I HAVE A DREAM

I HAVE A DREAM
By Folarin Samson

As a kid, I was encouraged to dream often. I was told that my dreams mirror my future. I didn’t understand what that meant at first, so I unconsciously begun an adventure into the surreal world of fantasies. Sometimes, while lost in dreamland, I would suddenly discover I was floating on a river, enjoying myself. By the time I flicked an eyelid, alas it was my pinning mattress that had become a waterbed! I would wake up with a start, overwhelmed with shame as the toxic water dripped from my short knickers onto my bed. Out of desperation to cover my shame in the blind night, I would quietly sneak out of bed guided by my intuition, tiptoed carefully away from the pool while groping for a rag to mop the mess. Then I would use our noisy old fan as dryer. I turned it directly to the spot and prayed hard that the night lasted longer so it could dry up. Then in the morning, nobody would know anything because I had also changed into another shorts. Childhood trick. But my father caught me one day and I got the beating of my life! That was before; I am now ‘born-again’. I never shared any of those dreams because they usually disappeared no sooner than they came. Flimsy and fleeting!

But now, I know that the teeny-weeny dream of the night is not the same as the dream of greatness, hope, ideas; though it could be an interface for divine communication. I was drawn to history and followed the great French General, Napoleon Bonaparte as he subdued Europe. I was particularly fascinated and attracted to the cleric-activist, Martin Luther King the Junior, as he reeled out his lofty dreams of a new America to a bemused crowd of persecuted black Americans. I was confounded at the remarkable change that resulted from Mahatma Ghandi’s novel vision of a new India, free from imperialism and colonial bondage. Through the magic spell of books, I travelled back in time and stood behind the legendary Nelson Mandela on the 10th May 1994, as he delivered his ‘No Easy Road to Freedom’ Independence speech. Then it occurred to me that history has no record of any remarkable greatness without some dreams shared and dared in the dark alleys of despondency and near defeat.

As a citizen of Nigeria at this critical time of our national existence, I have a dream that Nigeria will be great again. That all tribes will sit together to dine at the warm table of brotherhood without suspicion or reservation. For years we have exaggerated our differences and magnified our weaknesses. We have ignorantly engaged our fellow brothers in mindless arguments, debates and bloody clashes in a bid to prove a point. But I see with the clarity of an unmistakable seer that the day is coming when the centripetal forces that shred us will melt away with the fervent heat of love and tearful affection. And those who fish in our troubled water will abandon their empty hooks and nets, mouth agape as they watch with dazed vision, the happy reunion of a divided country.

I have a dream that one day, we will have true leaders who will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, negotiate at the table of service or surrender at the feet of failure and frustration. Men of impeccable profile, priceless character, astute, dignified and qualified! People that are passionate about Nigeria and have the wisdom to harness our immense human and material resources for equitable prosperity. They are in Nigeria and I assure you that many more will still be born despite the festering disease of corruption.

I have a dream, that one day Nigerians will no longer live as servants while foreigners drive big cars, own houses in choice towns, live as lord at the detriment of my country people who find shelter from the cold of the night under the chilly irons of the bridges. And despite the fact that this old child of fifty is still wobbling and fumbling in the murky water of scarcity and poverty that makes her subservient to strange interests, I still see many bright days ahead.

I have a dream that the Nigerian economy will rise with the strength of a unicorn to rival all of Europe, America and Asia. The Asian Tigers will bow before the Global Lion of Nigeria. Many countries of the world will come on their knees seeking favour and succour for their crumbling economies and Nigeria will be the only solution to their problems. All our sons and daughters on self exile will return home and our brain drains will become our recovered gain.

I have a dream that the Nigerian child will be free from abuse and she will get qualitative education irrespective of age, ethnicity, religion or background. I have a dream that one day, Nigerians will be happy because they have learnt to speak with one voice, act with one goal, live with one purpose.

I have a dream that l will be proud to show my green-white-green passport without fear because although America has got a momentous memoir in their Statute of Liberty, I pride myself in the Statute of Dignity of Unity. Nationals of other countries will queue up for Nigeria’s citizenship!

And though we have adapted to the anomaly of epileptic power supply, I still have a dream that we will celebrate a decade of uninterrupted electricity. Little school children will no longer have to chorus our shame in the shout of ‘up-NEPA’ as if electricity is a privilege.

I have a dream that corruption will be a taboo in public service and Nigeria will be sanitized not with the forceful hand of the law but with impulsive self-censorship. This nation is not irredeemable. Let all those who have become prophets of dooms go and wait when this pitch darkness will give birth to a glorious beautiful morning. Let all those who have given up on this country because of our wasted years and opportunities sit as spectators as this great drama of resurrection from the ruins of corruption and pervasion to the magnificent edifice of honesty and integrity plays out in the open market square. I say to all weary well-meaning Nigerians that it’s always darkest before the dawn. Our dawn is imminent. The dance will soon begin. We must not give up so soon on our fatherland to flee and take up foreign residence in defiance to the doctrine of natural placement. There’s a reason you’re not born white. As individuals, we only need to embody the change we desire in our fatherland. We must build together.

Let this message ring from the boisterous commercial city of Lagos to the palatial villas of Abuja. Let those who dwell on the plateau echo the tide to the people around the suburban delta. Let the inhabitants of the metamorphic mountains and fountains of Ibo Land pass it on to those in the lush and juicy towns of Hausa land. And let the Oduduwa children polish and garnish it with their cultural bequeathals until it glitters. That if there is hope of an ordinary tree that has been cut down that it will sprout again, then we are far from being hopeless. Non sunt desperadi, we are not hopeless! If it has taken America over two centuries to build their country to what it is today and it is enshrined in their constitution that all men are born equal, then we are in no way inferior to them or any other nation on earth. Our problem is certainly that of the mind not of the mine.

And I have a dream that one day I will be in a position to make my dreams come true or at old age watch as others make them materialize or…..look down from the great beyond, contented and fulfilled that my dreams came true in the manifestation of some kids.

By Folarin Samson
A serving corps member in Ebonyi State
08030572852/ childofdkingdom@yahoo.com