By Alex Enemanna

It was the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy who during his inaugural speech on January 20, 1961 said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

He had sought to inspire young Americans and adults to see the importance of civic action, public service and selfless commitment to the development of their fatherland. Several decades later, it is still seen as a landmark speech, with no shadow of the lesson embedded therein lost.

Generation after generation, the voice of J.F Kennedy continues to resonate across human race, reverberating across the continental landscapes and instilling the value of patriotic selflessness in national service in the psyche of many. 

Here in Nigeria, it has almost become a cliché, offering a door of escape to political actors who use it as their default auto-reply to our questions on accountability, our questions on provision of infrastructure, our questions on security of lives and property and our questions on oiling the wheel of the economy to make it virile to create job opportunities for our teeming young population. They just flash, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” to make you a prisoner of conscience while they walk away with their shoulders high, carrying their baggage of contagious ineffectuality with utmost pride. 

Heard of the name Fatai Abiodun? Here is one head wearing many caps, with each of them giving him a special perfect fit. Call him an ICT expert, a journalist, advocate and in a very short time to come, a duly certified lawyer, you would not be wrong. A fine specimen of what an ideal gentleman represents, he is one of the multi-talented young Nigerians who believe there abounds regions of indigenous solutions to the everyday problems holding us by the jugular, yet our obsession for the imported temporary relief we often mistake as solution has totally blind-folded us.