When we are ready to make Nigeria a better place the process will be swift and devoid of all the current excuses

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Today is November 6. On this day in 1917, the Russian revolution began. Back then, the old Russian calendar was a month behind the modern Gregorian one, so the revolution took place in what to them was October

(2) On this very day 102 years ago, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd. They defied the bullets of the army to create a new future for themselves. It ushered in a kind of change never seen in the history of mankind before. Russia went from being the most backward country in Europe to a global super power

(3) Russians as a people have been to hell and back. From the humiliating loses in World War One, to suffering 20m casualties in World War Two, to Joseph Stalin’s purges, to the gulags and most recently to near starvation under Boris Yeltsin, they have endured

(4) Very few nations on earth have been through what the Russians have. They were occupied by Napoleon Bonaparte and his Grande Army and later by Nazi Germany. During these occupations, their main cities were raised to the ground but these people have a way of just bouncing back from the dead

(5) It is only in Africa where we hide behind excuses for our failures. Be it the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, colonialism, corrupt rulers, poor governance, ethnic spats, religious differences, etc, they are not good enough excuses to explain our failings as a people. If every nation did that, humanity would still be living on the pre-industrial era

(6) For those looking for excuses for Nigeria’s failings, I put it to you that life has been a paradise for us compared with the Soviet Union. During World War Two, they lost around 27m people, of whom about 3m were Jews sent to the gas chamber. Some 1,710 towns and 70,000 settlements were destroyed and about 3.6m of her troops died in German prisoner of war camps

(7) If we are waiting for perfection, we will be here until kingdom come. I believe that fortune favours the brave. Early explorers had no idea of knowing if they would return alive from their voyages or not but still embarked on them. For instance, it was on this day in 1871 that the Portuguese explorer Cameroon reached coast of Angola after trip through Africa. Yes, Cameroon was actually a person’s name! Talk about leaving a legacy

(8) One of our biggest problems is we simply lack that adventurer spirit to tear up the old rule book and start afresh. It was why we cling so passionately to the Abrahamic faiths handed to us by our colonisers. They offer an easy escape route from our current realities as we hope for divine intervention to solve all our problems

(9) When I look at the sacrifices the Russians have made for their country over the decades, I ask myself where Nigeria would be if we had a similar spirit. During World War Two, the city of Leningrad was blockaded for 872 days, leading to 1.5m deaths but the people simply refused to capitulate

(10) If we want to turn all this around, in my opinion we need to end this morbid fear of death. If you look at the majority of the world’s greatest men and women, their legacies did not really start until after their deaths. Jesus Christ and Mohammed were nobodies while they were alive but see their followings today. We need a reorientation that will spell it out loud and clear that it is very noble to lay down your life for Nigeria. At the moment, we do not believe in legacies. All we believe in is the accumulation of material wealth, titles and perishable goods.