Here's the problem with that mixtape from past Nigerian leaders
Nigeria can't sing its way out of its problems. Past leaders who dropped a single are really the problem
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Even Wizkid's "Daddy Yo" had nothing on these guys.
The single was recorded somewhere in the nation's power corridors at the behest of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
It was a star cast on the M....I....C.....or on the wheels of steel, as they say.
Osinbajo was the lead singer, Olusegun Obasanjo provided the baritone and Oladipo Diya, Alex Ekwueme and Yakubu Gowon were back up singers.
It was a song titled "Oh God our help in ages past".
"Oh God our help in Ages past/ Our hope for years to come/Our shelter..."
I enjoyed the song, simply because untrained, guttural voices sometimes provide the best melody.
"We pray to God to continue to grant us that peace and unity that this country dearly deserves", said Gowon after a Grammy award winning performance.
"God created Nigeria as we are and God doesn't make a mistake. We should thank God for that", said Obasanjo whose baritone almost smashed my laptop speaker to smithereens.
Then there was Shonekan who headed the interim national government in 1993 for a few weeks before Sani Abacha sent him packing: "We must continue to work to make sure that we achieve the desired result".
As the 'Grammy artistes' performed, the still images of some of our cherished national assets--the national arts theater in Lagos, the national stadium in Abuja, the national assembly and the coat of arms--formed the backdrop for the video.
Except that the national theater and the national stadium are decaying like every infrastructure of note in this country.
Everything has decayed under the watch of these leaders and under the watch of their peers who weren't in that studio for the "hit song"; owing to their religious inclinations.
Between all the past leaders who sang "Oh God our ages past", Nigeria has been asphyxiating from poor leadership since the African nation attained independence in 1960.
So, while Obasanjo and Gowon can ask God to save Nigeria and urge the rest of us not to lose hope in our country, they inspired little hope in the citizenry while they were in power. They all helped in destroying what was a beloved country.
The problem with Nigeria isn't our religious piety or our love and belief in God. It isn't even with praying or not praying enough.
The problem is that while God has handed us all the tools required to become a great nation, Nigeria has always been undermined by poor leadership.
In that studio was bad governance spanning several decades.
Like Obasanjo rightly put it, "God doesn't make a mistake". Maybe the mistake is from "we the people" who kept entrusting these singers with our dreams of a better nation.
It was a good song from these men. I think the delivery was great too, given their advanced ages. But can these men look themselves in the mirror and say they dealt Nigeria a good hand while overseeing its affairs?
We'll let Nigerians be the judge here.
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