A Country That Buries Its Brilliance
Anthony EKPO BASSEY
Nigeria, the sleeping giant, is slowly starving, not from the absence of food alone, but from a famine of foresight, from the quiet departure of its finest sons and daughters. The eagles have flown. The lions have left the den. And what remains is an echo of excellence in a country that once roared with promise.
Across distant lands, our brightest minds serve beneath their station like golden goblets used to fetch gutter water. Doctors who once diagnosed disease now deliver packages in Paris. Engineers who once dreamed of building bridges now clean buildings in Brussels. Scholars who once stood tall in classrooms now stand behind counters in cold foreign cities.
At home, hope has become a hunger. Our graduates who are as brilliant as burning stars, roam the streets in search of sustenance. Their certificates are framed, yes, but not their futures. They walk with worn shoes and weary hearts, clutching credentials that can no longer buy bread.
"When a man’s farm fails to feed him, he must borrow from his neighbour’s barn." And that is what we have become; a nation that exports nourishment and imports neglect. We cultivate excellence, only to watch other nations harvest the fruit.
And in this garden of grief, leadership is like a lighthouse with no lamp, standing tall but offering no direction. Our political leadership class is filled with men and women who hold titles like ornaments but offer solutions like sieves: empty, ineffective, and incapable of holding water. "A child who is not taught to walk will crawl into adulthood." And this is the story of a country that trains talents only to trap them in a system that cannot sustain their steps.
The young ones full of fire and frustration, now see the sky as their only ceiling. They flee, not because they hate home, but because home has not held them. Japa is no longer a desire; it is a decision made in desperation.
Imagine a tree whose roots are rich, but whose fruits are plucked by strangers while the farmer watches from afar, empty-handed. That tree is Nigeria, deep in resources, rich in human capital, but robbed by poor cultivation and bad caretakers.
Still, all is not lost. The ground may be cracked, but the seeds are not dead. With wise hands and willing hearts, the nation can be nurtured back to life. But it begins with recognising that you cannot feed a nation with slogans, or lift a people with empty promises.
"Until the wise take charge, the foolish will feast on the future." We must stop trading brilliance for blind loyalty. We must water the roots that hold us, and give reason for the eagles to return. Nigeria is not without hope but hope, like fire, must be fed. Let us fan it with truth, nourish it with justice, and guard it with leadership that leads by light, not lip service.
Until then, we remain a nation planting diamonds in foreign soils, while our own fields lie fallow, thirsty, forgotten, and forlorn.
