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Stop serving the God of small things | Inside Stuff
Guardian Nigeria
Follow
9/24/2023
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Welcome to Inside Stuff with me, Martins Olodja.
00:02
(upbeat music)
00:05
This episode, we'll talk about
00:10
stop serving the gods of small things.
00:13
We'll see that we are a big country.
00:16
We should be boasting of critical,
00:19
robust, critical infrastructure.
00:22
We don't have critical infrastructure,
00:24
it's a big country.
00:26
We are big countries, one writer here
00:30
talked about giant in the sun.
00:33
We are being talked of as the giant of Africa.
00:38
Are we really the giant of Africa?
00:42
Well, the current president just told
00:44
the international community, even before UNGA,
00:47
that we are back.
00:51
So if we are back, we should be back
00:54
to serving the god of big things.
00:59
What are these big things
01:00
that we are talking about in a country?
01:02
Critical infrastructure.
01:03
Look at the railway.
01:08
Our fathers used to talk about the railway,
01:11
but now when government is talking about railway,
01:15
the one that we can know in 36 states of the federation.
01:20
So there is a railway, train service
01:25
from Abuja to Kaduna.
01:29
Abuja to Kaduna, the capital,
01:33
that is the political capital of the north.
01:35
When you get to Kaduna, where do you go from there?
01:38
There are 18 other states that you have to go to.
01:43
In the same vein, they said that,
01:45
oh, we developed one from Lagos to Ibadan.
01:51
We have five other states in southwest alone.
01:55
Whereas Lagos being the commercial capital
01:59
of Nigeria and indeed West Africa.
02:02
Where do we go from there?
02:05
When you enter one train,
02:09
you join it from Lagos to Ibadan.
02:12
When you get to Ibadan, where do you go from there?
02:15
What happened to the god of big things
02:19
in southwest that we should have developed facilities
02:23
from Ibadan to Abeokuta, Ibadan,
02:27
to Akure, Adoikiti and other states?
02:32
Where is their own, even from anywhere in the east,
02:36
in eastern part of Nigeria and even the south-south?
02:40
No integrated transportation facility.
02:45
We have traveled around the world.
02:49
We cannot find a country, vast country like this
02:52
without robust mass transit system.
02:57
We are talking about palliative now.
02:59
What more can leaders do to their citizens
03:03
that will be better than this?
03:05
If we are talking about mass transit system,
03:09
we'll be able to solve a lot of our problems.
03:12
If we can move from one place to the other,
03:14
we can fly from one place to the other
03:16
without having to pay so much,
03:18
without any young person that is working now,
03:22
that's thinking of buying his or her own car.
03:26
Why?
03:27
Because there is no mass transit system.
03:29
Even in a place like Lagos,
03:32
Lagos that we should be proud of,
03:34
there's no mass transit system.
03:36
We are talking about blue line, yes?
03:40
Red line will come, green line will come,
03:42
blue line will, all sorts of colorful lines will come.
03:48
But because of the population
03:50
and because of the network that should carry people,
03:55
things may pale into insignificance.
04:02
And these are issues.
04:05
And I think that we should serve the God
04:11
that will provide us big things,
04:14
big thinkers, leaders with big ideas
04:18
that will do something in a way
04:22
that will take a road transportation system
04:27
from Lagos to the capital of Nigeria,
04:29
Lagos to the oil city in Port Harcourt,
04:33
they call Garden City.
04:34
By this time, that is some minutes to 5 p.m.,
04:41
I should be able to put a good car on the road
04:44
and go to my state capital in Akure.
04:47
But I cannot because we do not have good roads.
04:52
Even inside Lagos, the third mainland bridge,
04:56
the potholes there at this time now cause traffic.
05:01
We should be thinking of big things,
05:02
where big country with the most populous
05:05
black nation on earth, yes?
05:07
The most populous in Africa.
05:09
The black race looks up to Nigeria,
05:12
but Nigeria doesn't seem to like the God of big things.
05:16
We like small things.
05:17
We have Toyota, Toyota car products everywhere,
05:22
but there is no Toyota manufacturing company
05:26
assembly plant in Nigeria
05:28
because we serve the God of small things.
05:31
This is not good for us.
05:33
We want to join our leaders,
05:34
therefore, to continue to serve the God of big things
05:39
that will enable us to have the universities
05:43
that will make us to link our problems to our education.
05:48
That curriculum should be built around problems.
05:53
Higher education is to solve problems of society,
05:57
but because we serve the God of small things
06:00
and we have small, small things around education,
06:03
small budget around education,
06:05
even our lecturers cannot allow their own children
06:08
to attend the universities and polytechnics
06:11
where they teach because we serve the God of small things.
06:16
Therefore, we want to enjoy our new leaders
06:19
to begin to serve the God of big things
06:22
that will make the world to say,
06:24
"Look, yes, it's an aviation hub.
06:27
"Let us take our children there."
06:29
I once met a woman in Miami, Florida in 2007.
06:36
The woman did her degree at the University of Hibana.
06:41
She came all the way from the United States to read English.
06:48
She told me that she was a classmate
06:51
to now Professor Gigi Darra, who was at the time
06:56
the chairman of the editorial board of The Guardian.
07:02
He's a professor.
07:03
Our products of University of Hibana,
07:05
our premier university, what happened?
07:08
What happened to the God of big things
07:11
that set up that kind of university
07:13
with even university teaching hospital
07:18
patterned after the University of London teaching hospital?
07:23
What happened to our UCH,
07:27
which the God of big things built for us?
07:31
Why are we now serving the God of small things?
07:34
We cannot boast of robust system,
07:38
master system, education system, any kind of system.
07:43
Therefore, whoever serves the God of big things,
07:47
we'll be thinking of investing in science and technology.
07:52
That is what the God of big things use,
07:56
will use to serve a country like this one.
08:00
Therefore, our leaders should continue
08:03
to serve the God of big things
08:05
so that we become big in the eye of the world.
08:08
Thank you, Lord, we meet again next week.
08:11
Send your comments to the comment section.
08:13
It is me, Martins Oloja.
08:15
(upbeat music)
08:18
(upbeat music)
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