Legacies of Fathers

We ardently talk of our fathers in Christianity. A hymn goes likewise ‘faith of our fathers living still’. Their legacies and humbling records are undeniable. What can we say about fathers in Nigeria? This doesn’t suggest fathers in a generic sense but our ‘so called’ heroes past. They are fathers. They had played their part for glory or gloom and they left the scene alone, by themselves. The legacies come to our mind whenever we want to proffer solutions to the challenges we are facing presently. It also comes up whenever we are asking ourselves, why we are where we are.   

In South West the scramble to be identified with Awolowo is intense. Every politician wants to be known as a true Aworist. This as it were is not a mere saying but they are known by their results. ‘Only fools doubt proofs’, my father of Faith quipped. Awo’s remarkable legacy in South West Nigeria is the policy of free education. On a sad note, Education in virtually all the state of South West is now insanely luxurious. Tertiary Education is now all time high in all the states except Ondo State. What Awo endeavoured to make free is now very expensive. Where then is the legacy?

Didn’t the fathers tutor suitable successors? What has gone wrong? Even though, our past is important, we can’t dwell in it. If the legacies of the father can’t be built on, we can create an enduring foundation. Their political systems did not last to and influence our generation on an enviable note. The foundations of these systems are questionable. In most cases, they are simply alternatives to Military rule that was prevalent on the continent of Africa. They were not designed to impact the total man. Our task now is to build what will stand the test of time. We must not build the kind they built. We must build what will really last. We don’t have a choice but to build enduring systems because our children will not ask us about the legacies of our fathers but we will do with the opportunity that history permitted and time allotted.    

Nigeria lives! God bless Nigeria!