This Nigeria: From the Journal of a Visiting Native Son

 by Prof. Dominik Deitim Iyorlu

What is the hardest thing of all? That which seems the easiest For your eyes to see, That which lies before your eyes. -Goethe

Every race has a soul, and the soul of that race finds expression in its institutions, and to kill those institutions is to kill the soul.... No people can profit or be helped under institutions which are not the outcome of their own character. -Edward Blyden

Visiting Nigeria early this year, I was shocked by the fact of how remarkably different the real Nigeria of today differed from the Nigeria of my imagination. While I have been an ardent critic of Africa’s most populous and most important nation--both when I lived there as a youth and all these years I have lived abroad (like so many other sons and daughters of Africa) in self -imposed exile, nothing would prepare me for the surprising aspects of decay I ran into in Nigeria.

The fact that the general state of affairs had deteriorated--or had not improved--since my last visit there only a few years ago, made me wonder about the survival of the nation itself. Frankly, I feared that the country was actually dying--not just a slow death but a rapid one--considering the years in terms of history. Now, where does one go to find a new nation to replace a vanishing one in which he or she was born? To the United States of America? One must wait until one becomes an old person in America before answering this question truthfully.

The Nigeria I saw reminded me very much of Plato’s classic fable, “The Allegory of the Cave.” I felt like an escapee of the cave who, after living far away in some sun-lit land thereafter, had returned to the sunless cave again. And not without love for the familiar cave! I say this not out of any disrespect for my wonderful loving people of Nigeria, but rather out of deep disappointment at the subsequent failed Nigerian leaderships. Symbolically, good, enlightening leadership represents the sun, while the absence of such leadership means the absence of the sun.

Was my perception of Nigeria as an utterly chaotic place due to the fact that I had returned there after decades of “conditioned” sojourning in America? Maybe. Still, any perceptive person (the type that does not just look, but sees) visiting Nigeria these days will discover to his or her chagrin, that the real casualty in Nigeria’s mess is Reason--the grandchild of the human Mind--God’s best gift to Man and Woman. But why have Nigerians abandoned Reason when their ancient African ancestors delighted in the use of this, despite the disastrous personal and societal consequences of doing so? I will let the reader provide the answers. The following is a report from my journal account of the trip.

A couple of minutes before entering Kano state’s airspace, the KLM pilot’s customary announcement tells us (passengers) that the airport conditions in Kano are not as good as those of the Amsterdam airport (from which we had departed). There is a hush…and the Ivorian sister sitting next to me I’ve been talking with, and I stop our halting conversation, becoming curious about the elements viewed through the plane’s windows. Shortly thereafter, the mighty iron bird descends considerably from its maximum position to a few feet above sea level.

The mighty wonder of the sky is now floating so deliberately low over the area near the Kano International Airport (re-christened the Mallan Amimu Kano International Airport, as I find out afterwards) that the landscape becomes clearly visible. It is hamattan (Northeast Trade Winds, or hii) season and the dust-coated roofs, the withered brown vegetation, and the rough-looking cracked ground is a noticeable sign of its effects. Perhaps due to the lack of any human activity (such as construction or the movement of vehicles, etc.) around the complex, an eerie sense of desolation seems to be hovering over the area like the great shining magic now aiming for the runway in the northeast.

Finally, the white man’s wonder lands thunderously, slipping smoothly from the runway to the center of the tarmac.

As the passengers stream out of the belly of the huge iron bird, this passenger/reporter notices that the KLM pilot is right: The difference between this airport and that of Amsterdam we flew from is like that of the earth and the sky. As we trek toward the multidirectional building, this reporter notices that physically, nothing much has change; it is the same airport at which he had worked for seven years as an immigration officer some twenty years ago. It looks so familiar he feels he can still recognize it with his eyes partially closed! Later on, he will recognize the stagnant airport as well as the city’s unpaved dusty streets as symbols of the dying nation itself.

Still, in the spirit, it feels great to be home among one’s own people. Despite the difference....

