And thou shalt love the LORD thy
God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee
forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 6: 5
& 12 KJV
Text: Deuteronomy
6: 4 – 12
What makes a
nation great? What makes a people great? What makes a nation great again? A lot
of us will look at me and say, What is my own concern with the nation? But the
truth of the matter is that if you don’t sort out the nation you will find it
out to sort out yourself. The second is that you yourself are a nation and are
not independent or separate from the people in your nation.
Recently I
visited my home town – Oke Igbo here in Nigeria. As I drove through the town to
visit the traditional leaders, I was surprised to see how much the town had
grown over the years. Yesterday on my visit to my hometown, I began to ruminate
on the thoughts “what makes a people/nation great?”
Deuteronomy
6: 4 says Nationalism starts from the heart. This words which I have shown you
or said to you; you shall put it in your heart; teach it to your children; talk
of them when you walk, sit down and lie down. Every single time in your life
you shall talk of them as a nation, you shall think as a nation. You will fear
God and serve Him.
What makes a
nation great? A lot of disgruntled people in Nigeria especially due to the lack
of infrastructure, amenities blame the lack of greatness to a deficiency in the
leadership. However, what makes a nation great is the collective effort of the
people. Moses spoke to the people of Israel and not a selected few about what
will make the nation great. One of the challenges of Nigeria today is that we
have not been able to speak to ourselves and agree on what makes Nigeria great.
A lot of us
do not go back to the beginning to see what has resulted in bringing about the
tension that exists in Nigeria. Before the year 1914 there was nothing like
Nigeria, what you have was a collection of different states and establishment
and they were all great people in their rights.
Even till
today when you go to an Israeli house you will find inscription on their door
post. When you see them you see them doing those things Moses commanded them
over thousands of years ago.
We keep
fighting and arguing and bothering ourselves that Nigeria is not doing well. We
keep talking and talking and many at times we blame our leaders. But a man
cannot give what he does not have.
