To say that Nigeria is a peculiar and particularly fascinating country is to say it light. Happy people; suffering people. But in spite of the difficulties and challenges of the moment, there is hope; there is always hope. And it is in the very nature of hope to be indomitable. Writing about hope, Nnamdi Azikiwe has it that:

it is the principal antidote which keeps our heart from bursting under the pressures of evils, corruption and oppression. Hope is the manna from heaven that comforts us in all our extremities, the unfailing friend that caresses us in the worst of times, with the expectation of better times in the bosom of futurity. Hope is the last thing that dies in a person.

If done, the following should move us to the next level:

1. We must smack down ethnicism and promote meritocracy. If multi-ethnicity is a curse, then Nigeria is a very cursed land. But ethnicity is a blessing, which is one of the reasons why we can be really proud of who we are as a commonwealth of nations. Having to be a country credited with over 250 diverse peoples is a gift. Variety is the spice of life, remember. However, ethnicism is the evil that ethnicity can bring to the table, thus making ethnicity a potential cog in the wheel of national progress. We are obviously off the track whenever we conduct matters of state along ethnic lines or appeal to ethnic sentiments for validation. The federal character arrangement is a child of circumstance. It became necessary to seeing that everyone is carried along at the same time, thus checkmating the tendency of naturally dominant groups hijacking the entire cake. But federal character could be exaggerated to a fault; meritocracy should always retain its place as a core value that it is.   

2. We must empower the Nigerian citizenry, especially the youths. It is fatalistic to think that empowerment of the citizenry should always bother around economic empowerment. Whenever governments and her agencies think empowerment, they think of skill acquisition and distribution of machines to the unemployed. Whenever they think of gender empowerment, they come up with something similar. The Obasanjo administration, for instance, initiated the Keke NAPEP in its poverty eradication bid. These are welcome developments, but misdirected, to say the least. The root of every empowerment, and empowerment means ‘giving power’, is knowledge. The thinking of the English philosopher and statesman, Francis Bacon, has remained true: knowledge is power. And so, the empowerment of the Nigerian citizenry must begin from education. It is a national embarrassment to designate any single Nigerian graduate as unemployable. How did he graduate in the first place? By the authority of the senate of that university, and by the Act of the National Assembly establishing that university, that fellow was certified worthy in character and learning. How then should the President or a high ranking public office holder dare say he is unemployable? That he is unemployable could be a fact; that something is very wrong with the system that produced him is a fact.

3. We must beef up security. This is exactly the very first job of every government; to secure the lives and properties of her citizenry. Beyond this, the function of government is little. The most awful feeling comes from leaving the house in the morning with coming back later in the day left to chance; not because God will call one home but because the borders are so dysfunctional that someone could come in from Yemen to detonate a bomb in Abuja. How on earth! With all due respect, the impact of the Nigeria Police remains below expectation. No matter what the boss brags about from his Abuja posh office, I see his men pick N50 from bus drivers on my way home every single night.

4. We must diversify. And diversify. And diversify. The economy keeps crying for help. It used to be agriculture, and then when oil showed up, we parted ways with agriculture. What if we explored the huge economic potentials of both fronts? And we have the human resources to make that happen. What if we made our educational sector good enough to attract foreigners? You might want to call that ‘exportation of education’. You might as well want to inquire from the UK, the US, Canada and Australia how much they rake into the national coffers for educating foreigners. We might also want to consider ‘exportation of expatriate’, to at least other African countries and rake in foreign exchange in the process. As a nation, amassing as much wealth as possible is not an option, as it appears to be the only way of securing the ‘good life’ for the Nigerian citizenry.

5. We must task our intellectuals to produce. The powerhouse of every civilization is its academia; the various world cultural and scientific revolutions kick-started from the ivory towers. America did not take over from Great Britain just like that. That take over was powered by intellectual capacity. At least, more than five of the topmost ten universities on the planet are in America.  We must end the culture of incessant strikes and entitlement claims and get into the era of churning out relevant and transforming researches that will drive national progress.

6. We must get our regulatory agencies on their feet. The roles of regulatory agencies like NAFDAC, EFCC/ICPC, NUC, SON, etc. are critical to national progress. At a time when universities are springing up from all corners of the country and in all shapes and sizes, one begins to wonder what the NUC is up to. Given loose hands, we know that capitalists, and even simple human nature, have a way of taking advantage of the situation. When products and processes conform to minimum standards, progress is in sight. Of course, we already know what mess the ‘former NNPC’ made of the oil sector.

