NIGERIA: A TALE OF A DEFENCELESS NATION, By CHIEF MUSTAPHA ABDULHAKEEM (MAO)

How did we get here?

How did the giant of Africa become a land where fear now travels faster than hope? How did a nation that once led peacekeeping missions across West Africa become a country pleading for peace within its own borders?

This is the tale of my country.

Green. White. Green.

A flag that once inspired pride now flutters over communities haunted by insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and bloodshed. How did this menace evolve from isolated crimes into a thriving industry an economy of fear, a marketplace of human suffering?

A friend once told me that in today’s Nigeria, the fastest route to wealth is no longer hard work, innovation, or enterprise, but politics, banditry, and kidnapping. I dismissed it then. Today, I struggle to dismiss the evidence before my eyes.

How did we get here?

A nation with millions of restless youths and millions more out of school has become fertile ground for manipulation, recruitment, and despair. A nation blessed with abundant resources has somehow become cursed by the greed of a few.

Corruption has become the backbone of our insecurity.

It feeds the monster that devours our communities. It weakens our institutions. It turns public trust into private profit. It transforms national tragedies into lucrative enterprises. Every naira stolen from public service becomes another brick in the fortress of insecurity.

Today, innocent children wake up in the morning, put on their school uniforms, and unknowingly walk into danger. Their only crime is seeking an education. Children as young as two years old find themselves in captivity, trapped in the dens of kidnappers while their families agonize in helplessness.

What offense have these children committed?

What crime have ordinary Nigerians committed?

Who did we offend?

Across our land, mothers cry themselves to sleep. Fathers sell everything they own to pay ransom. Communities live under siege. Schools are abandoned. Farms are deserted. Hope itself is becoming a scarce commodity.

Meanwhile, politics marches on.

Campaigns are being planned. Alliances are being negotiated. Re-election ambitions are being nurtured while ordinary citizens bury their dead and pray not to be next.

Nigeria bleeds.

And yet, the bloodletting continues.

The painful truth is that no foreign nation can love Nigeria more than Nigerians. No outside force can build the country we refuse to build ourselves. Heaven helps those who help themselves, and history teaches that nations are saved not by miracles alone but by courageous citizens demanding accountability, justice, and good governance.

My beloved country, which way forward?

Must we continue to normalize the abnormal?

Must we continue to celebrate mediocrity while excellence suffers?

Must we continue to reward failure and expect progress?

Nigeria is standing at a crossroads between renewal and decline. The choice before us is not merely political; it is moral. It is a choice between accountability and impunity, between nation building and self destruction.

The tears in our eyes today must become the determination in our hearts tomorrow.

For despite the darkness, I still believe that Nigeria can rise again.

But only when corruption ceases to be our national creed and integrity becomes our collective covenant.

Only then shall Green, White, Green once again stand for peace, prosperity, and hope.

Written with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart.

@Chief MAO