As the immigration officers begin peering over our travel documents (we have formed into two files), the electric lights above suddenly go off. The clearance hall and all around it turn ink-dark. “Welcome to Nigeria,” someone--a passenger or one of those people waiting for passengers two or three yards away within the hall, announces sarcastically. Some of the passengers laugh.

Fortunately, the blackout lasts for only a minute or two. Clearance resumes, and we are finally cleared to depart the confines of the airport. Jacob, Dan, and Bob, my African brothers--two Tiv and one Igbo-- help pull my suitcases to a waiting Mercedes-Benz, the vehicle they have arranged to take me to Prince’s Hotel, which they consider fittingly “modern” for me, located off Andu Bako Road, near Central Hotel. I’m not at all keen on isolating myself in a hotel in my old city, indeed in my own country, but I’m not eager to discuss the issue at this moment. So I am booked at the hotel.

I had planned, before leaving the United States for the African visit, to spend at least two days in Kano so I might locate some friends and relatives of the old days I believed were still living in the ancient city. For this reason, as well as for the fact that I had already decided I was not going to carry myself during my trip as one of those “overseas” visiting African elites, I politely avoid the “distinguished personality” transportation arranged for me by one of my well-to-do relatives days before arrival. I have decided I am going to spend my visit as an ordinary citizen--which is actually what I am.

[And that’s what I’m doing for the most part of my stay: being squeezed inside ill-maintained buses and taxies, which at times are driven by seemingly death-proof drivers. In competition with these vehicles are so many motorcycles of all types. Motorcycles, with their ubiquitous presence and irritating cries, are all over the country, like invading grasshoppers of large croplands.]

I both succeed and fail in my quest to see my loved ones of old. Some have proved unlocateable. Some, I learn, have actually passed away. Died. This failure saddens me a great deal (even though I can understand). Because living long enough to meet again a person one once knew and befriended and loved is one of life’s rarest pleasures and events; one of the highest spiritual rewards for staying alive. For what’s life without those who have known one well enough to tell one’s own story?

I leave Kano for Makurdi on the third day of my visit. In my company is Jacob, mentioned earlier, who has traveled all the way from Makurdi and at whose place I’ll be staying while sojourning in the Benue capital. We choose the state’s transportation company, Benue Link, since passenger planes don’t fly to Makurdi anymore,boarding a minibus in which squeezed passengers can barely turn. I am surprised that passenger vehicles are still “assisted” by the shamelessly lying and incomparably rude “conductors”. One of these, a youthful chatter-box, sits directly in the row facing me, his back against the bars shielding the driver’s section, with one of his knees thrust between my thighs.

“Just don’t mistake me for your girlfriend”, I tell him in Tiv, just before take-off, to the laughter of the passengers, who are mostly Tiv. We leave at about 11:00 a.m.

Throughout the long trip, the traveler notices the many mangled vehicles lying on their sides--or supine--on both sides of the road. All of them casualties of the frequently occurring deadly accidents nation-wide. Some of the accidents have just occurred, with the dead and the injured placed around the fallen vehicle. Petrified mourners and curious onlookers loosely surround the scene. This will become the common sight on all the other roads I will be traveling later on--from Takum to Yola, Makurdi to Ogoja, to Ekot Ekpene close to the Atlantic Coast, et al. Not once do I see an ambulance flashing its trademark red lights at or around an accident scene. And every such accident scene is as desperately hopeless as anyone can imagine. In fairness, most of these long-distance roads are in fairly good condition.

Before reaching my destination in Benue State and during the period of my sojourn in Makurdi, the state’s capital, I have already noticed several interesting things in the nation.

Random Observations:

* People generally look emaciated--thinner than usual. Indeed underfed. This is visible especially in heavily overpopulated Kano.

* Nigeria is a country without coins. Now, one does not have to be an economist to know the dismal effect of this on the economy.

* There are countless “businessmen” and “businesswomen”--evidence of U.S. inspired capitalistic democracy--all over the place. These include roadside traders in roasted rats (myôngom), foreign wears, religious calendars, etc.

* Nigeria, not Germany, is the Mercedes-Benz capital of the world. There are unbelievable numbers of these vehicles almost everywhere. The nation is an interesting catalog of paradoxes.

