The clarion call to make Nigeria great again was recently re-echoed by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

He noted that every Nigerian must make some sacrifice for the greatness of the country, saying that both the leaders and the led must be ready to contribute their quota to the growth of the country.

Ag President Osinbajo’s clarion call is food for though for all well meaning Nigerians from the political elite, to students, to workers,, to youths, market women, industry captains and even to non-conformists et all who must live in a country where everything works.

The Nigerian Observer notes that Osinbajo’s call for sacrifice reflects the deep seated rot that has eaten into the Nigerian psyche where personal aggrandizement and self-serving motives are now the order of the day.

While indeed, there are patriotic Nigerians who do not need Osinbajo’s call and are indeed driven by the zeal of a productive economy to equal anyone in the world, there are other countless Nigerians whose sole objective and purpose is to milk the country dry.

For these set of Nigerians whose ideal is corruption and stealing extravaganza, how much sacrifices are they willing to offer to give up their stolen wealth voluntarily.

Significantly, Nigeria is where it is today because unpatriotic Nigerians and zealous pretenders are busy looking for every opportunities to siphon the treasury.

Since the ascension of President Muhammadu Buhari two years ago, his style of governance and his aversion for corruption has become the warning signal that those not willing to make sacrifices are not fit and proper persons to govern or lead the nation at any level.

What the word sacrifice means, it prefigures an absolution and dedication to a state of affairs. In the Nigerian context and religiously situated it speaks of the conscience of the individual to give up himself for a cleansing for the purpose for which it is to be set aside.

There are however institutions that have been put in place which under established regulations and prescribe laws promote our moral standards of honesty and transparency in our dealings with one another as individuals and with the state to engender an acceptable sacrifice which Ag President Osinbajo seeks.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, The Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission, the Code of Conduct Bureau and even the Police as an investigative institution to ensure law and order are sometimes helpless in the bid to bring sanity to the system and are thrown around like pawns on the chess board by political titans and schemers who from their bedrooms decide the fate of the nation and where it is headed. Hence , we still find that despite the efforts of the Buhari’s administration, these political maestro are still holding the aces in the thieving and looting of our treasury, except concerted efforts are made to break their strong hold on the nation.

According to Osinbajo, “there is sacrifice of integrity against corruption. When you speak against corruption, it fights back. So you must be ready to make sacrifice no matter how highly placed you are. Teachers who are prepared to teach, doctors who are prepared to provide health services no matter what. Make the sacrifices required to make our nation great, whether you are a leader or a follower”.

The Nigerian Observer fully supports President Osinbajo’s in the call for every Nigerian to make sacrifice for the country’s greatness.

Against this background, we urge all Nigerians to imbibe the attitude of selflessness and patriotism and should not be dependent solely on the whistle blower policy which has financial inducements attached to it before they can make the needed sacrifice for the nation’s growth and economic recovery.

Nations in Europe and America have gone through similar situations, United States, Japan and China are not left out. These nations are where they are today because the citizens have made the needed sacrifices. Nigeria cannot therefore be different. Osinbajo’s call is a sine qua non for success to reap the fruits of a greater tomorrow.

Until we begin to do the needful, being selfless and not waiting for carrots to be dangled before us, then we are likely to remain in the doldrums of moral decadence, hyper corruption and economic backwardness as a negative fruit of a rotten system whose under belie needs a purgative be it spiritual, herbal or medical, psychological or an atrocious battering as first course to better our lot.