20th January bomb blast: Which way Nigeria?

“Which way Nigeria?

Which way Nigeria?

Which way to go?

I love my fatherland,

I want to know.

Which Nigeria is heeding to? 

Many years after independence,

 We still find it had to start,

How long shall we be patient

 Before we reach the promise land?

So let’s save Nigeria

So that Nigeria won’t die.

Every little thing that goes wrong

We start to blame the government,

We know that everything goes wrong

Because we are part of the government.

Let’s save Nigeria,

So that Nigeria won’t die.

Inefficiency and indiscipline

Is ruining the country now,

Corruption here and there everywhere,

Inflation is soaring high.

Let’s save Nigeria

So that Nigeria won’t die.

We make mistakes in oil boom,

Not knowing that this is our doom.

Some people have everything

While many have nothing,

Let’s save Nigeria

So that Nigeria won’t fall.

Our ambitions to be millonian

Is running the country down.

We all want to be millionias,

And to lead in the end.

Let’s save Nigeria

So that Nigeria won’t die.

Remember that a simple step,

Is the beginning of a million miles.

Let’s start now to rebuild ourselves,

So that we make the country smile.

Let’s save Nigeria

So that Nigeria won’t die.”

In 1977, a ‘prophetic Nigerian musician iconoclastic evangelist, Sonny Okosun in one of his albums “Which Way Nigeria” posed this rhetoric question which still applies to Nigeria in her present state of high rate of insecurity, disunity, confusion, educational decay, uncontrollable nature of corruption, lost of lives, to mention but a few.  35 years ago, Okosun did not know he was proposing a question for Nigeria in 2012.

The bomb blasts in kano, one of the states in the northern part of Nigeria, on Friday 20^th of January 2012 is indeed a shock to the born marrows of all Nigerians. Statistics show that this is the worst and life claiming bomb attack in record in Nigeria with the record of 186 already dead and many in the hospital with an uncertain faith for survival. Which way Nigeria, a country where 450 lives have been claimed in a month by a group of terrorist in a sovereign country with security agent? Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its second largest economy, as well as one of America’s top oil suppliers.

Despite a return to civilian government in 1999 after a long spell of military dominance, Nigeria remains a fractious nation, divided along ethnic and religious lines. The question of Evangelist Sonny Okosun re-echoes today: which way Nigeria? This is a question to one in at the crossroads. 

Okosun calls Nigerians again for a reflection on the present state of the nation so that the country can move ahead for survival.  

                                                                  Kano bomb blast