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“We
are a developed country with undeveloped people.” How provocative! My
instinct was to reject the statement, but on deeper thought I feel that
there is an element of truth in that statement. If that is the case,
what does it mean in practical terms?

All of a sudden,
many incomprehensible and frustrating things make sense. Nothing seems
to last! Our big national projects that are well started end up
half-done. Our well trained staff start off well but like batteries,
they quickly exhaust their energy and thinking cells, and grind to a
halt until the employer starts the process all over again.

Why are we labelled
a developing country? 30 years ago we had trains, planes, schools,
universities, farms, plantations, factories, roads, reliable power,
postal services, telecoms services (albeit limited), and formal cordial
relations with most countries in the world. We built industries around
our mineral resources and took pride in our contribution to worldwide
commodities trading. Growing up, the industries I heard most frequently
referred to were textiles, fisheries, cocoa, and rubber.

We had low
unemployment, high enrolment in apprenticeships, vocational training
schools and well-run polytechnics and universities. Our graduates,
academics, and citizens were valued and respected world-wide for their
energy, enterprise, and the contributions they could make. Enterprise
and occupations were passed from parent to child and we had generations
of farmers, blacksmiths, artists, traders, market women, transporters,
lawyers, taxi drivers, doctors etc..

Engagements with
government were straightforward and took minimal time. The civil
servants were friendly, helpful, informative and happy to be of service.

To all intents and
purposes, I would assess Nigeria then, even in the rural areas, as 60%
on the road to developed nation status. What went wrong?

I join a long list of more eminent people who have pondered and explored the causes. This is my own take on it.

Fola Arthur-Worrey,
in his book, the Diary of Mr Michael, writes about the observations,
thoughts and experiences of a visitor to Nigeria starting from his seat
on the plane as it approached Murtala Muhammed International Airport in
Lagos.

What does the
visitor see? And this is very important. The largest manifestation of a
nation’s culture is in the external sensory components of it – what you
can see, smell, hear, and touch. The landscape, the buildings and
structures, the dress and appearance of inhabitants, the available
facilities, the language, the facial expressions, posture and gestures
of people.

Form follows functions:

So what did Mr
Michael see as he moved around our country? The same things that we see
on a daily basis. On the surface, we see all things that have always
been there (except trains) plus new technological advancements such as
mobile phones and computers. It all seems logical. It all seems to be
working.

Yet, once you look
beyond the surface and delve a little deeper, you may find a vast
difference between what is on the surface, and the reality. That was
the role played by Mr Michael’s Nigerian driver.

He was the voice of
the people, deconstructing, demystifying and explaining the
inexplicable. What we have in place is Form without Substance, a
developed country with undeveloped people.

Just as architects
and designers generally follow the principle of ‘Form follows
Function’; in other words, that the design of the object/building must
enable and not detract from the ultimate purpose of the object: i.e. a
beautifully designed bottle opener is no use if it cannot remove the
caps and corks from bottles. Just so, educationists and citizens forget
that the various forms we have, of government, of transport, of
education and so on, are no use if they do not deliver the function for
which they were set up. There is no point having a democracy with three
‘independent’ arms of government, federal, state and local legislatures
if they do not deliver democracy.

Initiatives for progress, improvement and positive change should be
fundamentally about achieving better substance and function. We are
tired of changing and improving ‘forms’ – better job titles for work
that is still undesirable. That is where we seem to be stuck in our
development track. Repeatedly changing the form, without improving the
substance of our existence.