Such leaders ended up misusing the opportunities God gave them to bless lives and to write their names in gold in the hall of fame of the country called Nigeria.

 

Most of the institutions which these greedy and selfish managers mismanaged have closed down while some are mere shadows of what they used to be. Meanwhile, the legacies of the previous managers are almost completely erased while the so called wealth in their private pockets and projects are almost being spent and will soon become history.

 

The stories in the public sector are even more pathetic. The assets of our national carrier have been carted away. There is no more history about the national shipping line. The refineries have turned the country into a laughing stock. In the beginning of creation, God said, let there be light, and there was light, but in Nigeria some Nigerians have taken it upon themselves to stand against the plan of the God by keeping the country in darkness because of their greed and selfish gains. In Nigeria, some of our leaders who schooled at home in mostly public and missionary schools and the few who had the privilege of schooling abroad under scholarships are the once busy destroying the educational system because they can afford to send their children overseas. But come to think of it:

 

  • Can a man who destroys the public schools at home while his own children are abroad, find lasting peace?
  • Can the man who stole the fund meant to equip the hospitals just because he travels abroad for his own medical treatment while other Nigerians are dying of common diseases, enjoy lasting good health?
  • Can the man who diverted monies meant for road construction, because he travels mostly by air while other Nigerians are dying in road accidents due to bad roads, die in peace?
  • Can a man who corruptly enriched himself with the fund meant for providing shelter for the widows, the poor and the low income group just because he has mansions at home and abroad go to bed, and sleep in peace?
  • Can the man who diverted money allocated to develop our agricultural potentials just because they can afford to buy imported food items, be peaceful?
  • Can the man who collects millions and billions as fuel subsidy under false pretenses while Nigeria is being addressed as the poverty capital of the world, find peace?

 

What we are reaping now is the several years of bad governance at the local, state and federal levels and the deliberate and fraudulent mismanagement of our common wealth as a country. This is the foundation and what gave rise to the insurgency and others form of social insecurity currently plaguing the country. The Nigeria society has neglected, abandoned and even deprived the many who are poor, thereby creating Boko Haram, Bandits, Killer Herdsmen, Kidnappers, Militants, Thugs, Street looters and the like. The whole country is now unsafe for everyone. This is all in line with the saying of Kennedy that “IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH.”

 

As we deal with the ugly consequences of the recent youth protests across Nigeria, regardless of our past mistakes and short comings, it is better to reason together to address areas of disaffection and disagreement than to watch the country disintegrate. While, the leaders in various positions of leadership and the followers take their stand for and against some major national issues, let me remind them of some of the strong statements made by John F. Kennedy in that same inaugural speech as President of United States of America in 1961:

  • Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
  • Civility is not a sign of weakness and sincerity is always subject to proof.
  • Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of be-labouring those problems which divide us.

 

Whether we like it or not and whether we believe it or not, we must restructure Nigeria so that the country will work for the good of all.

  • The time has come to build strong institutions that are bigger and stronger than the so called powerful individuals.
  • The time to build accountability into our structure is now than to continue to sustain the structure that does not call individuals to account for their actions and inactions.
  • The time to review our social justice system is now than to manage an expired justice system that keeps minor offenders in detention without trial for years, while criminals and armed public fund looters are walking in freedom in public places displaying their ill gotten and stolen wealth. Like Martin Luther King Jnr wrote in 1963, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
  • The time to put checks and balances in place is now than to continue to run the financial systems that allows a few to steal and siphon billions and trillions of public funds from both the private and public sectors into their private pockets without being called to question.

 

Below are some of my recommendations for consideration for Nigeria to move forward:

  • Acknowledge our Failures: Let all Nigerians at home and abroad acknowledge our short comings and sins at our various levels.

 

  • Repentance toward God: Let all Nigerians turn to God and repent and turn away from our wickedness and ask God to forgive us as a people and to forgive one another.

 

  • See the Big Picture: Let every Nigeria begin to see the big picture about Nigeria. That the wealth God has blessed Nigeria with can go round the about 200 million people in Nigeria and the unborn generations.

 

  • Restructure along Regional Lines: Let us give peace a chance and sit down to negotiate how we want to live together. As we do this, we should copy from other countries. For instance, China went and copied what Singapore did to turn around. United Arab Emirates UAE came to Nigeria and borrowed from the 1963 constitution which we threw away and replaced with the poison called 1999 constitution. As 2019, with a population of about 9.68million people, UAE has a Gross Domestic Product GDP of $405.8 billion and a GDP per capital of $37,750 whereas Nigeria with a population of about 200 million people has a Gross Domestic product GDP of $446.5 billion and a GDP per capital of $2,222 despite all our enormous natural and human resources.

 

  • Give Peace a Chance: No individual, family, community, organization, state or country can make any progress without peace. And the problem of lack of peace is that it affects each and every one of us. Let us stop every form of wickedness and mismanagement and the world will be surprised at the level of progress Nigeria will make.

 

  • Embrace Speak Well Initiative: Let every Nigeria change our language and begin to Speak Well. According Proverbs 18:21(KJV), “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Let us as a people stop using our tongue to destroy ourselves and our country. Going forward let all Nigerians at home and abroad people embrace the SPEAK WELL INITIATIVE and begin to speak with gratitude, empathy, love, forgiveness, care, hope and possibility of a New Nigeria.

 

  • Fear God: A person without the fear of God is like a mad man with a knife and gun. The mad man can use the knife and gun to kill himself, kill others or both. You cannot get anything good from a person who does not have the fear of God. In whatever position you find yourself, fear God and remember that your Judgment Day is coming when everyone of us shall be judged by God for how we lived our lives on earth.

 

And to all those who are using their positions in both the private and public sectors to  run down public institutions and amass wealth for their selfish comfort at the expense of the general public, remember, that “IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH.”

 

 

Rev. Kingsley M. Theophilus FCIB, FCA

Initiator: SPEAK WELL INITIATIVE

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