The Memento of a Stagnant Society

 

 

T

he sky was cloudy. The thunder lightning flashed. There was a loud rumble again and again. The normal heavy tropical rain poured down. The sky was once again clear as the sun shone. The rainbow appeared. There was also the new moon. The people came out and paid the traditional respect. They jubilate. It was the beginning of the planting season, a ray of hope.

 

We wonder what to do in order to make our society stable. We drift from one form of administration to another yet we do not seem to find, perhaps, an optimum solution to our persistent political, social and economic problems amidst of abundance.

 

There is no foreign country that will actually guide our society, for us, to the destination that suits us. It is those we do not supposed to listen to, that will not force us to listen to them and will not force us to open our door to them, if we do, would always manipulate our society for their economic ends. If anything goes wrong, they will stand by and watch with smiles as we beat our heads in confusion. Any foreign relationship, however, is nothing but only one-sided game of economic interest. If this does not exist, there is no actual relationship.

 

We should be grateful to God that we have a society of intelligent, clever, hardworking and ambitious people. That our land is endowed with all forms of natural resources. That our land is fertile and suitable for any cultivation. The fact is, we do not seem to know what we are doing or where we are going as a Government while other countries race ahead politically, socially and economically, in earnest.

 

The struggle for leadership and materialism have destroyed stability in our society thereby negating our ability to concentrate on issues that matter for self-reliance, sustenance, survival of our people and country. Today, our society tends to worship money and take delight in short-term gains.  As money has always been there and earned, it will always be there to be earned. Why should we then have to be unnecessarily materialistic and in haste ahead of our times to acquire material things as if they are exhaustible mines?  Should we allow these to cloud what should be the actual value of our society?

 

In this respect, we need to redefine the terms of value reference in our society for the more essentials such as discipline, morality, principle, respect and priority for education and health care matters together with those who deliver the services. These, in our opinion, are the real values and pillars of any society. It is not the pot of gold some individuals tend to brandish which today creates an inferiority complex especially in those learned elite that actually count in society, who do not have the same pot of gold but have the more valuable qualitative assets to give to society. We must remember that, sometimes, short-term satisfaction often becomes a long-term problem. A society who aims for material acquisition without moral consideration and principle does not often have a suitable destiny nor does such a quest for short-term satisfaction offer any hope for advancement.   

 

For many years now, Nigeria and other African countries have turned out highly educated people in all fields of study.  Today we have specialists in every field, but how many of this group together to perfect our own design or clamour for the development when they could not do it within their own resources? At tertiary education level, we often work very hard to reach the highest attainable level but thereafter we often neglect further research work and instead follow the non-essentials. The acquisition of higher education qualifications is often the beginning of research work and forward thinking, not the end of it.

 

What have we achieved in relative terms on our own since? What contribution have we made to the world, on our own, in terms of research and inventions? What have we resurrected or restored since independence from our forefathers’ inventions and methods, which were in the forefront of world progress but were destroyed by colonialism? Today we simply consume and thread others’ originality rigidly. Where will this lead us? How long will Nigeria and other African countries continue to be a consuming fire, waiting for aid of any type directly or indirectly? As we have the education, people, materials, very good traditional methods and natural ways of life, are we going to use these for our own advancement in our own way? Looking at our society today in relation to the quality of people, educated people and other resources we have, are we stagnant or have we gone backwards considerably?

 

Although we sometimes plan very well, in some respect, we do not organise well, execute honestly and efficiently.  Our administrative blunders must not be mistaken for bureaucratic problems. Some of the problems in our governance are misplaced priorities, ambiguous and wrong procedural design, duplication of functions in most departments which are exacerbated by weak leadership, incompetent management, inadequate supervision, corruption and insubordination by certain people from certain section of the country. In these respects, workers do not have the driving force to impel them to carry out honestly and efficiently what they are paid to do. There is nothing as bureaucracy in a country with effective, impartial, principled, courageous and strong leadership, competent management, adequate system of control and effective use of the control mechanism.

 

Today our society may be said to be suffering from the disadvantages of unnecessary individual ambition. One of such disadvantages is greed. Our greediness may only be tamed through brave, strong, effective, principled, impartial leadership and an adequate system of control. To control our society, we do not need to copy any foreign system verbatim. However, we may apply the principles involved in foreign systems if we lack originality. Within and with our tradition, are we short of originality?

 

Our systems should be flexible, adaptable and such as to recognise and respect our traditions and culture. Whatever systems we adopt in this way to achieve harmony will always be misinterpreted by some foreign countries. To these, our measures are always wrong if they are not exploitable by them. But when they continue to praise our measures, we must then watch out. This means we may be going in an exploitable direction, which will put us at a disadvantage. An example is the majority of International Monetary Fund economic structural adjustments.  How many African countries that embraced the International Monetary Fund prescriptions do not now find that their citizens have sunk deeper into poverty and economic misery?

 

We must remember that we are totally a separate society, which is totally different from any other foreign country whose methods we may try to follow rigidly. What is feasible in other countries may not be fully workable in our society due to factors such as geography, cultural and traditional differences. We are already Africans. We cannot be westernised nor easternised.

