By Angela Ekperi
Self–sufficiency, self-dependence, self-reliance, self-subsistence, self-support; these were some of the Synonyms I found when I sat down to reflect upon the true meaning of the Independence of a Nation and a People. Not satisfied with just the Synonyms of Independence I decided to look for the Antonyms of such a lofty word and this was what the Marian Webster Dictionary had to offer:
Near Antonyms Helplessness, impotence, impotency, inadequacy, weakness; sounds familiar?
The truth is as Nigeria hits the big 55 year mark come Thursday October 1st 2015 and while the Ceremonial Change of Guard takes place at the Presidential Villa as Itemized by the well oiled information Ministry of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as one of the events to mark Nigeria’s Independence from British Colonial Rule in 1960 and as President Muhammadu Buhari reels out his message for Nigerians by 7am on all Networks in the Country, the naked truth cannot be hidden.
The celebration of Independence should be a celebration of measurable liberation from the Apron strings of our Colonial masters; socially, economically, technologically. Maybe the only ties we should be celebrating at this juncture should have been cultural ties in terms of food adaptations and dressing style.
Unfortunately the reverse is the case 55 years down the line. Let us look at the very first synonym of Independence from the Meriam Webster Dictionary: Self Sufficiency against the very first Antonym: Helplessness ; It is a known face that Nigeria has all that it takes for a nation to be reasonably self sufficient to a large extent in terms of Mineral and Human Resources but due to successive inability of progressive Governments to harness these Resources the People are helpless to access their God given wealth and instead the people have gotten closely acquainted with Poverty and her many attendant traits like over religiosity on the brighter side and downright greed on the other side of the divide.
The second synonym is that of Self dependency as against Impotency this is a direct reflection of the mood of the People of Nigeria today where many are continually faced with rich politicians living life independently while the wider base of people are daily getting angrier by the day as the wealth of the nation is spread among a close knit few at the top while the populace wallow in growing helpless anger.
Since the middle terms are mere variants of each other I decided to go straight to the last pair of comparisons; that between Self Support and weakness.
Interestingly, these two terms seem to cry to the fundamental need of The Nigerian of today; it has become increasingly clear that the disparity between the Poor and the Rich is bound to continue to abound, it is therefore time for the economically and socially weak Nigerian to declare their own Independence irrespective of whose Ox is God!
WE the people of Nigeria must declare our very independence from the Nigerian Oligarchy that believe leadership belongs to a select few; leadership belong to the people of Nigeria and to the people alone.
At 55 the people of Nigeria should be able to support each other in their many weaknesses in order to drive the bald head Sheriffs out of our Government Houses all over the Nation and declare for the very first time that We Nigerians are truly Independent at 55 years old.
Let us all keep this in mind as we cut the Green White Green Cake come October 1st 2015.
Angela Ekperi
