Dear Chief Cornelius,
What a deeply evocative and generous reflection , trust you to turn a commentary into a philosophical journey. I smiled at the image of Adam and Nigeria standing side by side, summoned by the same divine question: "Where are you?" It is, perhaps, the most piercing question of all, one we've mastered the art of avoiding.
Your invocation of The Way of Man and the sweep from Buber to Fela, from MLK to Ginsberg, mirrors what I tried to capture: that moral accountability and civic rebirth are inseparable. Indeed, if nations could stand before judgment as men do, Nigeria's plea would likely be mixed, guilty, remorseful, but still yearning for redemption.
You are right, of course, that education, the seedbed of national consciousness, deserved a fuller treatment. The brain drain is our quiet exodus; every flight out is another classroom left empty, another dream deferred. A nation that keeps exporting some of its best minds cannot grow its own future. That must be the next frontier of reform, and perhaps, as you suggest, the anchor of a larger work.
Thank you for engaging the essay with such depth, wit, and historical memory. Your words remind me that critique is an act of love, and that those who still care enough to argue for Nigeria are, in truth, its most faithful citizens.
P.S. With your kind permission, I'd love to share your insightful critique, just as it is, on the Accountable Reform WhatsApp Channel { https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6de2U7oQhkR1uYDA1S}, where I occasionally post some of my reflections and, (and with this as first, responses) to my public pieces. It's a thoughtful contribution that deserves a wider audience of reform-minded colleagues. Of course, I'll only do so with your consent.
Warm regards
John
Stockholm
Sweden
Our Peoples' Planet
4th October, 2025
Martin Buber's "The Way of Man" begins dramatically with exploring the implications of the question that the Almighty asks Adam in Genesis 3:9 :
Buber goes on to explain that the question is directed at each and every one of us today. It's also a matter of individual responsibility - Adam / Nigeria, I gave you all these resources, where are you - how far have you come? :
http://www.maaber.org/issue_february09/spiritual_traditions1_e.htm
The way of man according to the teachings of Hasidism
If Fela Kuti was alive, what barricades would he be shaking / assailing / assaulting today, at 87 years of age ?
And Nigeria's founding fathers ?
Ginsberg : Holy the cocks of the grandfathers of Kansas !
The undeniable fact is that Nigeria has come a long way since 1st of October 1960 when the Nigerian population was 45 million souls. It's now .234,573,603 souls…
4th October, 2025 and the very last book that I read before flying to Nigeria in 1981 , Guy Arnold's Modern Nigeria ( published in 1977) isn't just behind the times, it's woefully out of date !
The way I see it, an Independence Anniversary, be it the 6th of March ( Ghana) 27th April (Sierra Leone & South Africa) the 4th of July ( United States) and Nigeria's on the 1st of October, it's always, inevitably a time for jollity - celebration - Jollof Rice - let's face it, we're not supposed to cry on our birthday, wedding anniversary, coming of age at 21, Freedom Anniversary, and happily this year, it's not a funeral and not exactly a time for unlimited levity either, but a time for serious stocktaking and a pep-talk from our beloved visionary and pragmatic JAGABAN ( I almost wrote Bhagavan) to put all of us all at ease, with assurances that for sure we can't undo or reverse the past but that all is not lost, that we are on course, so, JAGABAN is upbeat with the latest 12 major achievements, OPTIMISTIC, just as MLK*s "I have a Dream " and his very last great speech on 3rd April 1968 just before his assassination, so too we ( all of us) are on our way, and hopefully in stride with him when he concludes that historic speech with " I've been to the mountaintop … I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land"
You know, there are some names and titles - of persons (e.g. Ojogbon) , people, poems, books, essays, ships, roads, universities, restaurants ( "Don't Mind Your Wife Chop Bar" in Accra comes to mind) countries, and as a Pan-Africanist, the first thing to remark about John Onyeukwu's Nigeria at 65: Too Old for Excuses, Too Young to Collapse is that it's a particularly poignant diagnosis of the state of the nation, its insights could be expanded - extended into a full length book titled " What's Wrong with Nigeria, what needs to be fixed " and voila - transformed into a visionary blueprint for growing up and coming of age beyond an amalgamation of ethnic enclaves into a full, cohesive United States of Nigeria nationhood.
Nigeria at 65: Too Old for Excuses, Too Young to Collapse is a sober and sombre title, its contents a wake up call for reflection, thankfully, less dramatic and less pessimistic than the other putative title of sorrow and foreboding that it suggests, such as, yup, Naija at 65, "Too old to Rock 'n 'roll, too young to die". Naija at 65 probably reminds the Biblically inclined that the Good Lord did decree "threescore years and ten" which means - literally - that whereas Baba Kadiri and I are now doing overtime, mathematically speaking, without more Grace & Blessings from Above for a life extension - dear life, Nigeria only has five more years to fulfil the final five -year- development plan before kicking the bucket, "quenching " - God forbid , and arriving at the Olam Haba,
"The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns…"
As Pastor Samuel O would be the first to tell you, "For it is appointed once to die and after that the judgment"
And just imagine if it (the judgment) was or is to be collective punishment or collective rewards for nations, for whole nations, not just for Ali Baba the commander-in-chief and his cabinet of 40 thieves, life everlasting in Jahannam , along with the God-fearing Pentecostals, collective punishments, national karma, no individual or merely ethnic or denominational salvation. just " Were you Nigeria? - OK Stand over there ! It's collective punishment , collective damnation if you do or did not behave properly as a nation. That would mean that we would begin to take our civic responsibilities more seriously , and for the New Testament Bible thumpers among us, especially, they would have to meditate on the implications of this verse more seriously :
But as John has told us ( not John the Beloved Disciple or John the Baptiser, but dear John Onyeukwu (too young to be a bitter old Negro and more in line with the new cadre of Nigeria's "angry young men") as he has told us, "Nations rarely die" and went on to say "Nigeria is not too old to change" - Baruch Hashem ! Thank God for that , Hallelujah & Alhamdulillah, because as we all know, the saying in Igbo is that " You can't teach an old dog new tricks", others say that it's old monkeys that you can't teach new tricks….
As for the youths in the same boat, still at the crossroads,
"dem wi` tek chance
wid y´u lickle sistah Sally
dem wi` tek chance
far dem feel dem force
dem wi` tek chance
but dem gat no course
dem wi` tek chance
but dem is nat advanced
dem wi` tek chance
an´ dem don´t count di caas"
Linton Kwesi Johnson : It Noh Funny
Thankfully, in the realm of that long catalogue of everything that's wrong and in need of repairs and improvement, John did not add to the nightmare confounded by some other glaring ills not mentioned, Boko Haram, ransom kidnapping etc , however there is one great omission which always deserves an honorary mention : EDUCATION - its importance for national development - and secondly it's alright weeping over "our most desperate citizens fleeing through deserts and seas in search of dignity abroad" and "the cries of jobless graduates" without explicitly naming one of the most debilitating drains of all , Nigeria's BRAIN DRAIN and how that trend and that tide MUST be stemmed and reversed
In this regard, Mr. President and his "cabinet of national competence" have to put in place inducements that can give meaning and incentive to the "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
Umar Bin Hassan : Be Bop Or Be Dead
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