My open letter to the members of our National Assembly .................
This is the time to re-invent all our national pennons, our flag and other symbols along to match with our national aspirations
THERE is these craving in every one of us to study, examine and investigate our history in our own little ways , in order to harmonize it with our already existing knowledge inline with the present day occurrences, so that we can accurately profound for the future . In the same way, if a man knows his history or thinks he knows some few facts, he will naturally use those facts for determining the accuracy of his opinions on some certain subject so that he can as well expand his own thoughts.
Here: I make my own assessments, after a clear study of our own national flag and other icons, and the pomposity of our history and policies. While relating them with other countries , especially our flags with other countries , I sense the national pride of these countries being coasted into their national symbol , all their histories ,national contracts and aspirations in one quote visibly encapsulate into their flags with hopeful goals and ambitions, which are all lacking in our so called national flag.
somebody will argue me that our green white green is so immense, that it symbolizes agriculture and peace ,yes agriculture and peace are good, but my genuine questions are..............
Are we still notable for the agriculture ? Do peace still reigning in our country?
Before I divert from the major issues, let me take you people further into a self-assessment of the national flag of three well-known great countries of the world.
like the united states of America for an example; its national flag consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars.
The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 state of the United States of America and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union. Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory and "The Star-Spangled Banner, its Spiritual meaning is shrouded in both history and to some degree in the mystery of its creation, originally the symbol and banner of the thirteen colonies. Its form and colors were chosen not only on the basis of rational thought but on the basis of intuition infused by spiritual thought and guidance which led to a correlation between the flag, that America came to call her own, and the intentionality of the realms of Spirit whose guiding light was ever watchful over the destiny of this very nation. The red of the stripes was not only emblematic of the blood that was shed in the war that led to the establishment of an independent republic.
It also signified the passage into the embodied state of the higher principles of light. Red is the color of the life-blood that runs through humanity and through all warm-blooded creatures, and it was, is, and always shall be America's destiny to be a funnel or vehicle for bringing light and energy from the higher realms to the earth for the purpose of benefiting the realms of life amidst the physical. In this sense, America functions as the heart of the planetary body, and her purpose serves the purposes of all.
In relation to the white stripes that accompany the red, just as the red signifies the life of the earth, the white signifies the higher realms of light joining and intermingling with the life of the earth, a constant companion to the spiritual evolution of humankind and of all beings.
The number of stars in the original pattern was shaped in the form of a hexagon, with invisible lines of light joining the thirteen stars. These lines crisscrossed from one star to another. Though they could not be seen outwardly, they represented the developing national identity that was being given energy and light by the forces that supported the birth of a nation and the principles upon which she stood. No wonder America remains a great nation, as of today America still stand as the only great nation of the world still championing for the democratic freedom of all humanity as echo in their pennon.
What about the Ghana national flag?
Mrs Theodosia Okoh, a Ghanaian, designed the Ghana Flag to replace the flag of the United Kingdom upon attainment of independence in 1957; it consists of the colors RED, GOLD and Green in horizontal stripes with a five-pointed star in the center of the gold stripe.
RED represents the blood of those who died in the country's struggle for independence, GOLD represents the mineral wealth of the country’, GREEN symbolizes the country's rich forest and, THE BLACK STAR stands for the lodestar of African freedom and marking Ghana as the African star, aiming to the high heavens, with the star every Ghanaian aim to become a star as well, not only for Ghana alone but for all Africa which was the ideology behind Kwame Nkrumah visions for a greater united Africa, to be led by Ghana.
Then the South African Flag,
the current national flag of the Republic of South Africa is made up of six colors: was designed by Mr Fred Bronwell. With Chili red, white, Spectrum green, blue black, gold yellow. Its debut came after the country's first democratic elections, which took place in April 1994. The flag has thus become a symbol of the unity of the different race groups in South Africa of which I called the team of race. The flag was designed using a combination of colors from historic South African flags.
The chili red may have been adopted from the Dutch flag, the blue and white were colors on both the Dutch and old South African flags, the black, green and yellow were colors on the ANC flag.
