**MY NIGERIA: MY DREAM, MY HOPE. MY REALITY!**

A dream! My dream! Our dream!

Nelson Mandela! Martin Luther King! Mahatma Gandhi! All dreamt this dream. All fought for this dream. This dream is the dream for a better nation. I was told my dream mirror my future. That I should not be afraid to dream deep for every dream precedes the goal. History has no record of any remarkable greatness without some dreams dared and shared in the dark valley of dejection and defeat. As they dreamt, so also I dream.

For years we have exaggerated our differences and magnified our weaknesses. We have engaged our brothers in blood clashes and mindless debate to prove a point. A child is born, stricken with a heredictary ill which only the most vital men can shake off. I mean poverty - the most deadly disease. We live in times when poverty and unemployment has reduced people to conditions unworthy of human beings. But just like Martin Luther said that day when you addressed a dazed crowd of persecuted Black American, 'l have a dream'. It is a dream deeply rooted in every Nigerian.

I dream of Nigeria with men and women who put character above wealth, who are not confined to their own selfish desires, men who love honour, men who cannot lie, leaders who preach love and not hate.

I dream of Nigeria where we shall celebrate a decade of uninterrupted power supply although we are adapted to the irregularity of epileptic power supply.

I dream of Nigeria with a democratic system of justice not just a system of just as I dream of a Nigeria where education is not a privilege but the right every Nigerian child, where girl -child education is prioritised, where teachers are role models are not celebrities.

I dream of a Nigeria that will not be characterized by the banner of terrorism and insurgency carried over the River Niger to foreign lands.

I see the bright days ahead; days when our economy will rise like the strength of a stallion; days when our economy will not be dependent solely on oil and gas but also under agriculture, making use of a natural endowment

I dream of a Nigeria with thousands of kilometers of good roads and adequate supply of pipe borne water.

It is a place where standard healthcare centres are too numerous to count. I dream of a Nigeria where our customs and tradition are upheld and where western culture like homosexuality is shunned.

You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one. It is funny to sat what is impossible because the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. The future of the world belongs to those who beleive in their dreams. My name is FRANCISCA EWUOSO and this is MY NIGERIA