 

Our country has all along been abased as a third world or developing country in their obscure meaning of an area of political, social, economic instability, an absolute and relative poverty, which can be manipulated and exploited. Should we allow this to continue to happen to us even in connivance by our own conduct?

 

But, there is no such thing as a first, second or third, developed or developing country. There is no country that has ever stopped developing or growing. Development is a matter of what you can afford to do at a particular point in time, where you are and your desire. There is no ceiling in development. It is, therefore, an infinite race by every country. Those countries who arrogate to themselves the position of first world may call themselves advanced countries as they may be ahead of other countries in the infinite development race which is often measured in terms of relative stability, resources, efficient management and technology. What matters most in every country is stability in every respect.  It is not the amount of resources that are at the disposal of the country. 

 

Our key factor, the scarce factor, which we rely upon for survival is dictated to us from outside yet we do not ask why, we simply surrender. Are we to continue to allow our society to be used to foster the political and economic ends of foreign countries at our own expense? On the other hand, are we to look for scapegoats from outside in a society where bribery and corruption are endemic, the person who seeks is sometimes not straightforward, the person who gives is sometimes not straightforward and both are prepared to, unlawfully, short circuit the system. How can things work effectively in such a society? 

 

To work towards stability in our society, all of us, not only the elected leadership, have got a part to play irrespective of who we are, what we do and where we are. First we must examine ourselves as to how our individual, group or sectional attitudes and activities have contributed to the problems we have experienced, the current problems that have not only make our country stagnant but also are drawing her backwards.

 

Military dictatorship has occurred many times through commission and omission in our county, Nigeria, and many other African countries. Its advent, however, created much awareness and punctuated the holes for the much needed reformation. As a result, the people welcome the regime as a temporary reformatory Government directed towards our self-discipline, good governance, right leadership, efficient management, effective control and unity. As each military dictatorship has not been able to address our actual problems but put us into much deeper problems, was its welcome, today, a mistake in ignorance, in trust or in desire?

 

As things are now we must tackle our problems and the factors that allowed them to breed once and for all, at their roots. We must not wait nor deal with them only in their manifestations. In addition to those measures that are successfully in operation, our strategy should look at the issues that allow the present malaises to breed, the issues that divide us and those issues that will unite us as a solid nation in a solid Africa.

 

Among the factors that militate against us today are our technical ignorance, unwillingness to assume responsibility and work in accordance with our individual positions, under-utilisation of our ability, slack control and misuse of available resources etc. These, however, are by no means unique to our society. But to what extent do they manifest themselves elsewhere? In order to eradicate these endemic factors, we need to restructure and redesign some of our existing systems.

 

We must agree that nothing has changed, as such, as to our traditions and culture in education, enterprise, language, legal systems, etc. since independence from colonial occupation of our country. However, a well-defined measure in one or more sectors would make other sectors to be self-regulating. Therefore, the much promulgated control and accountability reinforced by effective leadership at Federal, Regional and Local Governments level may allow us the stable society we dream of but only in a continued democracy.

 

As we have educated people in all fields of study, our inability is more of technical rather than mechanical that is what versus how. This means we will know how to do it if we know what to do. This relates to who leads or who directs in every respect. The types of people we commission to lead us in today complex society are very important. So far the innumerable opportunities in our country, which could give everyone something to do, are never exploited because of lack of creativity among our leaders. The necessary issues which should be addressed, by those who rule us at all levels of Government, to ensure harmony in society are never attended. A country does not have to be exposed to unlimited amounts of foreign exchange, finance, foreign assistance, etc. before the necessary issues are addressed, opportunities are created for the people and for the benefit of society. The means to do what we need to do are at home with us.

 

Let us ask ourselves, at whose expense are our persistent political instability and other related insurgencies which some of our people are brainwashed to carry out against our country? Do these people who agree with the so-called outsiders to destabilise our country by different methods ever think? To what extent would these outsiders agree to work against their own countries for whatever reasons or rewards?

 

Our military must be more advisory, tolerant, respect the laws of the land and allow a democratically elected Government a gradual self-adjustment in periods of political error of judgement and economic problems. If we are to meet the challenges in our country and the African continent today, every African country must have a steady democratically elected civilian Government. The sporadic military regimes so far have only greeted us with the problems of going and coming back to square one.

 

Nothing else will rescue our country from the present political, social and economic predicament other than uninterrupted democracy. The more democracy continues uninterrupted the more it helps society to stabilise in every respect.

 

The prescriptions in the book, Towards A Harmonious Society, which this edited article is the opener, “elucidate how far the country is behind the advanced countries in spite of many years of education, relevant education and abundant resources. Our destiny, however, is in our hands. As these were the thoughts in the first edition in 1989, they are still the thoughts in the revised new edition of 2001 since nothing has changed since then for the better in the country other than a democratic system of government that began on 29 May 1999.” The future of the nascent democracy is again uncertain as a result of massive bribery and corruption mainly practised by the head of state and the other elected politicians.

 

This article was adapted from his book Towards A Harmonious Society.