7. Government at all levels must deliver. Before JFK tasked Americans to utmost patriotism, America had already fulfilled a large part of its end of the social contract bargain. When Nigeria asks her citizens to be patriotic, to what would Nigerians owe that huge favor? Most Nigerians will say that Nigeria doesn’t deserve their patriotism, and they may have a point there. The federal, state and local governments must be performance-driven, so as to occupy the moral ground on which patriotism can be requested.

Our nationbuilding is a peculiar project, and for the singular reason that Nigeria is the only place on the planet we can proudly call home, all hands must be on deck to get that project done. And what is worth doing, they say, is worth doing well.

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart lends us a fitting way out of the blame-game. By ‘blame-game’ is meant the tendency to shift responsibility from ourselves to others. The dialogue between Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, and the priestess of Agbala, Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, is as revealing as it is instructive. To say the least, Unoka was as poor as the proverbial church rat. However, he didn’t think he deserved poverty, given the following claims he boldly makes, indicting the gods, as it were:

Every year, before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed…

I feel for him. From his end of the story, the gods were not only unjust to him but wicked. Else, why would they deny such a ‘hard working’ Unoka the just fruits of his labour and the reward for his sacrifices? Most of us can already identify with him in our fervent prayers, fasting, prayer meetings, evangelism, ‘sowing of seed’, bible study, moral instructions, hospital visitation, and one spiritual or corporal work of mercy or another. Why are we suffering, why are we feeding from hand to mouth, why are our children not in the best of schools, why can’t we afford a bicycle, motorcycle, or car, why, why, why? Most of us can already identify with Unoka’s predicament.

However, given that he was, more or less, laying accusations on the gods, reaching a conclusion without listening to the gods’ own side of the story will be unjust. And this was their side of the story

Hold your peace! You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm. You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. When your neighbours go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear. They cross seven rivers to make their farms, you stay at home and offer sacrifices to a reluctant soil. Go home and work like a man.

Wow! Wow! Wow! Now we see a great reason why we shouldn’t pass judgment without listening to the other side of the story. Who is at fault now? The gods or Unoka? God or you? You forget that you became a child of God at the waters of Baptism. You forget that it is whatever you sow that you will reap (cf. Gal 6:7). You forget that the rule is pray and work (with all the spiritual activities grouped under prayer), and not just pray and pray and pray. You forget that you will perish for lack of knowledge (cf. Hosea 4:6). When unbelievers, for instance, open their shops at 7am and close at 10pm, you open at 12 noon because you were ‘watching and praying’ at home, and then you close at 5pm because you want to go adore the Lord from 5.30pm to 8pm – and you do this like two or three times a week. You go to your shop in tattered clothes, unkempt hair, unwashed mouth, gloomy looks, and yet wonder why all the customers are trooping to the other shop belonging to a popular troublemaker who barely goes to church. This equally applies to civil servants, students, lawyers, doctors, contractors, menial workers, farmers – like Unoka, etc.

Go home, and work like a man.

Here’s a piece of advice given to one late Chief (Dr.) Matthias Offoboche (Obstetrician, Gynecologist, Administrator, Politician) by his father on the eve of his travel to Dublin, the Irish capital, for further studies. I found this in Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Nicholas Obi’s Our Legacy. To say the least, this piece of advice is eternal:

Son, God will protect and guide you. Be yourself and be fair and honest with all you meet. Remember that the spoken word is not like a spear: once spoken it cannot be withdrawn. The written word is worse. So be careful what you say to people or write about them.

Above all, know that a father can give everything he has to his son; but there is only one thing he cannot give him, that is, his women! You must not take another’s woman! That way lies trouble. If your father cannot give you his woman, how much less other people. Neither take nor accept other people’s wives or even girlfriends. If a woman turns down your advances do not blame her or the successful guy; she is obviously not meant for you. There are many fruits on a tree, pluck the one you can; if you insist on plucking a particular fruit you may need to climb the tree and fall and break your neck.

You are going to white-man’s country for a purpose. You must achieve your goal and whatever else you do must contribute to the achievement of that goal. Regard all people who divert your attention from that goal as your devils and all who help you as your true friends. Be grateful to those friends but know that you alone can achieve your goal.
Share your successes, but blame yourself for your failures.