* Consciousness of one’s identity as deriving from one’s Africanness does not exist in Nigeria. Thus, for multitudes of Nigerians on this planet, life is the equivalent of a seamless garment. Consciousness of external enemies does not exist either, despite the fact that Africa, as a whole, has had such enemies for centuries now.

* Solemnity is totally absent, usually in the cities. Instead a general sense of chaos heightened by a climate of lawlessness, hopelessness, and despair and fear, permeates the national atmosphere. Fear and confusion reign supreme. The very “expensive” state and national dailies carry pictures of severed heads and torsos on certain days. Evidence of the infamous activities of the notorious Bakassi boys in the eastern segments of the country. And amid the terror and horror, there is not-so-secret whisper of Babangida becoming the next president of Nigeria. Babangida, the sole foreign-sponsored architect of that unfortunate nation’s destruction.

* Buying fuel is an arduous task--another interesting irony. In the cities, the queue and the waiting can be painfully long.

* During the day, a death caravan (that is carrying a diseased person), with music sad and loud, is sighted every now and then. This is a common sight everywhere I’ve been in Tivland.

* Yet, this is the shocking part: the dearth of not just good books but books in general and the absence of bookstores and the emptiness of libraries. Each time the sojourning son of the soil mentions this shameful problem to a fellow national, the customary response is, “naa book we go chop?” A very varied question, considering the desperate nature of the situation. And when so many cannot afford even a local newspaper. (Thoughts on this later).

* One good thing: So many streets and public places now carry names of indigenous “heroes”. Thus, imagine the thrill for this reporter seeing a tree of a major road-street in Makurdi carrying the name of one of my secondary school classmates, Dr. So-So Road. How wonderful he must be feeling for having himself immortalized while he’s still alive and while he is still a young man (somewhat), I think. And how envious I’m feeling since I can’t even imagine having a bush path named after me anywhere in TarTiv.

* The high number of churches in Nigeria is incredible enough to raise the concern of even a pope. And there is no reason to think the high number will not continue to grow. Some of the church people now constitute a big nuisance--even a menace--as they crusade loudly and relentlessly, everywhere in their mission to “save souls”. The sojourning son of the soil envies them, wishing there is a similar crusade to save the people’s God-given best gift: the human Mind.

* Still, amid the terrible suffering, one finds so much genuine love--outpouring, incomparable love among the people--wherever one goes in Nigeria. The foods are wonderful.

Benue State, I have discovered to my chagrin, remains one of the most backward states in the nation, especially in terms of economic development. As this eye-witness has mentioned earlier, Makurdi, the state capital, is his home base during his sojourn. Specifically, he has chosen to stay with Jacob, again as mentioned earlier, his brotherly friend of so many years. In Jacob’s unsanitized residence of wonderfully hospitable residents, people listen almost daily over the radio of the “numerous accomplishments” of the current governor of the state. Some merely laugh dismissively while some remark derisively that those remarkable “accomplishments” include opening beer parlors and donating twenty thousand naira to a lady parlor owner. Ironically, the sojourner has already noted that an unbridled culture of alcohol and alcoholism has taken a serious toll on the state and the nation as a whole.

The Tivland itself, the heart of the state, is busy self-destructing. And the cause of the self-inflicting wounds is myopia, which has led to clashes--some very bloody--between the Jengbar and the Jerchira clans. (The governor belongs to one of the factions.) Clan pride--the healthy type that builds feel-good attitude and self-esteem, to which this Tiv, the great-grandson of the fabled mighty Tor Agbe Dajoh in Shirtileland subscribes, is fine; but clan arrogance and ignorance, the type that breeds nothing but raw hatreds of members of other clans, is what’s at play here. And as far as this reporter can make out, there is no leadership effort to stamp this out, or discourage it.

