Our movement, Project New Nigeria, is as result of an idea that came from the need to give expression to the craving in our hearts to make our country work for all of us. It came from the knowledge that given the right environment, we, the youths of Nigeria, would be able to actualize that potential that God has given us.
One thing you must know is that every Nigerian is an African leader and a potential major player in the global market. Check out our sports men and women, our artistes. In music, movies and sports, we, the youths of Nigeria, have continued to show the world how great this great country truly is. We are the ones who are the brains behind the greatness of this nation. It is not the politicians whose pedigree is manifest to Nigerians and the world at large.
Look at the global strides we have achieved for Nigeria: J.J Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Obafemi Martins and others became world heroes today from humble beginnings. Humble beginnings that were further compounded by a pauperized environment, where the impact of government was grossly absent. Today, the Nigerian Home Video industry is the world’s third largest movie making industry. Today, Africans have come to embrace the leadership of Nigerian youths, men and women, who are the brains behind this great stride for which our beloved country is called GREAT today.
Today I call our Home Video Stars, the true living heroes and heroines in our country. Cynics and critics may have a problem with the way they do their thing. But they are doing it and we all are benefiting from it and our country is the ultimo ate beneficiary of their patriotic effort. Today, that industry is said to be worth billions of dollars, but we don’t see the money and I doubt if they see the money.
At that level of income or revenue generation, government is the one expected to coordinate and direct the stream through which these heroes and heroines can see and feel the fruits of their labour. Yet again, government is absent in the life of their business. But our home video stars are working, promoting and rebranding the image of Nigeria within and outside the shores of our great country. If our government cannot create the enabling environment to reap the fruit of their labour, God is rewarding their efforts.
This is not all about the Nigerian Home Video industry; it is about the spirit of the true Nigerian. That die-hard spirit that makes you survive all odds; that spirit that brings the best out of you; that spirit that takes you to the top; that spirit that makes you the peak of the pack; that spirit is what we need now to chart the course of that change we all desperately crave.
Nigerians are good people and indeed good people of a great country. We could be law-abiding people. We could be great followers. However, I disagree with those who say a people deserve the leaders they get. Did we deserve the ‘leaders’ we have had so far? Did we deserve those who steal our billions and still lording their ill-gotten loot over us and making our lives miserable? Did we deserve those who steal our votes, spit on our face and continually make our lives a living hell? If our answer is no, then you know that the leaders we have now do not represent our moral principles and our patriotic vision as a people.
In a world where young people like us are advancing visions that affect you and I, we are fighting to get the basics of life.
When we should be thinking of how to better our lot, we are busy battling to buy fuel for our generators. We are busy praying to God to wake us up early in the morning to queue to buy fuel. We are busy trying to find ways and means, oftentimes outside the bounds of decency. We want to be good people but the circumstances we encounter on a daily basis threaten our lives and our moral fibre.
But you see we must live and we must live well. Because we deserve to live like normal people and we demand to be treated as human beings.
We are poised, therefore, not to fight government, but to make government work for us. In making government do its job for us the people, we will neither be combative nor confrontational. Rather, we will help government to help us so our lives and our great country can move not just to the next level but to the level we truly deserve to get.
We will help government to ensure that we have electricity to power our lives. We will ensure that government pays our salary as at when due. We will ensure that government makes the refineries work so that we will no longer suffer the way we do. We will make sure that government makes our public schools work for our children. We will ensure that government does its job.
We all know that corruption is the major problem in government that is why government has never been able to deliver. But we will make them deliver. We are where we are today, because, we left them to do what they like…because we thought we were helpless in the face of the monumental corruption going on in their midst. But I tell you, we are no longer helpless, we have woken up and we are taking our destiny in our own hands.
We must now participate in the running of our country because it is affecting our lives and our survival. If the government catches a thief, we will make sure that the thief is properly exposed and made to cough out our money. Where we catch the thief, we will get government to retrieve the loot from the thief. Where a contractor is given money to build our roads, our infrastructure, we will take it up as a responsibility to ensure that the job is properly done. We, the people, will ensure that the thieves in government and positions of authority in the public and private sectors of this country are prevented from stealing what belongs to us.
