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!
