I’VE continuously argued that there doesn’t seem to be any real ideology guiding popular or public thinking in Nigeria today. By ideology I mean a belief system based on something more than money or the unscrutinised lines of super pastors.
There seems to be no desire for rational thought, period. We also, as a people, seem unable to decipher what is truly good for us as opposed to what offers only immediate yet fleeting benefits.
The so-called restructuring or constitutional reform discussion is merely about sharing public funds among politicians: where is the impact on the life of the average Nigerian? Intelligent discourse on public affairs is practically dead in Nigeria, all because we’ve forgotten, in our short-sightedness, the notion of enlightened self-interest. Indeed, very few of us, in this country, are in the business of telling each other the truth, all because we no longer believe it benefits anyone. Interest of the majority “Enlightened self-interest” is an idea within the study of ethics which says that people whose behaviour furthers or prospers the interests of others also serve their own interest in the end.
It is the belief that doing the right thing in the interest of the majority serves one’s individual interests as well. Very few people within the business or political elite in Nigeria would probably agree, in a country where injustice is so unfortunately profitable. What we practise here in Nigeria is “unenlightened self-interest” or basic, self-destructive greed which beyond destroying our society, eventually consumes individuals in the end.
Indeed, what is currently branded a witch-hunt, could also be labelled the consequence of unenlightened self-interest, or simply put, the fact that for every action there is a reaction and that whatever we do will ultimately catch up to us. Greed, the selfishness behind corruption and grand larceny, is fundamentally myopic. Nigerians when in power do not see (or care to see) that their actions cause conflicts in the larger society and that the loss of efficiency and productivity which they encourage by sabotaging our economy and society, by stealing the funds meant to revitalise and sustain them both, ultimately kills their own businesses and investments, therefore defeating their reason for stealing in the first place.
After all, if a man owns 20 houses which he can no longer rent (as is now the case in many high-brow areas of Nigeria) because too few people can afford the rent (and even more are afraid of having to explain where they got the money from), what was the point of stealing in the first place? Corruption has destroyed the fabric of our society, made us unwilling to cooperate for the good of all: we’ve used the notion of “tribe” to segregate and contest for resources in an unending duel which benefits no one and makes it virtually impossible for well-meaning people to make it to the top of any field, therefore ensuring that corrupt acts and the worst possible practices remain unchallenged whilst being simultaneously (and curiously) defended by those outside of the circle, who gain nothing, but argue till the death in favour of whatever politician from their area, no matter how un-impactful or corrupt.
How ironic that Nigeria’s stolen resources obtained by a mixture of uninventive, unexposed, near illiterate persons, never seem to uplift or impact any one political family beyond a generation. Once the patriarch or initial “looter” is gone, his children struggle, both financially and socially, without their father’s money to buy them relevance. And all that money is gone, spent on girlfriends and private jets—another wasted opportunity to do something great and meaningful in Nigeria. The words “opportunity”, “freedom” or “independence” which feature heavily in the American Constitution and in the laws of most developed countries around the globe have no bearing on life in Nigeria, they are not part of our identity. Neither is fairness.
From the rich to the poor, we’ve endorsed injustice; simply put, we refuse to collectively see or understand just how much corruption has destroyed, how much it has denied us the freedom, opportunities and independence which other citizens in other nations take for granted. Not only that, we refuse to fight for the modern society we deserve. We’re barely asking for it, not many of us even understand it. Mediocrity is what we’ve known; so tragically, it is what we think we deserve. Do Nigerians rise above their parents’ socio-economic status? How is our middle class faring? Is it possible in Nigeria to dream and pursue goals without family connections? The questions which matter in other societies, which define their well-being are non-starters in Nigeria, replaced by nonsensical political arrangements which benefit only the elite.
How is Nigeria preparing for the future? In a world where entrepreneurship, self-employment, is fast becoming the dominant mode of business, where the labour market is revolutionised by technology, where oil is being shunned for renewable energy, do we realise just how dangerously obsolete and archaic both our ideas and models are? In this new world, reliance on family support and politicking won’t be enough to survive. Our elites fear displacement and the loss of relevance too much to allow Nigeria become a country where the best and the brightest can rise to the top, one where meritocracy truly works. What is most disheartening, however, is that the ordinary Nigerian is too often sucked into the defence of such a system which is totally against his or her own interest.
The average Nigerian admires the elite to the extreme, giving undue attention and praise to many whom, quite frankly, in other climes, would be facing fraud charges and jail terms for either defrauding the state or colluding to cheat consumers.
Congratulatory messages The media is perhaps most at fault. The birthdays, marriages, deaths of the rich and powerful come and go, so do the many congratulatory messages and fawning articles or interviews, without much thought as to how these individuals became rich and powerful in the first place. It is all too common to lie about how one attained success because one is so confident that no one would dare contradict the story which has now become the mainstream or accepted untruth. With a robust, independent media, one unafraid of telling the truth, Nigeria would be a different place.
People would have facts to debate rather than paid for, sentimental advertorials. We are a nation that doesn’t allow its people to fulfil their potential, one where few are ashamed of this, because most benefit in one way or another, from holding the majority back.
We are, in essence, a nation of unenlightened, competing, thoroughly selfish, interests Probe lawmakers constituency projects Nigerians across the country, according to recent reports, find that despite the N300bn Federal Government released for constituency projects in the past four years, communities remain unchanged and underdeveloped. The legislature, first and foremost, it has to be said, has no business undertaking functions of the executive.
Digging boreholes and distributing meaningless trinkets like sewing-machines isn’t lawmakers’ prerogative. Furthermore, if we realised just how much individual lawmakers received for their constituency projects, people would probably burn the sewing machines or motorcycles in anger! Nigerians are waking up to the injustices done to them over the years and should be warned that those who’ve enjoyed our collective slumber won’t give up their advantages without a fight. Nigeria, besides being a fantastically corrupt country, is also phenomenally rich.
If all the money leaving our coffers was spent for its original purpose, i.e. development, what a country this would be. Mud houses Federal Government is preparing to phase out mud houses across the country. This is laudable yet at the same time saddening in 2016, for a country such as Nigeria. Nigerians have no business living in mud houses, given the huge amounts successive governments had at their disposal. By now, we should be exporting the materials which other nations use to build their homes. Only guilt or complicity could determine anyone calling fighting corruption a witch-hunt.
Vanguard
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