Nigeria: Our Home Our Country

Nigeria: Our Home Our Country

By Okudo Onyinye Joy
Paraphrasing the words of Kasim Isa Muhammad, Nigeria is our home. There is no other
place we could call our home, our country other than Nigeria. It is saddening, anyway, that it’s
subconsciously in our instinct that whenever we hear something about Nigeria we usually
vituperate, flaw, and condemn it at a go, this is very unfortunate, no doubt. We have to be
patriotic and work relentlessly to bring about the much-desired progress and development in our
country. Nigeria is a great country and everyone must come to understand this. Even though on
countless occasions, the youths are angry and want to ‘Japa’.
This is not farfetched because the youths of our country are tired, they are tired of being
told to relax, sit back, and wait for a change while they watch their country burn down. They
have been receiving different promises as regards change, promise upon a promise that they will
give them change, which they long for, and a change that will make the country a better place. A
promise made by different leaders of our great country that the welfare of the youths will be a
top priority. Such promises have become a cankerworm that is refusing to go, where every four
years; the youths get to listen to such false hopes. This country needs a practical change, a
change that is best rooted in reality.
Indeed, we have no other place to call our country. The society where we were born,
raised, and taught all the values and norms about life is now a strange land, we no longer feel
safe in our home country. The level at which our beloved country is moving is worrisome.
Security challenges here and there. Why should we sit and watch our beloved country burn to
ashes? Suffering here and there, people suffered from unhealthy cash policy, people are hungry
and angry, and any slightest provocation could transform into violence. The giant of Africa is
now a joke, look at some of the comments and reactions on social media platforms.
The new trend in Nigeria today is that everyone wants to ‘Japa’ a common word used by
people of this great country, which means everyone wants to run and leave the country. The truth
remains that not everyone can ‘Japa’ and even if everyone can, in whose hand should we leave
our home? This is a dollar question to reflect on. It is time to come together and make Nigeria,
our home our country a better place. A stitch in time saves nine.
Okudo Onyinye Joy, a level 200 student,
Department of Mass Communication
Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, Nigeria