The Y or V form of the flag was chosen to symbolize their new-found unity, or coming together of all to a meeting point, thus South Africa's different groups.
Now many South Africans choose to associate each color on the flag with something, or some event, that is significant in their views and aspirations. As a result, many unofficial interpretations of the national flag exist in South African communities. A common interpretation is as follows:
Red: bloodshed of activists
White: white population
Blue: skies or the ocean, since SA is bordered by two oceans
Yellow: minerals
Green: agriculture and land
Black: the non-white population or Mr Mandela, the ex-head of SA.
The flag itself is a symbol of freedom and democracy, as it became the official South African flag after the first democratic election in 1994.
Then let us reverse back to our history and see where we got it all wrong, first the name “Nigeria” which was coined by the Colonial Masters, when they were establishing “agricultural produce /consumer-nation base” for their finished products, after the raw materials had been stolen from us by British systems. The name “Nigeria” was introduced to us by the British colonial masters who handed over the “Indirect Rule” political system to the regional structure of ethnic groups inoder to continue with the exploitations, of which the waterway of the river Niger provided them with free and easy access channel to the inner lands of Niger-areas of our country through which our agricultural and other natural resources were transferred to the colonial master nation of great Britain since from 1800 down to 1960 of our independence, and 1963 when Nigeria became a republic. Yet that link of political and economic slavery with the colonial masters, which reflect in our national flag without any true resistant to that from our own side, are yet to be disconnected. We are now, materially, physically, politically, economically and mentally lost.
We remain slaves to the colonial masters.
No one can easily convince me here that our national flag has no slavery attachment to the colonial mentality , we chose green as the agriculture that we provided to our colonial masters then and still doing the same till date, while the white color meaning no resistance to their orders and wishes, this very mentality is now affecting every segments of our societies , no more national solidarity or no patriotism , no more nationalism ,not even a historical reminder nor national consciousness , our political leaders now have graduated from agricultural product to transferring of our national wealth through corrupt means and mismanagement of public fund to foreign banks, while there are no good roads, medical facilities, water system, and electricity in our country, then it is evident that we are yet to understand our history, why we are now called a sovereign state and a Republic for that matter, we lacks in the things that will be of our national reminder, the colonial masters knows we are foolish for sending our money and our wealth to them, to help them improve their economy. Money is the god of this world. When our people transfer our money to the foreign banks, we are indirectly rejecting the spirit of prosperity, and the spirit of poverty will continue to govern our country. The whole world wants to prosper, but we help poverty to dwell in this nation by transferring money meant for development to other countries, which is resulting to political instability, poor economic management and poor national economy growth , and national moral decay.
A long practice of individualism, ethnic grouping and regional political-party system in Nigeria had created political and economic systems with boundaries, and these boundaries reflect the nature of our independence from the colonial masters. We did not fight for independence; rather we were given a designed independence that is indirectly controlled by the colonial powers. Achebe says, “The center cannot hold.” describing the present political system in Nigeria, in which the country has no political foundation. Lack of political foundation turns the country into a “national cake” for individuals, ethnic groups and regions to share and take it to them. This shows that we have no country to develop because emphases are laid on the ethnic group and regional interests and development, rather than on the national interests, development and nationhood.
Why is it so difficult for us to break away from this colonial captivity so that we can prepare a better nation for our younger generation? As long as there are no unified Nigerians, there will be no unified country to develop. The center that does not hold is the channel or the hole established by the colonialists to transfer our wealth to them. That hole must be closed; there must be a melting point for all Nigerian’s, the point that unified our histories and aspirations like the new South Africa of Nelson Mandela, the point that will merge us into a great country in oneness. Nigeria lacks true ethnic diversity and integration. The country is divided into ethnic entities, these ethnic-group divisions destroy unity and nationhood and we seriously need to change everything about Nigeria, especially from the national flag down to our national policies.
Strategies for the change and a new Nigeria :
I want to make a few suggestions that will help us to create a progressive nation.
