CHASING THE NIGERIAN DREAM

The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase "Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of prosperity and success. Historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America. Excerpts include 'The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…' The ethos simply indicates the ability, through participation in the society and economy, for everyone to achieve prosperity. According to the dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive a good education and career without artificial barriers. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the prior restrictions that limit people according to their class, caste, religion, race, or ethnicity. This coinage was meant to promote the United States of America as a land to be regarded as a beacon of liberty and prosperity (Wikipedia).

On the heels of this, I was challenged, especially in light of the fact that Nigeria would, on the 1^st of October this year be commemorating 50 years of its existence, to explore what this phrase could possibly mean for the Nigerian, to compare it with the concept of the American dream and see what similarities and differences there are with the 'Nigerian Dream.'

If I were to address an average, random group of people concerning this subject, having enlightened them on the American Dream, they would almost, always be unanimous in their voicing of the fact that Nigeria has no such dream. Sometimes it feels like God gave a different instruction to the developed world and gave a separate set to the developing world, telling the developed nations to take dominion over the Earth, while telling the developing countries to do their best to stay alive, and He would give a handful of them a lucky break every now and then. The first group has continually developed their spirit of adventure while the latter has learned to finely hone its instinct for survival.

If I were to phrase what I have observed to be the Nigerian Dream, it would go thus:

'The Nigerian Dream is the dream of a land in which every man and woman would strive with all the means at their disposal to get a tertiary education in a professional course (medicine, law, engineering, accountancy), get a job in either Abuja or Lagos, either work in government for the job security, or work in the private sector with some deep contacts in government, know at least one politician, one high-ranking police officer, and one immigration/customs officer; be affiliated to some spiritual leaders that would assist with spiritual attacks on your person/family because they will come, marry someone from your geopolitical zone to avoid any pressure from immediate family members, have children including AT LEAST one boy to avoid insult from extended family, rent a respectable looking house with the aim to buy yours one day, buy a generator to generate your own light, drill your own borehole to provide yourself with continuous water, buy a car that can handle random pot-holes and speed bumps, send your children to private schools run by people from any nationality except Nigeria, and then afterwards send them to any country outside Africa to further their studies; a land where survival is the keyword, with prosperity, education and security all in place to ensure this fact.'

Reading this, I can't help but suppress a slight chill, because even though everyone would have their own take on what the Nigerian dream is, we can all agree this is not far from the truth at all. This explains why we do not create, and we suppress creativity, because as far as we appreciate, a creative mind has lost its primary instinct – survival; this is of course, unless the point of such creativity is to enhance survival by providing financial compensation. I really wish I could get my hands on the documents showing what the founding fathers of this country dreamed for it, because I am sure this wasn't it. Even though the American Dream has been criticized for being too idealist and setting a bar too high, they haven't deviated much from it today.

I belong to the minority of people that strongly believe that Nigeria can and will be better than what we can see now. Many people seeing the preparations being made for this silver jubilee celebration have said Nigeria is celebrating 50 years of leadership failure, waste of potential and resources, as well as endorsing deeply entrenched corruption. My Bible tells me that I will have whatever I say, so I say that Nigeria is blessed, that God's plans for this country will be achieved, that this country will reach its full potential, and make all of us proud to belong to it. It also tells me that we should pray for those in authority, so I commit my President and his cabinet into God's hands that He will lead, guide and direct in the best interests of the population of the country, and may their hearts be yielding to his prodding, that they may put aside all pride, greed and self-gratification to serve the purpose for which God has put them in place.

I believe in and love my country. God bless Nigeria. God bless Nigerians.