The Nation Newspaper

Tag: consciousness

  • Lafarge Africa urges safety consciousness among Nigerians

    Lafarge Africa urges safety consciousness among Nigerians

    Ahead of the Yuletide, a leading construction solutions company in Nigeria, Lafarge Africa Plc, has urged Nigerians to be safety-conscious.

    The company also advised all to prepare for the increase in human and vehicular movements during the season.

    The company’s Country CEO, Michel Puchercos, spoke in Lagos office when he addressed reporters on activities for the Yuletide.

    Puchercos said Lafarge Africa was committed to extending its health and safety beyond employees, contractors, communities and customers to the government and the public.

    He said: “At this festive period, the Nigerian government and citizens must do more to prevent accidents and create a healthy and safe environment for families, homes, work places, worship centres, communities, and so on. To achieve this, accident prevention, disaster preparedness, emergency response, periodic health checks as well as first aid training, are important safety measures that must be taken.”

  • A rebirth of our consciousness

    Memory is so vital and delicate. Its preciousness makes it a needed feature of a computer and a vital part of the human physiology. Physically, people ