Please slow down. Do not rush. Maybe we should not start by saying such things first about Nigeria. You, the author and me and everyone should not even take your existence for granted and not question it. Start by asking yourself honestly whether there is a raison d' etre for your existence, and if so, is it because you are perfect and infallible?. Who is going to answer that question and from whose perspective? Some reason why I find your analysis very selective are as follows, but before that, we all agree that Nigeria and many African countries have problems. Where we differ is what do we do or where do we go from there?:
a) I do not know whether you live in the U.S. or somewhere in Europe or Africa. But did you ever sat down to think what kind of world is it, that 5% of the world's population or thereabout, consumes 20 or more percent of world energy resources i.e., the U.S.A. does. Do you think if this kind of life style expands globally it is worthwhile. Can the world really exist that way? Some might say that there is no reason for such a nation and lifestyle to exist in the world. But many of us are in it.
b) The human species as a whole has created many catastrophes. In the name of either the love of one's country, religion, ethnic group or nation, a lot of irreparable harm has been done to millions of people. Just check the history of colonial domination in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Don't you honestly sometimes feel disappointed with a human being as a specie including yourself or myself? If you are familiar with the Christian tradition, did not God regret creating the human specie at one point according the Hebrew Bible? Why just Nigeria. My point is not to deny that there are problems in Nigeria, but I find the mere focus on Nigeria too provincial, since your real motivation seems to be a desire for justice or fairness, which you appropriately feel disappointed with where Nigeria is..
c) Did you not sometimes feel the need to regret that some of the terrible ideas that were used to institutionalize oppression in history were developed in universities and some university professors have contributed in developing ideas that legitimize the dehumanization of others. Going by this, universities should not exists. Indeed, the terrible ideology of apartheid were incubated and nurtured at: Stellenbosch University in Cape Town South Africa. The theology department there played an important role in this respect. But now many African students rush to study there.
d) Modern technology has been used to oppress many human beings. Should we not raise the same questions about it like you did on Nigeria. For every good thing that modern technology has done, I can point at something terrible. I know then someone will quickly say, well the problem is not with the technology but with the way it is used. Well, in the same way, history and nations are made by people. Those human beings who place themselves in Dante's highest heaven and look at ordinary mortals in Nigeria, and essentialize the Nigerians or Africans will if they are willing to reflect deeply realize that they just arrived at this conclusion by arrogating to themselves a transcendental insight that is available to them but not the other ordinary mortals. How did that happen? Is there some social or historical process behind that? If however they identify themselves as part of the ordinary mortals, then their analysis will not lead them to alienate themselves.
e) The Protestant Reformation in Europe and Its Violence. Wow! There is much that manifested in the form of dehumanization and hatred during the reformation. Maybe Europe should have disappeared from the world long ago based on this logic of analysis. In any case, there were so many wars that were fought in Europe. Now that they formed the EU, war will be difficult. Oh, then maybe when humans are determined, they can change the course of history. Whatever happened in Sokoto caliphate cannot be isolated from the broader discussion in human history of religious or faith-based movement such as the reformation. As for the case of something not going right with the caliphate, if you read some of the poems of Usman Danfodio, you will see how he himself was disappointed by some failures of the reform. There is a poem he wrote where he lamented this "Wallahi Wallahi." Remember he also said that, "A Nation can survive Unbelief but it cannot survive Injustice. " Sure, Moses Ochonu's book "Colonialism by Proxy" documented a lot of atrocities. What is amazing is how some of the minority people in Nigeria within themselves treat each other like trash. We should learned from the past. I am not from any of the dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria, but I will never tell someone that simply because of that as a human being I cannot hurt or harm someone. Everyone of us, depending on circumstances, human interests, values and ethical commitment, can be dangerous to another human being given the opportunity. That is why we have institutions to constrain human excesses.
f) Nazi Germany: Does Germany then deserve to exist given what it went through promoting hatred of what they called "inferior races? It is fair to say that at one point, it looked like Germany was a threat not just to world order but the human race. Yet, Germany today is a well-functioning nation. I saw Angela Merkel the other day on Euronews channel making a passionate case for refugees. But based on your line of reasoning, when Germany was at her lowest point, people should have prayed for it to disappear. But then, the Germany that exists today will not be there. In the 19th century, there were civil wars in Yoruba land of Nigeria, which I believe brought suffering to the lives of many ordinary people. But today, that region is a well-functioning region in Nigeria.
At what point does one human being decides the non-existence of an entity? Maybe we are not automatically the solution but we are also part of the problem. It is not nice to speak down to ordinary mortals on earth when you are in heaven.
We must be careful not to essentialize people.
I think the real problem is whether Nigerians, Africans and human beings are willing to sacrifice in order to create a better and inclusive world. When sacrifice has meaning, people will be willing to do that, because it enables them to be part of something larger than themselves.
Part of me did not like the fight at the Alamo in Texas. But there is a speech given by the defenders of Alamo before the battle started with Mexican forces, which I find interesting. They knew they were going to die but they thought their death would have greater meaning because they saw themselves as part of something larger than themselves.
Samuel
On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 2:39 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwasrividya@gmail.com> wrote:
--Oluwatoyin Vincent AdepojuthanksAnything else can only benefit those who are happy with life in the jungle.Form new political parties, debate endlessly about one issue or another, ultimately anything different from close collective examination of the social space called Nigeria, allowing those who want to leave the forced union to do so and those who wish to remain to do so, while establishing the terms for either choice, is a waste of time.It is simply a space where brigands are in control and those who have an understanding with these brigands can do anything they like.All these are expressions of the fact that the social space and geographical entity where all this is taking place is not fit for human habitation, no matter how much people pretend about it.The problem is not the current chasing of political opponents in the name of fighting corruption while ignoring members of the national ruler's team who have spent millions in building a personal website or in hosting a birthday, among other inanities.The problem is not the allocation of millions for books for the office of the Vice-President, or the massive amounts allocated for food in the ruler's residence, along with other silly allocations in mind staggering amounts.The problem is not the strange 2016 budget in which millions were allocated to pay rent on the official residency of the national ruler.A no-mans-land where wild animals roam and among whom some humans insist they want to dwell.What we have is a jungle.We could build all the fine houses we like, engage in as much politiking as we like, we don't have a nation.I increasingly think this object Nigerians call a country is a waste of time.It is akin to pouring water into a leaking basket.
The problem is not with the years long consistent murders, rapes and pogroms by Fulani herdsmen/militia, reaching a climax in the ongoing Agatu massacre in which which whole communities have been rendered full of corpses and razed to the ground as the Fulani move in with their cows to occupy the land while the government presided over by a Fulani man surrounded by his cronies maintains silence or pretends what is happening is a quarrel between neighbours.
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