THE BATON OF DEVELOPMENT

THE BATON OF DEVELOPMENT

Life is generally a race but more particularly, life is a relay race as no one can live forever. A person only lives his/her life and leaves it for others (younger or next generation). The Macmillan English Dictionary meaning of relay race is captivating- a race between two or more teams where each member of the team does part of the race pass the baton (italics mine) and then another member continues. The significant thing about this is that the next member of the team will not need to run the part that has already been covered in the race. Being passionate about national development, I find it compelling to consider the role of each person and generation of Nigeria in building our nation before passing her to the next.

One of the most thought-provoking statements I heard recently is from my shepherd, Sam Adeyemi at a Strategic Leaders Meeting. He said, through inheritance, two generations should not struggle for same thing. Wow! Deep thought about this continues to saturate my mind. Perhaps we should try to observe and account for what we inherited, consider our current activities and ask ourselves, what legacies we are passing to the younger generation.

While reading a book titled THE RAISING OF A PRESIDENT (an account of the mothers and fathers of America’s leaders) by Doug Wead, I found what is worth sharing in this piece about the Adams family- the family of America’s second and sixth presidents in pages 42 and 43.

…Two future American presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, were both proud of the simplicity, virtue, and independent spirits of their forefathers. John Quincy would write that his ancestors had been noted only for their “industry, sobriety, and integrity.”

Deacon John (John Adams’ father) vowed his firstborn son would attend Harvard, as had the Deacon’s older brother, no matter the financial cost or the physical burden caused by the loss of an able body on the farm. He was looking to the future. John Adams, as an adult, would echo his father’s vision: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain”.

The above clearly explain the meaning of relay race stated earlier. Every generation ought to be an advancement of the previous. This is however dependent on what the previous generation has started, done, achieved or otherwise failed at in terms of tangible and intangible contributions. By the tangible contribution, I mean physical projects such as infrastructures, housing and economic growth assessment among others. Intangible contributions include virtues, morals and standards. We saw the simplicity, virtues and independent spirit credited to the American forefathers. Today, we can easily say that the national development and economic prosperity is a product of generational contributions. At least, that is my own observation from the book titled PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP. The failure of a generation causes stagnation and backlog for the younger generation on what the older generation should have achieved.

In view of the state of our nation, it is obvious that beyond the family unit, it is as if no one really seems to care about national interest, public good and what is being passed to the younger generation. This shows in almost every activity of the government. For instance, in the N4.7 trillion 2012 budget, only N400 billion (8%) was provided for education (86% of which is on recurrent expenditure and 14% on capital expenditure). This shows the disinterest in the future of the younger generation with no substantial interest in investing in educating them. The youths constituting over 50% of the population deal substantially in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), yet they are exposed to poor infrastructural facilities and unemployment while survival only seem to get more tough by the day for them. Some parts of the nation are just neglected and rarely cared about until the youths turn into militants and terrorists costing the nation and the people much more. Those doing business cannot access finance thereby increasing poverty. Health care system in the nation is next to write-off which makes us lose lives of our infants and others to curable illnesses and diseases. In all, our youths are more disposed to violence due to lack of engagement which some elders profit from, using them as instruments to achieve private gains.

The people elected and appointed to address the nation’s situation and welfare system only seem to be more saturated with their self-security (financially). Those in public service at the federal, state and local levels are not different. The law of diminishing returns is applying to every part of our national life while we cry for a national recue. The people blame those in government refusing to consider their contribution to the national ruin. We fail to consider the fact that our activities contribute positively or negatively to our national growth.

One of the purposes of a Will and Testament is for a person to consider not just the loved ones to give gifts to but at first to consider whether there are gifts to be given (as you cannot give what you do not have). If we look critically at the state of our nation, can we say we have anything tangible to pass to the younger generation or the coming ones? Won’t we, the younger generation have to expend our energies on what the older generation ought to have settled (by starting all over again) before dealing with what should be the responsibilities of our generation.

By now, Nigeria ought to have had functional infrastructural facilities including transportation system- land-rail-sea-air, well planned and followed town planning system, un-interrupted power supply, formidable and value adding financial sector, plants and machineries to cater for our agricultural sector and mining sector among others. The unpalatable story is that it is still almost at ground zero for us. Some of us still have high hope that we will still experience a flourishing Nigeria. The only thing is that when we look at the current reality, the compelling question we ask ourselves is where to we start from?

I just don’t like to talk solution without painting the complexity of our issues so that we will know how to take the solutions we should all provide more seriously. I like to say that this is everyone’s responsibility as the failure of a generation in public life is the failure of every individual of it. This is irrespective of whether we try to settle the welfare of our individual families.

The first thing to do here is to look at the log of wood in our individual eyes rather than pointing accusing fingers at some others. A national transformation starts with individual change. Using the words of Mahatma Gandhi, become the change you want to see. For us to see a positive change in our nation, we all need to appreciate the fact that the action or inaction of each individual affects the nation ultimately.

The second is everyone’s decision to contribute our little to the good of the nation. The popular quote of J. F. Kennedy is instructive, “don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. This will come with the spirit of dedication and selflessness like the NYSC anthem says. This starts from the family unit as it is the heart of the society and the nation at large.  Parents and guardians should do well to raise children and wards intellectually and with high moral values before presenting them to the society. Teachers (irrespective of the much constraints they currently experience) should always consider that they are molding the destinies of the future of our nation. Those in authority and policy making bodies should do well to aid the performance of every part of our nation. Religious leaders (presumably) have influence on worshippers and should use this platform to incite a value-driven generation to contribute to public good. Security officials, law enforcement agencies, government parastatals, public and private institutions should all wake up to service, innovation and creativity on how to develop our nation. Politicians who seek public office should learn how to use their good offices solely for the promotion of national good.

At this point in the history of our nation, we need people who can contribute in re-writing the national experience of our country. If we all appreciate the fact that we all form essential parts of the nation and contribute our best to the cause of positive change, we will live a better life and have a worthy baton of a better Nigeria to pass to the younger generation.

God bless you, God bless me and God bless Nigeria. Amen.

Olusola Akinyemi Esq.

President

Joseph Initiative, Lagos.