There is no perfect nation to be born yet Nigeria was deemed the worst nation to be born. In 2013, an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report ranked Nigeria 80th out of 80 countries assessed in its Where-to-be-born-index.
No thanks to the Economist magazine’s sister publication, most Nigerian kids may mature knowing they had been born where the neurotic tick-tock of midnight silences the whispers of dawn.
Predictably, the report inspired doomsday forecasts about the country; foremost newspapers and columnists penned editorials affirming the report and citing the poor fate of the Nigerian child; child advocacy groups plotted to squeeze international donors of grants that would never get to its touted recipients.
Amid the preachment and plots, a crucial voice died without recourse; the voice of the Nigerian child.
If there has been any change since the EIU’s damning report, it is barely discernible. Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, once said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930).
Ten years ago, when the EIU ranked 80 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 2013, Nigeria emerged 80th out of 80. What is the fate of a baby born in 2023?
Foremost media affirmed the EIU’s claims but very few would publish as their cover stories, for instance, the plight of teenage sex workers or child urchins across the country, unless there is a flurry of deaths or scandals involving the minors. Such stories could never displace political intrigues from the front page. And a deeper examination of the child rights campaign may reveal it a meal ticket for duplicitous advocacy groups.
Then, who speaks for the Nigerian child? To speak for the newborn and generations unborn, we must learn to speak ‘humane.’ We must evolve a national ethos and culture of citizenship to reinvent our country as a nation fit for adults, the newborn, and generations unborn.
How do we do this? By reclaiming Nigeria from the ruins of profligacy. Is this the country we inherited? Was it so badly mangled by our founding fathers?
If fathers earn, should sons deplete? Pacesetters in politics, arts and business hack their way through mortal wilderness to acclaim. They forge their identity, amassing fortunes and a name that they bequeath to heirs. The latter, having it all, however, suffer the burden of inheritance: sustenance.
Modern Nigeria suffers the burden of inheritance and freedom. And freedom binds all to the slaughterhouse of choice. When citizens make the right choices, the country soars and posterity salts the earth it thrives upon.
If condemned by wrong choices, they shut their eyes to the truthful and humane, as if in a deadly game of blindman’s bluff.
In the latter scenario, ignorance becomes the sanctuary of heirs; where too many children of illustrious fathers become spendthrifts, alcoholics, drug addicts, dilettantes, terrorists, secessionists, treasury looters, they deplete what their fathers procured.
The child, often heir to fortune on a silver platter, has little to measure or be measured against, except the accomplishments of his father – most of which get squandered.
If fathers build, should sons destroy? Not every generation must squander profits made by their forefathers. Even if loss is all it inherits, each generation may consciously reinvent itself from the declining fortunes of its forbears.
To reinvent Nigeria, must rid our souls of moral lesions, like avarice and conceit; we must quit being shameless and grand in disarray. We must redefine progressive consciousness to mean a lot more than promiscuity, cutthroat politics, degenerate sexuality, selfishness, gender war, and the dubious sociology funded and funneled to us by foreign governments and NGOs.
We must change the thrust of scholarship and grooming in the country from primary through secondary and tertiary school levels.
Ultimately, the Nigerian system teaches scholars to get ahead, and getting ahead means attaining high scores while defering to authority. The learner becomes adept at acquiring facts, argues Hogart, using only a small part of his personality and challenging only a limited area of his being.
He begins to see life as a ladder and endless examination with some praise and persuasion at successive stages. He becomes an expert imbiber and doler-out; his competence will vary, but will rarely be accompanied by genuine enthusiasm.
Such a student rarely feels the reality of knowledge and other men’s thoughts and imaginings on his own pulses. He has something of the blinkered pony about him; sometimes he is trained by those who have been through the same regimen, who are hardly unblinkered themselves, and who praise him in the degree to which he takes comfortably to their blinders.
This is hardly a fruitful way to proceed in the world we despise, in pursuit of the future of our dreams.
True knowledge essentially translates to being an emissary of kindness, truth, hope, superior culture, humaneness and progress to every segment of the human race: the rich and poor, old and young, male and female, weak and strong, literate and unschooled,
We forget too that the true essence of learning, that is, both intellectual and vocational learning, is never simply to teach breadwinning, furnish teachers for the public schools or be an epitome of polite society.
It should above all be the appendage of that fine adjustment between fantasy and the realistic knowledge of life. An adjustment which discovers the secret of civilization and the solution to its seemingly intractable problems.
Du Bois writes that the final product of learning must be neither a medical doctor nor journalist but a man. A full man to be precise. A full woman too, I’d say. Or rather, a full human.
To make such men, our learning process must be borne of ideals and inspiring ends of living. Not desperate, sordid, money-grabbing sound bites. The end product of our educational process must have learnt to work for the glory of his calling, not simply for pecuniary gains. The intellectual must think for truth and progress, not for fame or the applause of the gallery.
Until we attain a broad, busy abundance of such understanding, not all the finest flavours of the proverbial national cake – be they oven-baked or sand-baked – can save us from our lusts and affliction by predatory governance and citizenship.
Currently, we suffer the lack of honest and broadly cultured men. Patience, humility, good breeding and taste. Comprehensive high schools and kindergartens, universities and polytechnics, industrial and technical colleges, teacher training colleges, literature, tolerance and tact – all these spring from proper learning and culture.
We cannot achieve these overnight, however. President-elect Bola Tinubu must see the ongoing transition for the wonderful opportunities it offers; beyond his hard fought victory, the status quo provides a priceless opportunity to reconnect with broad segments of the electorate in realistic terms.
From his swearing-in on May 29, Nigerians expect him to lay the foundation for the fortune he promised. They expect him to midwife national prosperity built “on a fast-growing industrial base capable of producing the most basic needs of the people and an export track to other countries of the world.”
They expect him to deploy humane governance to resolve insecurity and socioeconomic crisis.
They expect him to rebuild Nigeria as the best nation to be born.