One: we need to change all our national icons, the flag especially to something that will represent our general aspirations and hopes for a greater tomorrow.
Two: Political Parties, the new nation needs to sits together and create two political parties for their people. The reason for two political parties is for check and balances. The two political parties will become the political foundation for this nation. The two political parties will not belong to any individual, ethnic group or region. The two parties will be established to form the seat of the federal government, and that will create a permanent presidential platform for the country. Whoever wins the presidency will spend his term(s) of office and leave while the political parties remain as the political foundation for the country. The older the political parties remain as the foundation of the national government, the more mature and progressive the nation, the present president will go and another person will come in to continue and improve upon the already established political goals and objectives. The present political system of many parties is not a system of progress and development, because every new political party that wins and comes in with a new plan for the country, will keep Nigeria at the “one-year-old” status. We see people to go in there as intelligent people who can carry out this vision. Please, let our people to rise to the occasion.
The establishment of the two political parties as the seat of the federal government will set up national identity and national consciousness. It will open a way for the nationally united culture to replace the present ethnic cultures that slow down national development.
Three: Presidential Zoning, Presidential zoning to include all sections in the nation will not be a problem because whoever becomes the president will work for the development of the country instead of concentrating on the ethnic political parties and sectional development. Two principal spirits govern any society. They are the spirits of “justice” and “equality”. These two words, “justice” and “equality” are not ordinary words. They are spirits that rule the kingdoms of the universe. These “spirit-words” are found in the different Holy Books used by different religions all over the world. When these spirits go around the nation and find no justice and equality practiced by the people, such nations will have problems because the spiritual law of fairness has not been applied. My people let us rise to this occasion.
Four: National Economy, The general observations in Nigeria, is that politicians play politics of individual pocket. We want to believe that they take the money meant for national development because there is no Nigeria. This has been possible because the country is operating as different ethnic groups under different political ideologies. The sad part of this is corruption-robbing, robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Our leaders had transferred our money meant for national development to foreign banks, and those countries use that money to improve their economy. Is a shame to all of us as a race, because we are telling the world that we are stupid by giving the money to other countries instead of using it to develop our society? Many people may not know why these practices had been going on for decades.
I want you to understand that slave mentality of servants serving the masters and paying tributes to them which is still in operation in present day Nigeria. The money the politicians put in the foreign banks and call it theirs, is paying a tribute to the colonial masters. What is the sense of having independence yet the money for national development is given to other nations in the name of hiding money in the foreign banks that is taxed to a finish in a few years. It looks like our psychic make-up was messed up after creation, which allows us to turn against ourselves, fight and destroy our country.
My great people I think this is the time wake-up from the illusions of independence imposed on us by the colonial masters, and set up our own political system that will reflect our history and aspirations to take care of our own people. Let us keep our money in our country, and use it to develop our society. It does not make sense to siphon the national wealth into foreign banks while there are no good roads, medical facilities, water systems, educational systems, and electricity. We need to restore the dignity of our race, claim the lost wealth of the nation, and provide for the next generation so that posterity will not blame us.
I challenge the political leaders to explore, invade, dominate, possess, and to bring wealth from the outside back to the nation.
We need a President and governors who will say no, enough is enough, and this is the time to develop this country so that we can compete with the rest of the world. Something is wrong with our mental framework. It is always embarrassing to read in the paper that Africa needs help. Africa does not need help from the outside. Ours are continent of gold, diamond, silver, oil and precious stones that are being taken away by the colonialists at a giveaway price. We have all it takes to build a great African nation. What we need is the right mind-set and good leaders . Leaders with the right mind-set will have the desire for national development and concern for the well-being of the people. Trillions of dollars that African leaders deposit in the foreign banks can develop every part of the continent.
This piece of writing is my very simply effort, suggesting that this is the right time to re-invent Nigeria and address all the foundational questions that come with it, it is opportunity for a better beginning and for the greater tomorrow has finally come, let us be wise------
Long live Nigeria
Long live the Motherland.
