The Sun Newspaper Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Dear Ohawuenyi Ndi Igbo,
Since 1st June 2010, your mobile phone line has been dead. I gave consideration to the telecom sector and gave them kudos for their stride in Nigeria. But I still struggle to agree that the telecom operators should be absolved of all blame arising from poor network connectivity.
My friends in the industry blamed power failure for the abysmal connectivity. When I argued further that adequate provision should be made for alternative power supply, I was told that the two power generating sets for the masts was “spoilt” by “bad fuel” during the fuel scarcity and the vehicle that was supposed to bring the engineers was stuck in a ditch due to bad roads and the rainy season. I simply gave up.
Nigeria is a nation where nature and nurture have combined to turn a blessing into misery. The country boasts of a tropical weather where the sun is vertically overhead all year round. This simply means that the sun rises and set every day. The joy of this weather can only be contrasted with the misery of the winter months in the western hemisphere when the continents enjoys less than four hours of some brightness and cold wintery days for up to five months. The situation is even worse in the arctic poles where the inhabitants endure days of no sun shine or brightness at all.
In Nigeria, we take sun rise and sun set for granted but instead of reaping the benefit of this weather situation, it has become one of the things that created misery for us. The tropical rain forest is awash with infectious diseases arising from the humidity of the environment which provides a breeding ground for parasites and protozoan. While Western nations have developed structures and systems to circumvent their weather situation and even troop to Africa to enjoy a bit of sunshine, we in Nigerian have resigned ourselves to be beggars of the world and blame nature and man for our woes.
Enough of my preaching in this letter as I thought I was discussing contemporary Nigeria issues with you Igwe J.O Mamah as we used to do. This letter arose from the fact that I cannot get you on the phone. Now your driver has just told me that you travelled abroad for medical check-up. I remember your last trip to the United States of America for medical treatment. You were ill and unsteady in your feet but that did not distract you from telling me the story of your life, which I now see as a contradiction to the story of our country Nigeria.
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In a statement carried in the Daily Independent newspaper of 29 September 2010, two prominent presidential aspirants, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, former military president, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice-President, bemoaned what every informed Nigerian recognises as the country’s greatest problem, namely, lack or failure of leadership. When we talk of leadership, we mean leadership, not in an old, developed and advanced country, but leadership in Nigeria, a state newly brought into existence by British colonialism and which emerged from the shackles of colonial rule just fifty years ago, a state where, therefore, decolonisation must form the central function and focus of leadership.
Decolonisation is commonly thought and spoken of as meaning simply political independence or liberation from colonial political rule, just as during the colonial period nationalism was regarded as being concerned with agitation for self-government – rightly in the latter case, for the nation was yet to be built. Decolonisation, however, has a meaning and purpose going far beyond liberation from colonial rule. Perhaps the widest definition of decolonisation is that it is “the process through which colonial rule is ended, colonial institutions dismantled and colonial values and styles abandoned.” UNESCO, General History of Africa, vol. viii (1993), page 7, n.4
A definition of decolonisation in such terms is open to objection if the “colonial institutions” to be dismantled are taken to include all institutions brought to Africa by colonialism, beginning with the state itself, other European-type political institutions and laws, the cash economy and other such institutions associated with the transplanted state. Such indiscriminate dismantling of colonial institutions cannot reasonably be what is meant by decolonisation. Africa would only be cutting its nose to spite its face were it to embark on any such thing. (The editor of the relevant volume of the UNESCO General History of Africa himself, Professor Ali Mazrui, aptly described the transplanted state as the “colonially invented state”. Professor Claude Ake too says that in pre-colonial times “in most Sub-Saharan Africa, unlike in East Asia, the state … is very rudimentary, if it can be said to exist at all.” Claude Ake, Democracy and Development in Africa (1996) p. 129. It certainly did not exist at all, and so had to be invented by colonialism.)
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It is indeed a great privilege for me to stand before this distinguished audience to deliver a citation on Dr Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme (GCON) on his 78th birthday, and in a revered forum for the presentation of the maiden lecture in his honour, under the auspices of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko. I thank the organizers for inviting me to participate in this historic event.
The institution of an annual lecture is in essence an invitation to people for enlightened critical discourse on issues of common interest. In advanced societies, the culture of public lectures geared toward harvesting the fruit of philosophical voyage and empirical surveys have become critical elements of their sustainable development mechanism. In developing societies like Nigeria, scholars, policy makers, administrators and other segments of the enlightened public are increasingly resorting to public lectures and dialogue in search of panacea for our myriad of national development challenges.
The maiden Dr Alex Ekwueme Annual Lecture and Award Ceremony which has attracted this esteemed gathering of eminent Nigerians is indicative of the determination of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, to contribute significantly to the quest for sustainable development in Nigeria. We commend their sense of direction and bold steps.
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