Author: Ibiene Bidiaque

NATION BUILDING Find the first part of this article series here. Are our leaders to blame for the state of our nation? Absolutely. But so are “ordinary Nigerians” who do not live in Asokoro or Bourdillon, who do not have the finances to fly to London on weekend shopping sprees, or throw billion-naira parties. It’s easy to point at the political elite (whose amassed wealth has questionable sources) as the cause for our decay as a nation, but what about the street lout who harasses innocent commuters? Or the primary school teacher who cheated his/her way through school and is…

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NATION BUILDING It goes without saying that Nigeria is not currently the type of nation that we would envision for ourselves and for our children. It certainly is not the country our parents inherited from theirs.  Our institutions are eroding – as are our roads; morality is taking a deep dive, with the advent of brazen Yahoo Yahoo pop-culture; our government schools are almost entirely abandoned; we currently have the highest maternal mortality ratio in West and Central Africa, and contribute a whopping 14% to the global maternal mortality rate (which means our hospitals are failing). Of course, one might…

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The prevalent attitude towards mental illness in Nigeria is evasive. We either don’t talk about it or, on the rare occasion that we do admit someone we know is dealing with some sort of mental disorder, we decide to go the “God route”; we pray. And that’s where it ends; with our sighs of “It is well” and “God is in control”. According to Abraham Ogbodo, “Prayer is not a strategy.” It is about time Nigerians begin to come out of the woodwork and accept that black people – and even we mighty, strong Nigerians who have lived through several…

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