There is a powerful lesson that unfolded in a simple tale: a community ignores a creeping problem, dismissing it as someone else’s burden-until it sprawls, unchecked, to engulf them all. This is not mere storytelling; it is a mirror to human nature. Too often, people shrug at the woes of their neighbours, they cloak indifference in the flimsy garb of self-preservation. “It doesn’t affect me,” they say, as if isolation were a shield. Yet, history and reason teach otherwise: no wall is high enough when the flood comes. Nation-building hinges on rejecting this fallacy and embracing a truth as old as society itself, – what ails one, ails all.
The roots of this indifference run deep, fed by a culture of individualism that has crept into even the most communal of societies. In places where extended families once thrived and villages raised children together, modernity has sown seeds of detachment. Economic pressures amplify this drift-when survival demands every ounce of energy, empathy becomes a luxury few can afford. Yet, this shortsightedness is a luxury nations can not sustain. Consider the urban slum where untreated waste festers: it may start as one street’s headache, but the cholera that follows knows no boundaries. A neighbour’s plight is not a distant echo-it is a siren that warns of shared peril.
Nation-building, then, is not the work of governments alone-it is the labour of every citizen who dares to care. The late Chinua Achebe once wrote, “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving… he does it because their presence adds to the feast.” This wisdom cuts to the core; a nation’s strength lies in its collective spirit and not otherwise. When a farmer’s crops fail, it is not just his loss-it dims the market for the trader, the table of the teacher, the future of the child. To see this interconnectedness is to understand the essence of progress. Apathy dismantles; empathy builds.
Yet, caring is not mere sentiment-it demands action, wit, and resilience. In the 1980s, the Sahel region faced a drought that could have been mitigated had communities and governments acted sooner on early warnings. Instead, silos of indifference between nations, tribes, and even neighbours -let the crisis balloon, and cost millions of lives. Contrast this with Rwanda’s post-1994 rebirth, where communal workdays and grassroots reconciliation turned a fractured society into a model of unity. The difference lies in the choice made: to treat a neighbour’s headache as a collective one, worthy of remedy. Nations rise when their people refuse to look away.
This shift begins with a rewiring of perspective-a refusal to let proximity dictate compassion. A child’s hunger in a distant village, a flood in a nearby town, a policy that harms the marginalised, – these are not “their” problems but ours. To build a nation is to be determined that every thread matters, to know that a single snag can unravel the whole. It is a call to ingenuity, too: devising solutions that bridge divides, whether through local cooperatives or national dialogues. As an observer of this truth and an individual committed to advancing this philosophy in Oyo state, the conviction grows larger in me, – progress is not a gift bestowed but a garden cultivated together. When we care, genuinely and collectively, the harvest is a state worth calling home.
Oyo 2027
AKK 2027
Governor 2027
AKK! Aseyori ni tiwa.
AKK!! Ajose Ajoje
AKK!!! A Task that must be done.
Wednesday April 23, 2025.
