Nigeria’s hope springs eternal

Fortitude is a fulcrum forged in the furnace of adversity. And wherever one looks in Nigeria, fortitude shines forth, holding in its glimmer the indestructible strand of resilience and defiance that hope is.

It does not take much or long to be introduced to Nigeria`s treacherous trenches. The six-year-old boy who should be sat in school but is instead hawking awara, that crunchy northern delicacy, under the baking heat of the sun, in no less a place than the Federal Capital Territory, knows only too well that life in Nigeria is war.

The seven-year-old girl who peddles alewa, another sweet northern delicacy, her face coated in thick make-up, walks with her wares under the scorching sun, blissfully oblivious of the fact that she may never wear any school uniform or walk into any classroom. Ever.

And as with every war, all is fair. For many Nigerians, survival is the word they want to hear and no more with the expediency of survival of the fittest music to their ears. The pain that Nigeria has felt as a collective is the pain that confronts children which is compounded by a childish lack of understanding.

But should they know? How much should children know, see or feel? How much should the innocence of childhood be speared by a Nigerian reality that is brutal, bloody and bitter? In the giant of Africa, children are being spared nothing. Yet, they are the future. Whether those most complicit in feeding children to the wolves like it or not, children will outlive and outlast them.

Nigerians are a people of great fortitude. The resilience, the defiance, begins from childhood when many remember their first day in school for the windows and chairs their classes lacked and the long faces of their poorly remunerated teachers. Many did not even have the dignity of being born in the hospitals as their illiterate, impoverished mothers pushed them out at home under the watchful eyes of midwives or no one at all.

So, from an early age, Nigerians learn to fight tooth and nail. They learn to tempt fate and wrestle with destiny. They learn to scratch and scramble and get by. Many here live from hand to mouth but one will hardly know.

It`s been another difficult year, perhaps, the most difficult of this decade. Insecurity has been rampant while poverty has only deepened. The frustrations of young people have mounted while those in power have looked increasingly overwhelmed by the sheer depth of Nigeria`s difficulties.

It is a year the Nigerian Army will remember for the plane crash that took the life of the former Chief of Army Staff and other senior military officers. The Nigerian Army will also remember this year for the many painful casualties sustained in the many killing fields spread across Nigerians.

There is something especially heartbreaking when young Nigerian soldiers pay the supreme sacrifice in service of a country that is proving to be an impossible task master by the day. Many Nigerian communities will remember this year of bombs and bullets and burning bushes. With many communities sacked and razed by terrorism in its many forms, many communities will remember the year they lost everything.

Nigerian children will remember a year of difficulties and difficult choices. With many falling by the wayside of Nigeria`s troubled education system. As another year winds down for Nigeria, perhaps, it is time to reflect on what the year brought with a keen eye on the year to come and what to do to sculpt a better future for Nigeria especially for millions of children who are currently out of school or displaced by the now familiar pangs of insecurity.

No country exists without challenges but it is inexcusable that too many challenges rattled Nigerians this year. Millions of naira were raked in by bandits as ransom while thousands who were unable to pay lost their lives as a result. If it was just insecurity, Nigerians would have managed somehow but insecurity has been compounded by poverty.

Now that the year is ending, what can Nigerians look forward to in the upcoming year? The present year is ending on a nostalgic year for a lot of Nigerians at what could have been and how this year could have been much different. But as it is, next year may even be more challenging, dominated by the politics of 2023.Politicians are expected to down tools while engaging the Nigerian gods of distraction and misplacement of priorities.

The enemies of the country are expected to go to great lengths to destabilize the country and scuttle the 2023 general elections as much as they can. But whatever happens, Nigerians must keep hope alive safe in the knowledge that a much beloved country will never be overrun by savage criminals. It is not just abroad that the Nigerian spirit has proven to be defiantly unbreakable. Here at home, it has not just proven unbreakable. It has proven that it can break whatever seeks to break it.

In 2022, even as the enemies of the country spin furiously at the wheels of death, Nigerians must go again. It is as simple as that.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com

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