PROUDLY NIGERIAN

Sometime, not too long ago, a very prominent Nigerian social critic was locked in a serious debate with hip-hop artists over the accuracy of addressing Nigeria as 9ja. . Very recently too, the minister of Information, Prof. Dora Akunyili also made a statement directing people to stop addressing Nigeria as 9ja.
The argument enjoyed a long thread of reasoning and submissions from both sides. While it truly would appeal to common sense to query the morals behind such alias, it is almost out of place to pass a 'fatwa' that the alias is unpatriotic. . I particularly may not want to attend to the utterances of the Professor Minister for two reasons. First, she seem to have a history of picking on mundane issues to give a feeling that she is actually informing people and second, she is unarguably idle.
You may or may not agree with me on this, but I have come to realise that more Nigerians especially the youth seem to have readily identified more with this country since the 9ja tag came on board. It's trendy, easy to pronounce, fast to write and also stylish.
For all I care, style adoption by 9ja youth is taking over every phase at such a pace that even the abnormal trends are fast becoming a day to day sight to behold. From hairdos to dress codes the list goes on and on.
What matters to me is that we are beginning to take pride as Nigerians especially the Nigerian youth to the next level. Against this background, I would excuse myself from having to join issues with some out-of-fashion old men who are trying to put the ruins of our dear country at the mouth of the 9ja youth.
Beyond the controversy over names, I have also been opportune to listen to people from other countries talk about Nigeria; it is always a tale of how bad things are. It is sad enough to know that these people have never been to Nigeria and really have no plans to come but seem to know so much about our country. Their sources of information are mostly Nigerian managed blogs. While I do not have problems with people writing about the decay killing our system, it is important to be equally constructive enough to make the reader aware that these corrupt and embarrassing practices are not our norm but a path certain individuals have chosen to follow.
I feel embarrassed when I have to defend the likes of Cecilia ibru, Sanni Abacha, Bode George, and a host of other individuals known for sharp practices while holding their respective offices. We can’t afford to be seen as gold diggers and good for nothing people by bloggers.
What does 9ja as a name have to do with godfathers taking over our democracy or leaders stealing from us or greedy fathers handing power over to their greedy sons?
Like I have always told my friends, names like Shagari, Obasanjo, Yar'adua, and Babangida have been registered in my head as far back as 1984. At least, at that time, I had little control over my memory; it is not to say they weren’t in existence before then. So where were these men of the old, struggling to catch up with the new order when we were busy coining out a name for our country? The problem of this country is not in the name or names that we choose to call it but the attitudes of her people.
Man, they say, is man's worst enemy. What is in a name, after all, beyond identity?
I do not intend to bother you with the history of Nigeria from where we were and where we are. Very brilliant and passionate write-ups have been written over time to address that.
We are where we are and we want to move ahead, period! The question I hope to find answers to is, who triggers the movement and what principles would guide our path as we chart this new course?
A mere attempt to finding answers to these questions appears to me a worthier cause than dancing around the decay that presently rocks our dear country.
For a very long time, we have battled so much condemnation, even an outright declaration that ours is a wasted generation. Yes, one way or the other, our inactions, actions, utterances and passivity of the good heads earned us these. This generation witnessed the bloodiest era of cultism, our generation took fraud to a new height, “yahoo-yahoo”, examination fixing, kidnapping and drug peddling, prostitution and many more criminal minded activities seem to have been adopted by our generation. This is the truth about our generation in a few lines.
That however is not the whole truth about our generation, we have only consciously shied away from playing positive roles and actively participating hence giving credence to the devilish minded amongst us. It is also fair to say these bad eggs are a product of systemic misplace values; in the face of poverty, unemployment and other harsh economic conditions, one can only but try to carefully place blames, on the other hand however, there were so many options to choose from, why thread the wrong path.
With that said we have a duty to salvage our situation, rewrite our history and openly identify with the kind of Nigeria we want. We need to seek a paradigm shift from this recycled style of governance and busy ourselves with nation building thoughts and let those whose phobia for nomenclature understand the principles of generational ideological differences, especially as it affects our country.
To say we have not been actively involved is to be very prudent with the truth. What we have lacked over the years is defining our manner of participation and the end point. A new approach is to clearly define a consensus interest and work towards the same.
One of the most criminal yet historic youth movements was that which was led by the infamous Daniel Kanu, YOUTH EARNESTLY ASK FOR ABACHA. As sad as it is to say the young man missed the point totally, he successfully proved that youths can be mobilised irrespective of their shade of character. A list of many more movements with such unpopular drive have been recorded since then; while these guys chose to misrepresent the youths, the vast majority, who did not agree with these campaigns, chose to keep quiet.
The brief highlight of our participation clears the question as to whether or not we can make things happen, then we are left with what exactly we want to make happen and when.
I hope to make up a few notes as to what we can actually do as youths. I am sure you all know what they should be.
I am just a proud Nigerian.