For Christine Umoekereka, a Nigerian-born professional nurse based in Canada, reviving Nigeria should be a collective effort. A practising nurse with over 20 years in the field of health care, Christine is a philanthropic and patriotic Nigerian who is passionate about the well-being and development of her country, despite being in the Diaspora. Having lived in the developed west for well over three decades, her passion is to see Nigeria as one of the most developed, equal, fair, and decent countries in the world. An advocate of change in different spheres of life, her passion for a better and prosperous Nigeria, led her into writing a book entitled: Our Collective Contribution To The Decadence In Nigeria.
She spoke to The Nigerian Xpress:
What is the Nigeria of your dreams?
My dream Nigeria is surely a nation where all the institutions must work harmoniously, where life will be sweet and worthwhile and our people will live in safety. I want to see a prosperous and developed nation that will be envied. I want a new Nigeria where corruption and all the other vices will be absent. I dream of a nation where the average longevity will be 80 years and our elderly and pensioners are cared for by the state; a nation where true justice must reign, where decisions, characters and attitudes are based on good morals.
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Much like the African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child,” it will take all of our contributions and efforts to revive Nigeria and make it the great country it once was. Collectively, we can rebuild Nigeria with a positive mindset, and good morals. If we don’t, the disaster that is about to hit our country will affect us all; it’s just around the corner. We are all contributing factors one way or another in all our jurisdictions to the decadence in Nigeria and all its sins.
What major experiences inspired the book?
It’s not just an age-old vision but the contemporary downward trends in all facets of national integrity that motivated me to write the book, “Our Collective Contribution To The Decadence In Nigeria”.
After all, the pains and sufferings that we see going on in Nigeria right now, who wouldn’t want to write this book? Reading together the subtitle of the book, “how did we collectively lose our ethical, moral, and cultural values that are presently causing the entire nation pain, suffering, underdevelopment, and pauperization? There is no food for the poor, and no jobs for our youths and graduates.
Our workers and pensioners are not getting regular monthly salary payments. Our children cannot attend free education like we all did, decades ago.
Most good schools now have been privatised and have become unaffordable to some people. Our children, elderly, and vulnerable people are sick without affordable healthcare. Our electricity is nothing to write home about and we are in darkness most nights as if we are in the dark ages or the 1800 era.
Do you believe Nigeria could still be great? If yes, what is your projection?
Yes, of course, Nigeria will triumph again. The time and date I am not sure because human beings are unpredictable and it depends on the reception of our people towards what their priorities are. “You can’t eat your cake and still have it”.
This means that you all cannot embezzle almost all the money in the treasury into your accounts and still expect all essential services to be up to date and functioning because they require money to maintain.
However, Nigeria’s glory can be restored if we all collectively think and act accordingly with morals, love, and kindness towards each other, towards our country, and the development of the country. The key word here is “togetherness”.
What is your take on the insecurity and economic crisis in Nigeria?
The rage, insecurity, and kidnappings that we are seeing today in Nigeria are a result of the pent-up anger and hatred toward the current situation. People are angry, furious, and seriously fed up with the people that are embezzling our funds in the nation.
These people are indirectly murderers. Do you know how many people have lost their lives because of their actions? So, why are these people walking free in our nation and we are celebrating them?
Why have they not been punished? This is where I blame our Mr President. You are accountable for what is happening right now. You campaigned for a change and promised to fight corruption. I campaigned and supported you because of this vision. We are already seeing that it is no longer funny embezzling our resources. The reaction witnessed during the #ENDSARS speaks volumes of what will continue to happen in the future if our nation fails to change. The burgeoning calamity and the unexpected revolution will sweep us away.
Going by the title of your book, is it possible to fix Nigeria?
The title of the book suggests the solution to Nigeria’s ailing challenges. People have often asked me why the book is entitled “Our Collective Contribution to the Decadence in Nigeria“. My answer is that almost everyone is partaking in the corruption happening in this country. And what is worse is that it starts from our family systems. Some Nigerian children are brought up by their parents to believe that money is above everything else.
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These attitudes are taught by their parents and have caused them to strive for and do anything that will bring them the highest earnings, even at the expense of our beloved nation. So, when they take different positions in society, all they are thinking about is how to make money for themselves and not about what is good for the country as a whole. This is the decadence that is plaguing our country. Furthermore, some Nigerian parents will emotionally and physically abuse their children only because they see their neighbours’ kids in luxurious cars and mansions, and living lavish lifestyles.
2023 is close by, what’s your advice for the citizens, leaders, politicians, and government?
We need leaders that read and understand our pledge. Someone that will uphold our pledge and respect it. We need someone that will genuinely love the country. Someone that his words will be congruent with the national pledge on his\her mind. Nigeria needs a time machine to turn back the hand of time, to travel to the past when things were right and begin again from that point. We had security, peace and safety. We had good roads.
We had good free education or affordable education for all. We had constant electricity and we were not in darkness, like in the dark ages. We had good drinking, running tap water and fewer boreholes. We had employment based on merits, We had one of the best healthcare systems in (University College Hospital in Ibadan). We had good quality infrastructure. We had Nigeria Airways. We had agriculture and booming industries.
We must break the shady diversion of public funds into personal use, which is extremely common and affecting the quality of our humanity. The worst of it all, nothing is being done about it.
Extreme situations such as the embezzlement of billions of Naira demand extreme reactions too from the general public. The condemnation must be very loud and high. The country at this point needs an executive order to curb all forms of corruption, either stealing public funds or exploiting others for personal or economic gains. Legislation must go forth that anyone found stealing anything above a certain amount of money must pay the supreme price or life imprisonment. Won’t this change things drastically?
What advice do you have for Nigerian youths?
I want the youth to think positively, and think about doing something for themselves that would impact changes to themselves, their children and our nation. You all can do it and have the potentials to do it. So my clarion call to the Nigerian youth is to choose right and take the right path. Whatever we do speaks volumes for us and our generations to come. It goes in a vicious cycle from our generation to other generations to come.
If you want your children to be successful with good morals, lay the foundations for that now. If you want the government to act accordingly, the citizens have to act accordingly too. To point out what the government is doing wrong, the citizens must be doing right. In the case of Nigeria, the citizens are not exempted from the decadence in Nigeria.
