We need a combination of the Operation Dynamo spirit and that 12 Labours of Hercules dynamism to get out of this rut 

By Ayo Akinfe 

(1) Today is June 1, the start of a new month. As 29 governors take office in Nigeria, can we please use this day as a moment for sober reflection. Rather than keep sending out meaningless Happy New Month messages, can we please make today an occasion when we ponder on the way forward 

(2) On this day on 1940, Britain’s Operation Dynamo was in full swing. By all standards, it was a mission impossible. Operation Dynamo involved evacuating about 338,000 soldiers from the French port of Dunkirk under German bombardment. This was a miracle of biblical proportion and appeared totally impossible but alas, they pulled it off

(3) I would place Operation Dynamo on the same pedestal as the 12 labours of Hercules. In Greek mythology, Heracles was given 12 impossible tasks but alas he carried them out, against a background of unbelievable odds. We need a similar “Can do” spirit if we are to get out of our current rut in Nigeria 

(4) For all those shouting government, government, government, do you know that Operation Dynamo involved a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing vessels, pleasure craft, yachts and lifeboats. Ordinary Britons like fishermen volunteered to go to France to evacuate their troops. They responded to Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s call in their thousands and put their lives on the line to save their troops 

(5) Many of our governors are facing similar impossible tasks and need to perform like Hercules to get the job done. When I for instance look at Babajide Sanwoolu and see how Lagos State needs to invest something like $20bn a year in infrastructure when Nigeria’s total budget is only $24bm, I ask if he has not been given a poisoned chalice. My big question though, is will the masses give them the necessary backing as the British did during Operation Dynamo?

(6) Our people expect miracle workers and think our governors are magicians but hey, the fact remains that the main task falls to the masses. For Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State to perform for instance, the local people need to reveal all Boko Haram’s hideouts to the security forces 

(7) Yesterday for instance, Governor Zulum paid a surprise visit to the state secretariat in Maiduguri where about 12,000 of the total 17,000 workers in the state work. Guess what? He only met four workers within the secretariat complex when he visited. The absent workers represent 99.97% of those on the payroll of the Borno State government. How do you sustain any prosperity with that kind of mentality?

(8) As thing stand, we need two types of superhuman efforts to get Nigeria off her knees. We need state governors prepared to do the impossible like Hercules and we need the Nigerian public to act as their British counterparts did during Operation Dynamo 

(9) My favourite of Hercules’ tasks was when he was asked to clean the Augean Stables. Nobody on earth thought it was possible. These stables in which King Augeas kept 3,000 oxen and which had not been cleaned for 30 years, were the filthiest place on earth. However, Hercules cleaned them by diverting the river Alpheus through them. Is any of our governors thinking in this manner?

(10) No messiah is going to come and solve all our problems. We have to be prepared to step up to the plate as a people. Until we do, no amount of prayers and wishes will move Nigeria forward. We currently have a budget of $24bn and have an infrastructural deficit of $140bn. Let June 1 be the start of a thinking process that will take us to the Promised Land