A letter to myself to write at the age of 50. Above all, I would like to congratulate you for the pride you have made me by achieving your long-awaited goal of becoming the first female president of Nigeria. You kept your promise not to flee to another country. I also want to commend you for being patient and not opening this letter until your 50th birthday. You have certainly grown and matured. Although I know that you already know the contents of this letter, I will continue because I am sure that your old memory needs to be refreshed. I also hope that you will take this opportunity to check your progress so far in leading Nigeria. Although I have a feeling that your ideologies have probably changed, the purpose of this article is to remind you of the ideologies of your 17 year old self and compare them with your current ideologies to determine your progress so far in the pass. years. At 17, your main ideology was nationalism unlike most of your colleagues who preferred conservatism or liberalism. But it was completely understandable because you were a nationalist at heart despite the situation your country found itself in at that time. But given that you are the current president, I can definitely say that Nigeria is now a better place. Nationalism, according to Andrew Heywood, is defined as the belief that the nation is the central principle of political organization. As such, it is based on two fundamental assumptions. First, humanity is naturally divided into distinct nations, and second, the nation is the most appropriate and perhaps the only legitimate unit of political government. One of the main reasons why nationalism was your main ideology is because nationalism was not only concerned with the borders between nations. , it included people linked by similar characteristics such as shared values ​​and traditions, particularly a common language, religion, ethnicity or history. Nations can be considered cultural entities. According to AD Smith (2010), “nationalism is an ideological movement aimed at achieving and maintaining the autonomy, unity and identity of a population for which some of its members constitute an actual or potential “nation”. » (p. 9). This brings us to the definition of a nation. A nation according to A. Keywood is defined as cultural entities, groups of people linked together by shared values ​​and traditions, in particular a common language, religion and history, and generally occupying the same geographical area..