Wolves as gatekeepers

For those who perhaps didn’t get the import of last week’s outing, the point which the discourse tried to bring out is the fact that the character of the elite of the society determines the extent and the pace of development their societies can have. If the elite class lacks organization, they won’t have vision of what this translates to as stunted growth.

Nothing worthwhile would be happening, it won’t matter the level of resources available. The development is first about commitment, vision and little about resources available. Once there’s resolve, commitment which some of us pass for patriotism,organization and vision, it would produce a passion that would pull out resources.

It would surprise some of us to know that most of the developed countries do not have natural resources. They leveraged on the factors we just highlighted earlier and that was not because they didn’t run on the wrong road like we are doing. Their moments of change from ruderlessness and chaos came through because these were societies that chose to learn from experience and to take the lessons of history very seriously.

Such resolve produced men who committed themselves to run public affairs sacrificially and with an uncanny sense of positive value. It was mainly immigrants from Britain who constituted the founding fathers class for America. One thing they insisted would never be part of the new world was stunted development and denigration of the human person. This is how freedom and eventually free enterprise became cardinal state policies.

If today you are very rich in America you are rich to yourself not even to members of your family. The freedom concept is such that your children won’t care. The American public won’t care except it is found you cut corners in the process then hell would be let loose. People built this system. We saw President Donald Trump facing a rigorous trial. None is above scrutiny.

Objective conditions in China threw up Chairman Deng Xiaoping. He was an austere, disciplined man but carried great vision about what modern China after his generation should be. Today but for the already structured world economic relations, China is increasingly assuming the status of number one country. French and Russia experiences are no different. Negative development indices  provoked resentment from the people on a large scale, which in turn built up a culture of never again. In our case it is not the same. Terrible existential cultures throw themselves up and hurt the citizens and destroy the development trajectory. We cry and curse yet when we should be about insisting on change, we rather relapse and watch the modified old discredited system still being entrenched by another group of renegades schooled in the old order.

What inspired today’s talk are two developments. The first is what is rightly or wrongly increasingly being known in the country as “Gbajagate and the second interview granted a few days ago by Ali Modu Sheriff, former Governor of Borno State. Before we examine in a concise fashion how  the two issues affect national development, let us admit that the country is in a deep mess at the moment. We know this much.

 We take a quote from beloved Professor Patrice Lumumba of Kenya, which he said concerning Africa and which has a good example for us: “We are undeveloped country not because the sun rises from the West and sets in the East but because we have engaged the reverse gear and we are moving with jet like speed in the wrong direction.”

 In places where national development is sacrosanct, where sound development is a cardinal matter, where citizens want to establish sustainable democratic culture, none of those associated with the Gbajagate would last 24 hours in their official positions. They should be engulfed by fear. By self-volition they would throw in the towel with apologies to the people and country. From there they face that odious task of proving their innocence. The accused doesn’t hold on to power. You go first and fight from behind if you come clear you become a national hero fit for a giant call back some other time.

In our case we see refutals coming from the highest seat of power, the Presidency, when investigations are yet to commence. No ideas, corruption, squandering of riches are the factors that have turned an endowed country to a “Banana Republic.” Profligacy is the reason the majority can’t proudly say we belong here and this is our country.

It is the reason everyone across the globe is abusing us. When every citizen given the chance wants to run away from the country into self-slavery we don’t need to go far to see the reason.

Sheriff from our perspective doesn’t need additional recognition from what he has had. His role in nation building isn’t salutary. He belongs to the set that deployed religion and ethnicity and we can see how polarized the country has turned out to be. He says Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) can’t win Northern votes. This is ethnic and religious jingoism. It is a reckless statement, the President should call him to order.

He spoke of the civil war. And that Obi supports the break-up of Nigeria because he hasn’t scolded the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB). The President’s party has David Umahi, Orji Uzor Kalu and Hope Uzodimma, so where does the breakup come in? As we said last week, we need philosopher kings and players on the political scene. Poorly equipped leaders have done us incalculable damage.

“We cannot live in a country where yesteryear leaders assume they have undergone conversion.” It is important we create a new order. Let a well tutored generation step out to take over. Richest men should not be from politics, they should come from the economic sector. When the economy thrives, politics would be sanitized for the sane. From there positive parallels would emerge. It is ironic to ask wolves to guard the sheep or goats to keep the yam barn. It won’t work. Infractions would be the culture. This is the Plain Truth!