Under the spring-like atmosphere of April 30th 2006, I took my pregnant wife and our one year old son to the National Mall in Washington DC Khartoum and the International community from across the globe in North America . The speakers included “lost boys and girls,” eyewitnesses to the genocides from the horn of Africa who gathered in the preeminent chocolate city of the United States to testify and seek lasting solutions to the brutality of the Dictator Omar Al-Bashir government. As we approach the fall of 2011, there comes another opportunity for a group of people to congregate in Washington DC , in Nigeria
On Monday October 24th, 2011, citizens of the United Nations of Nigeria and their friends and families all over the globe will congregate in strategic locations for the Nigerian Million March. Our simple demand to the government in Abuja- is to say “Let There Be Light in Nigeria Abuja , Lagos , Port-Harcourt , Washington DC, London , New York , Atlanta
Despite the optimism about our desires for Light and the positive potentials for our nation in terms of improving infant mortality, health-wealth gradient, reductions in morbidity rates, security, reduction in investment capital/running cost, and the creation of employment opportunities, some remain overly cautious. Their apathy and dissolutions are the by products of many years of development retardation in the “Giant of Africa” where previous rulers have perfected the maladaptive vices of impunity, corruption, selfishness, greed, religious intolerance, and sectarianism. In discussions with some cross-sections of citizens of the United Nations of Nigeria, they were quick to ponder about the necessity of rallying for Light because of their traumatic socialization experiences in Nigeria
Some samples stories that I heard, included how an ex-Nigerian Electric Power Authority NEPA official from the south was able to build a hotel with more than 100rooms while working as a civil servant. I was told that he used his governmental position to enrich himself to the detriment of ensuring quality public service. On October 1st in a gathering at Washington DC Virginia
Moreover, I got other tales about the fleecing of the Nigerian federal and state treasury by our elected officials while trying to organize for the Nigerian Million March project. For example, the case of a governor of one of the northern states who flew into the Washington DC United States US lady a townhouse and is planning to purchase a heartthrob quarters in Lusaka
During our attempts at mobilizing Nigerians for mass action through the Nigerian Million March- Let There be Light In Nigeria project which is the brainchild of Doyin Olagbegi a regular Nigerian, we have had some astonishing responses. Nigerians and friends of Nigeria
In the United States and United Kingdom there is a non-realization that African Americans and Caribbean peoples have laid the ground work for the benefits and rewards that some of us are reaping in the West. In the US UK Nigeria
Our histories are not void of these types of rallies that have effected great changes. In the late1980’s and early 1990’s members of the United Nations of Nigeria rose up against the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and forced some changes in policies and government. It is time for us to standup again to demand changes in our Electricity policies like we have done before. In 2006, when the Sudanese gathered in Washington DC for the Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide, most people could not have contemplated the emergence of an independent Republic of South Sudan Nigeria
On that April day in 2006, we listened to a fairly unknown senator from the Chicago area in the US Sudan Abuja
References
Nnamdi Frank Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist
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