Where is the Giant?

Welcome to another mind stimulating article on recreation. This time we are focusing on the recreation of an entire country. One that many (an indeed its citizens) have dubbed the "Giant of Africa".

I'm a lover of great lands, people who rise above their challenges and create something great of their nation leading to a better livelihood for its indigenes. Many are the romantic stories we've read about the founding fathers of America, the heroes who, from scratch built a nation of wealth and opportunity both for the citizens and foreigners. The same kind of stories exit for even previously third world countries like Singapore, Malasia, Brazil, India, who are now creating massive wealth for their people. The trick is not just to create wealth but to create wealth for the people. They certainly deserve it.

So what is this all about? It is a sort of reverse creation - decreation, if you like (destruction would not do justice to what I have in mind), but one that resonates with potentials.

My eyes where finally wiped of scales that previously coloured it by a speech shared by my good friend on his facebook note. The speech was given by a friend of the nation in question, a former U.S ambassador to Nigeria.

The nation of Nigeria is a blessed country. I know because I was born there, I live there and I make of myself whatever I am becoming from there. To the rest of the world - it's a land of controversy. Listed in many a country's black books. But does it truly deserve to be ascribed with such negativity? We who live in the country see its huge potentials but generation after generation has come and gone without us reaching that fullness that we can so easily reach if a little determination was found in us. Instead frustration and deprivation has replaced the souls of many living within.

It has now dawned on me (and this is what I seek to achieve in my Nigerian readers) that even if we have the potential of dominating the African continent and a great portion of the world, we are languishing in our own vomit. Feeding our own greed and lust with the flesh and blood of our children at the expense of our very own souls. Never can we get to the top with such wanton lack of vision and a red hot desire to push ourselves to achieve. We can not keep blaming this person or that because we all have contributed to the state of things and we all have to contribute in one way or the other in the rebuilding...or rather the building of our dear land.

We can get there! And if every man who calls himself a Nigerian, can develop fire in his belly to produce a grand Nigeria, a giant, then the call will have been heard. The call is going out to Nigerians to wipe their eyes and see that their is nothing that suggests we are giants in our present condition but if we commit to it, then we will make a good impact in providing that which we need.

Let me share this article with you. A speech from a U.S diplomat (a former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria on the occassion of the Achebe's Colloquium, last month) It was shared on a friend's facebook note. It perfectly reflects the foregoing thought and then some.