This is a continuation of the discourse that began last week. In part one we were emphatic that positive transformation in any society is not achieved by luck or chance. It is a walk of hard work, driven by a deliberate, diligent and committed pursuit of the declared vision and mission until the goal is achieved. People use the “third eye” to see into the future and turn back to create pathways for walking, running or flying into the dreamland.
The focus was on establishing the entity and then creating the exact kind of people to inhabit the space. In our case we have neither established Nigeria beyond what the departing colonial masters handed over to us nor made painstaking steps to create the ideal Nigerian.
The evidence of our omission is with us every day. We talk more and place far greater emphasis on people’s local government area of origin than we do about our country. The first question a Nigerian will ask another is the tribe the person comes from instead of where such individual resides – which is the practice among people where true nationhood has been worked on and settled.
Today in the country a tax bill with three different components has become another source for threat to national cohesion and development because a section of the country, the North to be precise, insists the bill in its entirety constitutes a threat to the wellbeing of the section. After 64 years of supposed nationhood we still argue and see policies from tribal and religious prisms yet there is this expectation that we want to grow and develop very quickly to be like the Americans, English, Franch, Russians and Chinese. Divisive patterns are antithetical to progressive walk. This is an elementary lesson to teach.
A country that wants sustainable development must run on an ideology. Not just one that incorporates her peculiarities and unique experiences. The experiences would include vision. Now, on what ideology is our country run? Our peculiar experience suggests we inherited communalism. Our traditional foundation shows a society that doesn’t allow any member to be stranded in any way and at any given time. Did we incorporate this fine ideal into the pathways for developing our space? We began as a welfare state, meaning that the government owed citizens cardinal responsibilities to enable them to stay strong and to live well as well as to carry the task of leading the way to the realization of a very productive system that would make life very abundant and a song worth singing.
Like Afrobeat music icon, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang in one of his popular songs, we discovered midway that teachers began to teach us “nonsense”, saying that big government is no longer in vogue, and that government owes citizens no cardinal responsibility beyond “creating the right atmosphere” for individuals to develop each sector according to their preferences and ability. With this indoctrination we began to hear our leaders parrot the slogan, “government has no business being in business,” a euphemism for unfettered “private initiative” in a space where no firm foundation has been laid in any area of national life.
The funny thing in all of this is that those countries whose agents were let loose to confuse and misdirect us grew by governments taking the leadership role in the development trajectory of their countries, especially in their very nascent stages. The focus on agricultural development as a precursor to ushering in the industrial era was led by the government, established mechanized farms, set standards, provided subsidy payments in times of over-production of goods, created value chains and even found markets within and beyond national boundaries, at public expense.
Roads, railway and electricity development would not have become what they are in developed countries today if the government wasn’t the lead agent. What about the pursuit of science, technology and development? Without government perhaps the First World would still be groping in the dark alleys like the rest of us in the Third World are doing. Government spent public funds to raise the standards over there before paving the way for competition from the private sector. In developed settings, capitalism is not essentially only about individual initiative; it is also strongly about choice and competition.
Government run services vis-a-vis private companies allow effectiveness, efficiency, proficiency, cost and affordability to determine usage. The social services remain intact. Till tomorrow, governments in core capitalist countries still pay unemployment benefits, offer welfare packages like free allowances to children, bear free health services and social security nets of various kinds. The very aged receive monthly income. Yet, they teach our leaders that spending on social causes is wasteful and even evil.
One could ask: is Nigeria truly a capitalist country? If we are like we often claim, why put money into refining crude, agriculture, solid minerals etc? We put huge funds and look away, and in the end nothing is achieved. The following year we run another budget bearing same items. What a rigmarole.
Some of us have become very exhausted teaching our country lessons we ought to have taken 54 years ago. Journey from country to nationhood isn’t a tea party at all, it is a walk in deliberateness. It is hard work. The destination must be very clear; that is the picture of the kind of society we want.
The pathways must be very clear. High quality people who stick to and implement the vision, come rain or sunshine, must be identified. It should be a case where the goal remains essentially the same, no matter the man or party in the driving seat. England has recorded a change of leadership recently but the texture of British policy hasn’t changed substantially. America is replacing Joe Biden with Donald Trump; it won’t change in a substantial manner what Americans expect from the government at the centre. The states know how to align with the central government to give uniformity to national development.
It is working seamlessly because the vision is captured and put down in very clear terms.
Unfortunately, our people don’t know development drivers. Every leader dwells so much on the axis of social capital, leaving out core development factors. Roads, railway and electricity are great but in classical economics they remain enablers. Unfortunately, we have gotten stuck around these for over five decades yet making nothing from the efforts. Isn’t it baffling that we haven’t been able to link our communities with the rail system 64 years after independence? What rocket science does it take to achieve that? Shouldn’t we bury our heads in shame knowing that after six decades of nationhood we don’t have a road network we can be proud of. Are we scandalized to know we are unable to give ourselves electric power supply after we earned so much through oil money?
Something as crucial as providing security for protection of lives and property has remained an issue, a very controversial one at that when in fact examples abound how other countries with similar structure to ours did theirs and achieved great success. Who in his right senses doesn’t know a federal entity would require multi-layer structure of societal policing. Why has this become a big source of concern for us amidst devaluation of the human life in the country.?
Nothing is more frustrating than a work in futility. It leaves everybody wearied. We are on the wrong road and unfortunately still moving very fast. It is a settled fact that no matter how long one stays on a wrong road and or how fast he drives, the end result would be frustration, he will never get to the destination of his choice. Success can only come with a turn around. Return to the starting point and navigate correctly this next time. Our country badly needs a return to the starting point. This is the Plain Truth.