How to live your life — Chief Tecumseh

I came across this in a movie I’d seen a long time ago, Act of Valor. Before he traded his life for the survival of his men, the commander insisted that this piece be etched on the mind of his ‘baby-son’ when he grows up, a piece he himself recited many times every day:

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Our Deepest Fear — Marianne Williamson

Wherever you find this quote, especially on the internet, the first thing you get to be told is that people credit it to the South African demigod, Nelson Mandela. It was, however, the brainchild of Marianne Williamson. Our deepest fear is usually ourselves, but she tells us that were meant to shine out, as bright as a diamond. Check it out!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

It’s been wow over here at the University of Nigeria; the length and breadth of the University community is agog with the pomp that goes with every years week-long convocation. As it were, aside the fun derivable from convocation activities such as night of music, night of awards, convocation lecture, drama night, and VC’s cocktail, graduands and their family and friends are usually in high spirits. Of course, the rationale for this high spirits leans against the backdrop that a ‘successful graduation’ is a great achievement in this part of the world where ‘schooling’ is more important than ‘education’.

This piece is informed by my active participation in the ongoing UNN’s 45th convocation ceremony; I’d graduated on its 43rd in 2014. From Wednesday until now, I’ve been seeing many graduands, reported to be numbering 13,554, move around campus with heads held high to showcase the no-small-measure of achievement graduating is, and more so from UNN. What usually strikes me at the sight of this boisterous showcase is: what if they knew?

Truth be told, in more ways than I can say, I love UNN – beyond words. This love is not so much about the Pride of the Den, which every alumnus of my alma mater proudly identifies with, as it is about my personal and peculiar experiences there: the people I met, the things I did, and, especially, the realizations that dawned on me. I’d met too many people of both fraternal and strategic relevance, and I’d done quite a number of things that orchestrated my self-discovery and got me prepared for ‘the future that lies before me’. As per the realizations, I like every Nigerian graduate to pay attention to the following facts:

1. You may now begin… Graduation is important, but not so special. The first mistake is to think that there’s anything so special about graduating from an institution of higher learning. To say the least, graduation is akin to acquiring a travel visa. Having done so, now begin the journey. Let the euphoria of convocation not even cross your mind the morning after. Simply just begin the rest of your life!

2. You’re already disadvantaged… By schooling in, and graduating from, a third world higher institution, one is already assumed to be lacking in thorough and meaningful schooling. The reasons for this assumption are legion: senseless strike actions by the various and varied unions, poor commitment on the part of the administration and lecturers, poor infrastructure, inadequate research and other facilities, etc. And so, one cannot really be said to be capable of global competitiveness. Of course, only with the exception of students who were passionately and personally committed to excellence; those who went the ‘extra mile’. Little wonder they say we’ve more of half-baked and unemployable graduates.

3. Schooling is not education… Formal schools were not there from Adam. Schools only came in as one of the ways to realize education; an arrangement for the impartment of education. It is not education itself. And there are a number of criteria to be met for a school to be true to that name. Anyway, just bear in mind that education is a lifelong journey, while school is a brief trip. And never confuse the fact of having been ‘schooled’ for being ‘educated’. Yes, school gives us only the necessary grounding with which to embark upon the lifelong voyage of education.

4. The system has always been a conspiracy of the rich… Rich Dad Poor Dad’s Robert Kiyosaki always contends that the entire educational system is a conspiracy of the rich. His main argument revolves around the fact that the one single thing that can make or mar any human being is never taught in school: financial literacy. Of course, common sense reveals that everything we do on the planet run the gamut from making, spending, saving, investing, to even wasting money. The omission of financial literacy from the curriculum is not accidental; the system goals to produce docile cows ready for milking. So, your financial literacy, the ability to read the numbers, is your responsibility.

5. Times have changed… Now, more than ever, a certificate from an institution of higher learning isn’t a conditio sine qua non for success. No. The No. 1 requirement for success now is alignment to change. Everything has changed and continues to change. The one who adapts to change, schooled or not, is the one!

6. Ideas reign supreme… It’s all about ideas. Start thinking.

7. The government can’t offer much… Even the government itself is in trouble, how much help do you expect from it? The economic realities of the moment are forcing the government to ignore some of her pristine duties. They make promises they can’t fulfill; they lie. And you will be doing yourself a favour by ignoring the government and taking your destiny in your own hands.

8. There is hope… In the very dear words of Martin Luther King Jr., “I say to you today my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment…” The situation is as pitiable as the challenges are dire. However, we, Nigerians, are experts at braving the odds and hewing a stone of hope from the mountain of despair. Get to work!