DOES MY NAME MAKES ME A NIGERIAN??

Dear steemit friends, it's been quite a long time and I must confess I really missed each and everyone one of you. Have not been feeling to good,coupled with some professional exams have been writing.. Now am fit free and ready to steem.

I really do hope you can relate to this as you read my mystery

My native name is Ogochukwu. Does that make me a Nigerian?

Historically, we are living in very interesting times. No doubt, change is a constant factor in our world. However, when things take the turn for worse, I wonder what sort of change to call that! We keep gliding down, down and down to the base where lack of empathy and gratitude appear to be the order of the day.

From everything we've read about history, aside from the white man's technology, nothing seems to have improved in the state of affair of the Nigerian state!

For the fear of being tagged judgmental, more than half of us sit on the fence - not having opinions at all. So that we can be liked, and probably score more on the popularity points.

For the fear of being labeled foolish, the lot of us have sold our common sense to politicians with stack and stack of cash! I mean, if he/she offered you cash and you declined by insisting on a conscience that most people don't even know exist, your entire clan may swear for you!

For fear of getting arrested and losing friendships, we have become cold, average humans just going through the motions! For fear of fear itself, we are making the wrong things trend rather than those issues that affect our core as a country.

At best, everyone plans on leaving - jetting out! While I don't have any issues/problems with that, I still wonder if we all run away, what will become of a country that is now our shared heritage?

What will become of everything; I mean every life already lost, every justice denied, every soul brutally murdered, every opportunity denied on grounds of irrelevancies, every past hero, every lost cause, every shared dream and plan, every loss that we have collectively amassed as a nation, as a people!
Growing up, people in my generation had some hope. In fact, we built a Nigerian dream for ourselves where there was none! We believed in commonwealth, a common goal for the benefit of all! But few years down the line, I'm almost certain we don't know what we believe in anymore! The lines are so blurred now, we can't see! Just because a certain percentage of the population decided to rob us of our rights to good beliefs. They decided to rob us of our rights to dream, to have a shared goal, and to believe in a commonwealth!

I woke up this morning on a self-inquiry. I wonder sometimes if I'm indeed Nigerian, and if yes, why don't my opinion matter as such? Why isn't the media as powerful as it should be? Why am I here at this point and turn in history? Why? Why? Why?

I ask myself: My name is Ogochukwu, does that make me a Nigerian? What will happen if there is a collection of youths who have had more than enough coming together to demand for more? What will happen if we march to Aso Villa and demand for a better life for ourselves and our kids to come? Will they label us a terrorist group? Will they shoot us on sight? Will it ever matter? Does my fine Igbo name even say that I'm Nigerian enough?

@prettyprisca writes...

Art by @dgtoons