After political propaganda and brainwashing of the electorate, what sells the most in Nigeria is voodooism. The average Nigerian would rather buy into luck, fate or fluke than use his brains. We are where we are today as a people as a result of our easy and gullible recourse to fatalism. Nigerians are legendary when it comes to making excuses for colossal failure. Followers hold brief for their leaders’ incompetence while the leaders cash in on their followers' ignorance and poverty. The worst that has befallen us in Nigeria isn't corruption, greed, Balaamic curse or the deadly Ebola. The worst that has befallen us is vision-deficiency. We lack the capacity to think beyond here and now.
We are a myopic people. As at the time I am writing this article, I just returned from a trip where I was privileged to lead the Nigerian delegation to the Commonwealth and UK Sustainable Development Training in Birmingham. During the course of my interaction and engagement with the system, I was able to run a confirmatory test on some of the structural defects I had earlier identified.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Nigerian project isn’t sustainable as long as we lack men and women with inspiring vision, purpose and determination for exemplary leadership. True, Nigeria was badly hit by the unholy twins of slavery and colonization, but how long are we going to continue to cry over rancid oil? South Africa like other African countries had their fair share of slavery and colonization plus racial discrimination to battle with after her independence but has since come out stronger and better. It is confusing that Nigeria still basks in the emptiness of her position as the giant of Africa while we are characterized by snail-spaced progress in so many areas of development. Nigeria is merely existing and not living; breathing yet dying. She is on a life-support machine and any drastic agitation spells doom.
It is absolutely true that no man or nation can rise beyond his or her capacity to dream-chart a purposeful and progressive pathwith concrete action plans. If we run a CT scan on the entity called Nigeria, the diagnosis will read, LACK OF VISION.
Fellow Nigerians, we can’t isolate individuals’ vision from National vision. The quality and magnitude of individuals’ vision is the aggregate of national vision. What we feed individually into the corporate visions pool will ultimately determine the direction the needle of the Nigerian compass will face.
If 53 years after our independence and counting, we still rely on a staggering 5000MW of power to light our homes, streets and power our comatose commercial centres, then it isn’t witches and wizards that are responsible our woes but pure lack of progressive vision. From the day Nigeria became a pseudo federating republic till date, we have had only a few baton changes and a humongous investment in the power sector yet nothing to show for it. As at the 7th of August 2014, peak generation of power was 3,565.70MW; energy generation: 3,405.53MW; energysupplied: 3,328.2MW. This is so ridiculous for a population of about 170 million people-Giant of Africa!
Most of the laughs we use to cool off our daily heat come from absurd government policies. For example, the Cashless Policy in the Nigerian banking system. I don’t get it. How would a cashless policy work in thick darkness? We are backward as a people not because we find ourselves in the continent of Africa but more or less because of our choices as a people. It is even a dilemma if we have limited options to choose from. As I moved from Conventry, Birmingham, South London to Central London in July last month, more than ever before I felt ashamed to be a Nigerian-knowing well the huge deposit of natural resources we have. It is even shameful to know that the Nigerian leaders fly to London at the click of a button to eat their breakfast and treat themselves of constipation as a result of voracious consumption of junk food, yet they can’t see anything wrong with the system back home.
Esteemed Nigerians, take away a man’s vision and he becomes naked and empty - a walking corpse. Very scary!
For Nigeria to live up to her appellation as the giant of Africa, the rules of engagement must change. We have to learn, design, align and articulate a national vision for our beloved country. The change we seek isn’t in our current political party structures nor their empty manifestos. We have to come out of our ageless cocoon of immediacy and launch farther and deeper into the future we desire.
To start with, as individuals, we must cast personal but healthy visions for ourselves, our families, communities, states, regions, which should ultimately form a strong foundation for a progressive and prosperous nation. Yet no man dreams on prolonged starvation or an empty stomach. The system should provide equal opportunities and healthy income distribution.
It is a vision deficiency not voodoo. Angels didn’t build the beautiful Tower Bridge of London, seven wonders of the world, the impregnable Bank of England nor the Pentagon in Washington DC. Men and women of impeccable vision and purpose did.
Nigeria needs progressive visionaries!
God bless Nigeria.
Olanrewaju Daodu
Consultant and Communications Strategist
Social Development Centre for Africa