Random Thoughts

Hope. Our African people, both at state and national levels, so desperately need something to give them hope. Hope to enable them find good justification for their existence. Hope that displaces despair. Given the reality of the tragedy of our history in the world, the good leadership of the people should know how to raise the consciousness or self-esteem of the people so these can feel confident enough to use their God-given gifts or talents to accomplish ordinary and extraordinary things. So the people will ultimately break away from the ever-tightening grip of mesmerizing Whiteness. So the people can overcome the chronic problem of psychic inferiority complex. The frightening thing is that there is no slight evidence of the existence of such leadership at either state or national level in Nigeria today. This fact, when such leadership is long overdue? Indeed, even a dynamic leadership tone is yet to be set.

Future. Good or real leadership persuades its governed to realize that real people essentially live for the future and not merely for the present; in other words, for Posterity. For our children today and our children’s children tomorrow. That this is what it means to exist in the Universe as human beings. Any evidence that any leadership in the nation has emphasized this Truth? The visiting son of the soil saw none.

Europeanity. This is the deadly one. This reporter knows this fact well: that it is useless arguing religion. Therefore, the purpose of this point here is not so much to start a fight as to “reason together” with the reader, to use Prophet Isaiah’s phrase. Europeanity disguises itself as true Christianity, but thinking people know better. Europeanity, to this writer, is a pandemic worse than AIDS. For unlike AIDS, Europeanity is an invisible destroyer that charms and intoxicates the victim with its sweet poison even as it wrecks havoc on the victim’s psyche and consequently that victim’s culture.

Europeanity, for instance, imposes something as strange and as hypocritical as Mkôôm, an aspect of Protestantism in Tivland. The Catholic faith imposes celibacy on its leaders, an inherently unnatural idea to the African. Needless to state, that both practices are a disaster to the African psyche and culture. In fact, Archbishop Milingo of Zambia, whose brief and dramatic marriage to that good but unfortunate South Korean woman recently, is today’s living symbol of the unnatural order that has been imposed on the African world by Europeanity’s belief system.

Again, Europeanity is the main reason so many Africans instinctively side with Israel, to them God’s Chosen People, in the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio. To these African followers of Europeanity, even a punishment as terrible and as sinful as “collective punishment”, which is what Israel metes against the Palestinians, does not mean a thing. And this from a people who, only yesterday, were being collectively “punished” by Europeanity’s sojourning elements right there in their own homes and on their own African soil! That’s the type of harm Europeanity does to the uncritical African engulfed by it.

Yes, the explosive activities of Palestinians’ walking time bombs are equally detestable, but has it become that hard distinguishing between such desperate acts...and the massive use of high-tech weapons and collective punishments against a militarily overwhelmed and oppressed people? Thus, it is not surprising that Europeanity is largely responsible for the state of Powerlessness the Africans are suffering today. Examine, for instance, this deluding aspect of this imperial organization, the claim that that exceptionally Good Man, Yehuda or Christ, whose spirit the African readily identifies with, instructed people to “love thy enemy”, the equivalent of telling someone to grab the poisonous snake (igbinde), by the tail. Christ, who was a very smart man, likely said “respect” your enemy, which is a sensible thing to say. Examine the words “love” and “respect” in Aramaic, the ancient Southwestern Asian language Christ spoke then, for better understanding. To wit: imagine the number of times the Tiv word soo, which contains more than one meaning, has been misinterpreted as “love” in English.

Of course, the “love-your-enemy” mantra remains a deluding tactic for the tireless colonizing promoters of Europeanity, while they waste no time in singing dreadful “retaliation” for their enemy or enemies, real or unreal. The bottom line is this: Europeanity remains a devastating form of European nationalism, whose modus operandi is to tame the minds and souls of non-European peoples around the globe so these can be manipulated and controlled much easier. It does not have anything to do with true, original Christianity whose members sought to be known by their godly actions rather than by their empty professions.

Other peoples, such as those of the Orient and the Middle East, have developed their respective “cultural shields” against Europeanity. Even so it hasn’t been easy for these peoples to withstand the onslaught of Europeanity.

But us Africans? Europeans destroyed much of our “cultural shield” hundreds (some might say thousands) of years ago. The vestiges left would be destroyed later on by their cousins—the Arabs. The task now for patriotic Africans, therefore, is to build anew another cultural shield for our own people.

