It's less than 48 hours to Nigeria's Independence Day and the feeling is always the same. I believe that the country can experience a positive turnaround someday and things will begin to fall into place for us as a nation. Regardless of the country's situation at the moment, we can't give up on Nigeria because wherever we find ourselves in the world, we are still Nigerians. God finished the job in a way that even when you pretend in a foreign land, your colour will still expose you. Someone once told me that Nigerians are so popular abroad to the extent that even people who aren't Nigerian are called Nigerians just because of their skin colour.
Every country has laws and they are practically made to protect the rights of the citizens. If I am not mistaken, that's the main reason why we have laws but there are some decisions made by the government which have no significant importance in the country and sometimes it bothers me why and what they were thinking to have come up with some laws.
The End SARS protest a few years ago made it clear that a lot of Nigerians were into Cryptocurrency and the government became scared of what the youths can achieve when they are in control of their money. Funding the protest became difficult, people who were actively involved needed food and drinks but all the donation accounts used during the protest were frozen. To help the situation, a crypto wallet was created and people started making their donations with crypto which rendered the government authority useless.
The youths were able to sort themselves with crypto and for that, it became illegal in the country. To hide their selfish agenda, they tagged Cryptocurrency as so many bad things whereas they are just scared of giving Nigerians control over their fund just like it's happening in different parts of the world. Since the incident in 2020, a lot of people have gotten into problems with law enforcement agencies most especially the police because of Cryptocurrency. They tag people as cybercriminals just because they have Binance and other crypto-related apps on their phones.
If not for the peer-to-peer option on many exchanges, Nigerians would have been completely locked out of the crypto space since banks also do not hesitate to inform the police about their customers' involvement in crypto when they see any related transaction in their bank account.
The government globally is blind to the truth, banks can't be completely shut out because even with Crypto, we still need fiat. If Cryptocurrency had been allowed during the insufficient money in circulation earlier this year, it could have stepped in for us to an extent. A lot of citizens still do not have an understanding of Crypto, it might look dangerous to them because of some risks which involve our mistakes but unbanning Cryptocurrency is something I will do happily.
It might look like a challenge for people who are new to it but with time, they will realise how awesome it is.
While the government is busy chasing after what's unnecessary, I believe some things should be banned completely in the country. The use of hard drugs in the country has skyrocketed badly and the lives of many youths have been affected.
Ordinarily, the use of hard drugs in Nigeria is prohibited but is it truly prohibited?
Some years ago, I went to Isolo and spent a few days there. I visited the deepest parts of the ghetto and there were police officers who came there in the evening to take drugs. I asked someone and he said they do come there to smoke before returning to their duties and it's not surprising why many of them misbehave while on duty.
Although there is a war against hard drugs but it's weak because many of these politicians are involved. The law is practically effective when a child of nobody is involved but when it comes to the people in power, the law against hard drugs is ineffective. Their involvement doesn't let the law take its stand against drugs and that has given more people to get involved.
A Nigerian artist once said that he most times depends on hard drugs for inspiration and this same person was appointed an ambassador to NDLEA (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency)
So where is the ban or law against hard drugs in the country?
If I have the power to make amendments to the law of the country, Cryptocurrency will become open to everyone while hard drugs will be completely banned. No one should be exempted from punishment and I believe this will go a long way for us as a nation.