IMHOTEP: Counting our blessings
Our
parliamentarians held a rather curious debate recently on the motion of
whether or not we are a ‘failed state’. The mere fact that this debate
was taking place at all was in itself an issue for concern. We as a
people have this penchant for sado-masochistic self-loathing; believing
everything about us to be a catalogue of unrequited evil. We take our
blessings for granted – good health, fulfilling careers, our families,
our friends and all the other good things with which we have been
blessed. Instead, we prefer to focus on our failings — on all the
things that are wrong with us as a people.
There is evidence
from Werner Heisenberg’s ‘indeterminacy principle’ in quantum physics
that sub-atomic particles do tend to adapt their characteristics to the
manner in which they are actually being observed. If this is true of
nature, how truer it must be for people and nations. If we choose to
focus on our collective foibles, then we are playing the game of
losers. You cannot use the word ‘stupid’ on your child for every small
mistake and not expect that child to grow up stupid. Was it not the
ancients who taught us that our universe was brought into being through
the mystery of the spoken word?
As we approach our Golden Jubilee, perhaps for once, it might do us some good to count our blessings.
Consider where the
Almighty has chosen to place us. Nigeria is the most strategically
located country in Africa. If we were the sun, our rays would irradiate
the length and breadth of the continent from our location on this most
strategic corner of Africa. We are the ‘heart of Africa’ not only in
metaphor but also in the literal mathematical-geometrical sense; the
bridgehead for reaching out to the rest of the continent in trade,
business and communications.
Unlike countries
such as Haiti, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Japan and the
United States, we have been spared from natural catastrophes such as
earthquakes, tornadoes and Tsunamis. What we have experienced as
natural disasters has been comparatively tame by world standards. Of
course, we have to worry about ecological problems such as
desertification in the North, environmental pollution in the Niger
Delta and gully erosion in the East. But these are largely man-made
disasters which we ourselves can reverse if we set our minds so to do.
Apart from the
1950s when we suffered a famine deliberately imposed by British
colonial policy which forced people to produce cash crops to feed the
factories of Europe following World War II, Nigeria has never undergone
the kind of dreadful experiences that Somalia and Ethiopia have
undergone. We do of course have incidences of malnutrition and we still
import some of our food. But much of this is down to the intellectual
laziness of our leaders more than anything else. If properly harnessed,
our soil could easily become the granary of our continent.
We are also a
gifted people; known the world over for our brilliance and ingenuity.
The world’s greatest living mathematician is one of our compatriots.
Nigerian scientists and professionals are flourishing all over the
world. Some of the luminous lights of our renascent Africa are to be
found on our shores, ours being a land of star-scattering thinkers,
artists and griots. We do our things with such style and panache that
shocks our friends and confounds our enemies alike. We have been spared
the heartbreaking inferiority complex that Global Apartheid has so
successfully inflicted on the psyche of the African people. We have a
supreme confidence that many of our detractors mistake for arrogance.
While our record in
economic development is rather mediocre and our people still wallow in
millennial misery, we can nonetheless point to a few notable strides.
In 1960, we had only one university. Today, we have sixty. We can
debate the standards, but we cannot deny that there has been an
explosion in school enrolment and in higher education. During the Gowon
years, we built more roads than the British did in their century-long
occupation of our country. Abuja is also a success; a capital city of
which we must all be proud. In spite of the challenges, we can claim to
have launched a satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1, into space. Nollywood has
become the toast of the global film industry, second in output only to
India, and well ahead of Hollywood.
And this house has
not fallen, in spite of civil war, in spite of the recurrent cycle of
ritual bloodbaths in the name of religion and ethnicity. Through all
the upheavals, our people have shown an extraordinary resilience.
Brutalised by the savagery of our leaders, they have kept hope alive.
We have even won the dubious prize for being the happiest people on
earth. Yes, we have often tempted the fates – teetered on the Niagara
Falls of history – but we have also managed to retreat from the cosmic
abysses of catastrophe.
I have travelled the length and breadth of our beautiful continent.
And I say it again, without any fear of contradiction, that we are the
greatest and most generous people in Africa. We welcome strangers with
a warmth that is unknown elsewhere. A peculiar people, ours is a
heritage of infinite possibilities. If only our leaders understood the
full meaning of our destiny, Nigeria would astonish the world.