Arabism. Another deadly one. A counterpart or rival of Europeanity, Arabism is a dangerous form of Arab nationalism that disguises itself as true Islam. Due to Arabism’s deep cultural roots among Black Africans and the apparent usually conditional humane practices on the part of its members, an obvious traditional African trait, Arabism’s atrocities against Africans are not as apparent. But they are real nonetheless.

For together and for centuries the two imposed belief systems have caused untold damage to Black Africa and have been relentless in obscuring the African Way with the intolerant rules of their dreadful foreign gods that blunt, dilute, and confuse. Unfortunately, Nigeria has never had leadership that has attempted in any way to save the people from Europeanity and Arabism. Why? Because Nigerian leaders have always professed membership in either Europeanity or Arabism, thus splitting the citizens’ loyalty accordingly.

Africans who are interested in understanding original Christianity should take a close look at the much older Coptic and Ethiopian versions. Also, those interested in original Islam should take a close look at the early Islam of Black African founders and generals who conquered and civilized much of Southern Europe of the Dark Ages.

Education, not Mis-Education. True education is the rocky foundation on which national life is necessarily built. True education is the axis around which the entire national life revolves. Thus, it is a mournful situation today in Nigeria that a true education system, which, contrary to what some pundits are saying today, was not even strong in the first place, has collapsed. A genuine national leadership of the people would readily design the education system based on the people’s common Africanity, emphasizing ancient Africa’s beautiful, humane belief system, in the process. This would be the effective way of easing Europeanity and Arabism’s strangleholds on the battered psyche of the citizens. This would also mean making Africa-centered literature limitlessly available to all the people of the nation. Africa-centered homegrown literature would be the effective medicine, especially for Europeanity’s whitening plague which, along with Arabism, have been causing senseless deaths among our naturally peace-loving people for decades now. Let’s all resolve that the latest such deadly clashes in the beautiful city of Jos will be the last.

A sensible education system would also stress Contribution over Acquisition, thereby making a dramatic departure from the present colonial type that emphasizes acquisition of degrees, degrees and more degrees, which consequently leads to attaining positions of power for the mere sake of gaining “prestige” and feeling contentedly satisfied thereafter. Development of talent must be such a policy’s cornerstone. The time is long overdue for replacing our anachronistic education system with a culturally suitable, result-oriented type.

The architect of such a positive system would understand that in the game of Power in today’s heartless world, Organization/Management, technical/high-tech skills, are inevitable toward lifting the nation to a respectably secure position of power on the global scene. The nation’s educational curriculum would emphasize these areas accordingly, although not at the expense of the Arts, the indispensable source of food for the human soul. Thus, given the desperate need for such a sound education system in Nigeria, it is rather tragic that the system has entirely collapsed. It is particularly sad at this critical stage in Nigeria’s history that the nation is without books and bookstores and that its libraries are almost virtually empty, as mentioned earlier.

To their credit, though, some Nigerian elites or groups residing abroad have been trying to ease this great national shame by exporting books to various segments of Nigeria. A noble effort on their parts; nonetheless, this is like offering a piece of yam to respective huge crowds of famine-stricken villages.

No doubt, such efforts are praiseworthy. In fact, this visiting African son too donated a few (Africa-centered) books, in person, to the Benue State University through its charismatic Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Ker, during his aforementioned visit. Indeed, Ortwer Ker was hospitable and gracious enough to autograph his beautiful book for me.

The problem, however, is that not only do such efforts fail to offer any lasting solution to the dearth of books in the nation, but that the books of a culturally different society can actually prove to be harmful to the “other culture” that indiscriminately feeds its citizens--especially its children--with such alien material. Imagine a child reading about hotdogs, cherry pie and apple pie, and of course, snow, and so forth, in Nigeria. The ensuing confusion in that child’s mind would be incomparable. Books, as potent civilizing and energizing tools, are too sacred to be compromised this way by a people.

Only a serious fundamental effort can provide permanent solutions to this national shame. But such efforts, for so long, have never been forthcoming. For the Nigerian elites living abroad and such African elites in general, who have lived inside the entrails of the beast for so long, like their hypnotized counterparts on the Continent, have consistently proven unwilling to find fundamental solutions to Africa’s deep-rooted problems.

