Our Mindset Unhelpful to Nation-building, Fashola Laments

Chineme okafor in Abuja

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday said Nigerians were trapped in a messianic mindset that had ruined nation-building for decades. Fashola regretted that rather than take up the responsibility of seeking credible leaders, the citizens were more interested in hero worship and search for a messiah. He spoke in Lagos at the 81st anniversary of the Ikoyi Club 1938, where he delivered a lecture on the youth and nation building.
The minister said the quest for messiah-like leaders was behind the general tendency among the citizens to be easily dissatisfied and pissed off with its leadership.

He explained that the country’s constitution initially failed to include the duties of its citizens towards nation-building, but emphasised the rights of the citizens. Analyzing how young Nigerians fought and gained independence for the country from British colonial rule in 1960, he stated that sticking to the mentality of electing messiahs had hindered development in Nigeria.

According to Fashola, “Indeed, until recently, our constitution only first provided for rights without prescribing the duties we owe as citizens to our country. Between 1922 and 1999 we have had nine constitutions.

“But remarkably, while all of them make provisions for rights of citizens, it was in the 1989 constitution that provisions were made for duties of citizens. The 1989 constitution provided for 10 duties but these have now been harmonised into six duties in the 1999 constitution that we now operate.”
He said because of such omission, Nigerians seemed to look at the country with a sense of expectation of what they could get from it rather than what they could do for their nation.

“It is therefore not unusual to feel a sense of disappointment which is expressed in statements like ‘what is Nigeria doing for me,’ as against a sense of obligation that propels us to be driven by an urge and sense of duty to want to do our best for our country,” he stated.
The minister said, “This is perhaps why we expect messiah-like leaders, when indeed the youth and all of us are the leaders we are looking for. This is a mindset that has set us back and it is a mindset that we must urgently get rid of like a bad habit.”

He said such mindset often led the citizens to prefer foreign and imported goods and services to Nigerian made products and services, adding, “It is a mindset that seeks answers in prayers, miracles and spiritualism. It is a mindset that credits and ascribes every little success that our hands achieve to the realm of miracles, religion and the unbelievable.”

Fashola also said the messianic mindset avoided responsibility and elected blame.
“This is a mindset that abdicates responsibility and it is a slippery slope from which we must turn around and embrace our responsibilities, especially our youth,” he said.

Fashola said due to the negative attitude to country, some Nigerians were leaving the country for other countries and avoiding the responsibility of helping to build it at a time when citizens of other countries were applying to become Nigerians.

According to him, “It is a mindset that places self above others and it is unhelpful towards the task of nation-building. It is probably the mindset that suggests to many to flee Nigeria when things are difficult. For everyone that chooses to leave, please, remember that there are people also applying to be citizens of Nigeria.

“Indians, Cypriots, Greeks, Lebanese, Chinese and other nationalities have chosen Nigeria as the place to invest and raise families and this cycle that started around the 1950s has not stopped.”