Nigeria: New Golden Age?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to return Nigeria to its Golden Age of former times. We would all love that, except it reminds us of Buhari’s promise to revalue the Naira till it becomes at par with the US Dollar. It happened and we enjoyed it.
However, In Nigeria times have changed. The needs, the expectations and the conditions of the people are different from in the past. You retrofit the present onto the past, not the past onto the future. Best of luck.
Samuel P Huntingdon was right when he stated socioeconomic change far outpaces political change. The Nigerian Constitution, more correct versions and precise reforms cannot catch up with what the people of Nigeria need to live and to survive today.
Societies nearing total collapse always crave their Golden Ages of former times, if there was such an age at all. It is always so easy to mark one’s own exam paper in hindsight triple A.
Prospering nations with strong institutions of equity, governance and identity do not pine for the past. They look to create brighter, better and bigger futures for themselves.
Nationalism, be it false, twisted or genuine in such a state of collapse is always very thin but ultra intense. It only fuels unsound passions, slogans or denials of an angry and frustrated people. It does not do anything substantial, constructive or worthwhile besides the sweet talk for those who crave nationalism.
Nigeria’s time to restructure, reform and reset its institutions of governance has passed long ago. It is not coming back. Face your Forward!
The problems all began with fights over cocoa, oil and religion. What stands out in my mind is the pre-Independence argument. When our Independence heroes told the British to keep its nose out of Nigeria’s style of Independence. The move was to fulfill ulterior motives not in the interest of a better Nigeria. J S Coleman said it was the saddest day in Nigeria’s Independence struggle. He was prescient. Cocoa is no longer booming, neither is oil nor other cash crops and solid minerals. We have a growing class of very rich people, less than 1 percent of the population. What else? The biting poverty of 200 million people.
Religion has done what it has to Nigeria not for Nigerians in recent times. Ironically, Nigerians ever pray for noble governance only to vote and support Big Thieves into office with sane eyes. Pray very well.
Foundations you must sort out in the beginning before Independence not after seven decades failure. If the foundations are weak how strong the structures? Not to talk of the abuses of office by those in power beginning before Independence till at least later this year.
Every ethnic group in Nigeria has its Independence and later Heroes who could have made Nigeria great. Where is that Great Nigeria today? Those greedy, thin and thieving leaders were heroes to a largely illiterate, naïve, deprived and colonised people.
People who thought Israel was in heaven, who had never seen electricity, who were farmers living off the land, who used the cob of corn, dried leaves, grass to wipe their anuses. Modernism, education, oil money, a larger diaspora, media and social media changed the people’s needs and wants irreversibly. But politicians stick to the same old playbook – ethnicity, religion, theft.
To be a political hero today you must meet the people’s needs, better them and wow them. You must allow people to live their bliss as best as they can. Well, if I am not quoting the author Joseph Campbell who wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces out of context.
Heroes sacrifice for humanity in big, medium and small ways. They bear the cost and others enjoy the benefits. Nigerian heroes, in the political sense, are big thieves who sacrifice the people they represent for personal and obscene enjoyment. Billionaires in one of the poorest countries in the world. Well, Robin Hood was a hero, a thief, did he enrich himself?
Heroes create Golden Ages, not the thieves, the divisive and the clueless. Heroes do things, not speak, boast or lie about what they will do. Golden Ages are their own ulterior motive not personal ulterior motives. A Golden age is impossible or near impossible to achieve unless great, enlightened and energetic leaders are at the helm. A series of such leaders are thus necessary. Nigeria has everything it needs to achieve a long stable Golden Age but for its ever-worsening leadership.
Finally, when a part of a body is rotten the only logical thing to do is to cut it off. The whole body of Nigeria is rotten. Bianimikaley! The parts of Nigeria that can save themselves should start doing so now. Things are going to get worse not better.
In conclusion, “One Nigeria” is a wet dream brought on by ‘runs’ incubus. Nigeria’s new Golden Age is a premature ejaculate.
Grimot Nane