At the MUTA (Mkohol U Tiv in America, or Mutual Union of Tiv in America) held in Ohio State in 1998, I proposed a scholarship program in Akiga’s name, donating a token, but symbolic $150.00 for the project, asking other MUTA members to join in promoting the idea. Akiga Sai, for those who do not know, was a unique Tiv man who lived in the early 20th century and was the first Tiv to write so copiously and voraciously on all the vital aspects of Tiv life. And he wrote all the volumes in Tiv. Indeed Akiga, who happens to be more popular among Western anthropologists than he is among his own people, can rightly be considered the Founder of Modern Tiv society for capturing his people’s essence so eloquently in his writings, thus raising their consciousness about themselves as a Tiv-African people. Something no member of the tribe had done before.

The idea was to start offering a small financial reward on a yearly basis to the best writer of any work written in Tiv. A work produced in the tradition of the Master, Akiga himself. And how did my “elite” colleagues of the organization respond? With silence, deafening silence that has remained unbroken. Now, if I had mounted a baseless ad hominem (personal) attack on some member of the organization, such a negative act would have triggered a passionate response from those very people, a response that would have gone on for weeks, if not months. This is just the way we are at this time in our tragically and deliberately distorted history: deaf to Ideas and Ideals, but prone to time-wasting, senseless and destructive fights.

The need for the development of a culture of books, and consequently the development of some prominent, indigenous languages in Nigeria, cannot be overemphasized. And the time to start this crucial work in earnest is now, since so much time has been wasted already.

An aspect of Nigeria’s sound education system’s philosophy should also aim at attracting some of Africa’s talented sons and daughters of the Diaspora, so that these can be encouraged to come and contribute their gifts to the land of their roots, should they desire to do so. Shuffling talents this way around the globe is what Europeans have been doing for a long time among themselves.

Conclusion

True patriotic Nigerians of today, who have become tired of that nation’s inept subsequent leaderships, must rise and resolutely demand for the Nigeria we believe we deserve. Such proud Nigerians must remain steadfast and uncompromising in our demand for common sense and thoughtfulness from our leaders as a condition for accepting them as legitimate leaders, and vice-versa.

The saddest part is that Nigeria’s humiliating failures do not only affect the helpless and hapless Africans living within its borders; Nigeria’s shameful failures affect black people all over the world. The implacable enemies of Africa, who had dreaded the possible rise of this blind giant in the past, are now quietly gloating over her present demise--thanks to their own stooges, Nigeria’s subsequent rulers.

Indeed, it was out of realization of the importance of Nigeria to the Black World and its apparent backward slide that I made the ominous observation about the nation in the discourse I posted on the Internet—Tivnet, to be specific--last year. I had written figuratively, that “everyday Nigeria exists, Africa suffers a great deal.” A good brother, Dr. Yakudu Tor-Agbidye, commented sarcastically on that statement--putting a little spin on it-- in a note he posted on the Tivnet this past July. No hard feelings at all. I only hope that my brother has been listening to the strange comments being uttered by some of the current Nigerian leaders, especially of late.

In his address recently to the Conference on Racism in Durbar, South Africa, Nigeria’s President Obasanjo said that while he supports apologies on slavery from some nations, financial payments for the horrific slave trade atrocities would “further harm the dignity of Africa.” The leader of the most important Black nation on earth sounded very much like some cunning Western leader as he spoke.

Speaking on the deadly clashes in Jos between followers of Europeanity and those of Arabism, Obasanjo expressed surprise that those who profess belief in God would apparently kill other human beings. Apparently, the president has not heard of the words Crusade and Inquisition and Jihad.

