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Is Nigeria really
Jinxed?
When the wife of former colonial Governor General of Nigeria,
Lord Lugard, muted the idea of giving this country a name, she had
in mind a country that would prosper beyond the imagination of
anyone. She had envisaged that subsequent leaders will work hard to
place the country on the world map as one of the richest countries
in the world in view of its enormous natural resources. Alas, she
was wrong.
By now, Mrs. Lugard will be turning in the grave in amazement as to
what has become of her project - Nigeria. For those who knew what
the country was like prior to 1960, they are equally amazed at what
is fast becoming of the project called Nigeria. Is the country
jinxed?
Perhaps, it is about time we began to think of having another name –
our own name, an indigenous name that will suit our situation and
possibly heal the land. A spiritual re-birth is what we need and for
every spiritual rebirth, it must necessarily come with a new name; a
new identity.
It is not impossible that a new name can begin to bring about those
goodies we envisaged will come with our independence. I forsee a
situation where things will start looking up for Nigeria as soon as
we adopt a new name; a name that will influence positively our
attitude as a people; a new name that will remind us of who we are.
In otherwords, we need a name that will challenge us and in the end,
bring out the best in us.
We won’t be the first country to adopt new name, so many countries
have done it before and for many, it worked like a magic wand – they
started to experience steady political and socio – economic
development. It gave impetus to the patriotic zeal of the citizenry.
I am one of those who still believe that all hope is not lost on
Nigeria but rather than keep day dreaming, we should work hard
towards making the country truly great. One way to achieve this
greatness, is to first, consider a change of name. There is
something fundamentally wrong with the name of Nigeria. It may be
true that the name is derived from one of the country’s two great
rivers Niger but beyond this to what significant use have we put the
river? Let us begin to think of a more unifying name - a name that
will stress on our common identity and create a greater bond of
unity for now, we are far from being one united country. Our
problems may be multifaceted but, I believe we can surmount the
hurdles. Let’s reason together through a referendum and come up with
a brand new name for Nigeria. We need a name that can help us change
our orientation and work as a team towards the greatness of our
fatherland. I rest my case.
Bala Nayashi,
Lokoja.
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