It is only natural for someone to feel passionate and emotionally attached to his/her native land. I am not exempt from this characteristic. I am a Nigerian, through-and-through. Nigeria was created and very well endowed by God. We are blessed with abundance of resources in whatever form -human, mineral, natural, and so on. We have wealth flowing above the ground, under the ground and in our heads. With our intellect, massive population and natural resources in the earth, you would have thought we would be up there with the developed countries of the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

People of different nations of the world, where Nigerians can be found, will attest to the intellectual capabilities of Nigerians; we are the eight largest oil exporting country in the world; with fertile and arable land; a population of over 130m people and with a land mass of 923768 sq. km (about four times that of the United Kingdom). You will agree with me that Nigeria is truly rich. Sadly, however, these seem to be statistics, merely. Arguably, the foundation for the country's greatness was laid from inception. What remained, to achieve that goal, was proper management of these endowments.

Just that. All resources have been provided for. All that our "leaders" had/have to do, was to effectively and efficiently harness these abundant wealth for Nigeria to attain her position amongst the mighty nations of the world. And, this is what they have steadily and constantly failed to do!

Why, you may ask? Funny enough, the answer is very simple and obvious -greed! The so-called "leaders" that Nigeria has been unfortunate to have, have all been myopic in their thinking. Instead of putting the nation first, they put their avarice before national interest. Immediately they assume that prime position of governance, they become monetary gluttons, corrupt "public servants" who serve their thieving inclinations rather than the people. I sometimes wonder if they think they can ever "eat" up Nigeria's wealth completely. By their incorrigible and rapacious dispositions, what they succeed in doing in bending the country to the knee; setting us back; retarding our development economically and industrially, with endless consequential spill over effect. Constantly, good brains that would help build up the country emigrate to other lands; further stripping the country close to bare.

We need to make a commitment to reject, fight and stamp corruption out. Until we begin to see the ramifications of greed and corruption; until we resolve to shun personal gain and imbibe nationalistic principles; and, until we are ready to make personal sacrifices for the popular good, Nigeria will not be actually great. It is high time Nigeria became a really great nation, not "potentially" great. We must change the existing political ideology and the level of educational awareness in the country. Though that is only a starting point, it is a crucial element to changing Nigeria for the better.

I have started to make my little contributions in various ways. I will gladly welcome any effort to lift Nigeria up. Let us form a coalition for the progress, economic and industrial development of Nigeria. Let us work together to make Nigeria great. Join me.

How great thou wouldst, Nigeria!
Translated into Arabic by: Steve
It is only natural for someone to feel passionate and emotionally attached to his/her native land. I am not exempt from this characteristic. I am a Nigerian, through-and-through. Nigeria was created and very well endowed by God. We are blessed with abundance of resources in whatever form -human, mineral, natural, and so on. We have wealth flowing above the ground, under the ground and in our heads. With our intellect, massive population and natural resources in the earth, you would have thought we would be up there with the developed countries of the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

People of different nations of the world, where Nigerians can be found, will attest to the intellectual capabilities of Nigerians; we are the eight largest oil exporting country in the world; with fertile and arable land; a population of over 130m people and with a land mass of 923768 sq. km (about four times that of the United Kingdom). You will agree with me that Nigeria is truly rich. Sadly, however, these seem to be statistics, merely. Arguably, the foundation for the country's greatness was laid from inception. What remained, to achieve that goal, was proper management of these endowments.

Just that. All resources have been provided for. All that our "leaders" had/have to do, was to effectively and efficiently harness these abundant wealth for Nigeria to attain her position amongst the mighty nations of the world. And, this is what they have steadily and constantly failed to do!

Why, you may ask? Funny enough, the answer is very simple and obvious -greed! The so-called "leaders" that Nigeria has been unfortunate to have, have all been myopic in their thinking. Instead of putting the nation first, they put their avarice before national interest. Immediately they assume that prime position of governance, they become monetary gluttons, corrupt "public servants" who serve their thieving inclinations rather than the people. I sometimes wonder if they think they can ever "eat" up Nigeria's wealth completely. By their incorrigible and rapacious dispositions, what they succeed in doing in bending the country to the knee; setting us back; retarding our development economically and industrially, with endless consequential spill over effect. Constantly, good brains that would help build up the country emigrate to other lands; further stripping the country close to bare.

We need to make a commitment to reject, fight and stamp corruption out. Until we begin to see the ramifications of greed and corruption; until we resolve to shun personal gain and imbibe nationalistic principles; and, until we are ready to make personal sacrifices for the popular good, Nigeria will not be actually great. It is high time Nigeria became a really great nation, not "potentially" great. We must change the existing political ideology and the level of educational awareness in the country. Though that is only a starting point, it is a crucial element to changing Nigeria for the better.

I have started to make my little contributions in various ways. I will gladly welcome any effort to lift Nigeria up. Let us form a coalition for the progress, economic and industrial development of Nigeria. Let us work together to make Nigeria great. Join me.

What you are seeing is the foundation of a huge resource outreach particularly geared towards ameliorating the deficiencies manifest in some parts of the world, with special focus on Africa -a peaceful continent with some unfortunate circumstances. Africa is blessed by God in many respects, but today it finds itself haplessly the victim of centuries of exploitation by both foreign and domestic elements. Presently, Africa's greatest challenge is education. As a result of lack of education, the inhabitants of this beautiful continent are ignorant of the endowment, and the rulers-instead of leaders-who are at the helm of affairs are not better off in this regard. The rulers themselves are misguided by their avaricious and covetous cravings. Essentially, Stephen Edetanlen Foundation has emerged as a centre to garvanize and aid the acquisition of academic knowledge, sensitization and sanitization of polity. We know this is a daunting task. We equally know that it is a necessary task, if Africa is to take her pride of place on the global stage. This is something that should have been done much earlier; but, we believe in the saying that "it is better late, than never". Be know there are several entities, people and organizations out there with similar thinking -whether or not, of African descent. We welcome such to join forces with us to rid Africa of the anti-developmental, retrogressive and destructive syndrome which is rampant in the continent. Let us make Africa a place of pride, peace and prosperity. Let us put Africa where it belongs. We welcome your comment and contribution. Please visit http://se-foundation.blogspot.com/