President Obasanjo: Did the African people of Nigeria elect you as their leader so you could turn around and become a shameless mouthpiece or puppet of the West? Have you forgotten the long-time, anti-African record of the West, especially that of the British and their White American brethren of the United States? In addition to this people’s historical racist crimes against our people? Was Thomas Jefferson right when he made one of his characteristic racist remarks about black people, that “Their griefs are transient”? Does it bother you at all that all the eyes of the Black World are focused on you and your team? Why are we Africans of today so cursed with bad leadership? Also, at another recent international conference on Zimbabwe’s land crisis held in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Nigeria’s foreign Minister Sule Lamido, aiming his comments at the Zimbabwean black representatives, stated that Africa could not afford another war, especially a war “with racial undertones”. Think about it: have Black Africans been the cause of racial wars on the African Continent or elsewhere for that matter? And what’s wrong with fighting a racial war that is imposed on us? Not surprisingly, the Nigerian delegation was acting on behalf of Britain, the forever Nigeria’s colonial master, whose bombs have been killing the children and women of Iraq--nonstop--for about ten years now!

The present Nigerian leaders in particular have bought into the sophistic rhetoric of their foreign masters, which they have been using ceaselessly to obfuscate the tragic reality of the nation’s overall situation. Thus, the mantra nowadays is democracy, something the white man has taught them of late. Not known for any sound critical trait, these Nigerian “infant men,” who like to parade themselves as the people’s authentic leaders, have embraced this democracy with the enthusiasm of a monkey eating a donated banana. One only needs to ask the question: How can Nigeria claim to be democratic when that nation’s economic/financial lifelines are being controlled from abroad? Or when the nation lacks something as basic as books?

Given the country’s current backward slide, its leaders would have had the unrestraining powers to introduce draconian policies toward stabilizing the nation, including educating the masses about their own Destiny’s Way as an African people. In other words, some form of Revolution that’s guarded jealously by the principles of good governance (or democratic principles), would be the appropriate medicine for the nation’s serious crisis at this time. In concert with this train of thought is Dr. Umez's recent book, "Nigeria: Real Problems, Real Solutions," which provides an insightful and cogent analyses of how to achieve economic development and good governance/democracy in Nigeria.

Yet, this is unlikely to happen. At least not for now. For the white man’s new gift to Africa called democracy--a Trojan horse--has actually become a stumbling block toward any rapid, substantial change not only in Nigeria, but also throughout Black Africa. And elsewhere. We know from our experience with the West that if this new “gift” were a good thing, its people would rather have hidden it from us, just as they have so successfully hidden both low-tech and high-tech knowledge from us. Knowledge that is fact did not originate in the West. And if we had tried to get the good system by some other means, they would have accused us of trying to steal “classified information”.

The only reason Europeans (Euro-Americans included) are so vigorously imposing their imperial democracy on Africans today is to cement their control of all aspects of the lives of Africans. With so many of these jelly-headed African leaders now collaborating with the enemy instead of vigorously fighting him and against his wiles, so their African people might be liberated, the enemy now imposes his will on the Africans with insulting relish. Just look at this people’s preceding “gift”, Europeanity. Look at what this colonizing, mind-softening belief system has done to the psyche of the African. How it has left him gazing helplessly at the world as a severely wounded old lion that can’t hunt or defend his own within his domain anymore.

The irony of Nigeria (and perhaps that of other African nations) may well be that its envisioned, glorious future maybe made possible by the leadership of her sons and daughters living in their seemingly secure, peaceless paradise and futureless existence abroad today. For if there are any high-minded, clear-sighted Nigerians left, who possess high energy and strong resolve enough to declare one of these days: We cannot go on living like this, and back up the declaration with solid action, these are destined to be the ones. And it may take just one bold, firmly grounded Nigerian exile to ignite this long-awaited, all-important fight for the genuine transformation of that hapless African nation, this Nigeria. These may be the individuals who shall help their needlessly abused African giant find her soul.

As Black America’s Frederick Douglass reminds us, “Power never concedes anything without a demand. It never has and it never will.” Treacherous power, such as the type we have in Nigeria today, must have been what the gifted African Diasporan orator had in mind. The type of power that deserves to be dislodged by any means necessary.

Postscript:

Since returning from Nigeria many months ago, I have been kept abreast of the goings-on there by various reliable sources. One of these, brother Jacob, has informed me several times, that the violence and starvation that I saw during my visit have actually grown worse. That a sense of despair and hopelessness on the part of the people continues to grow.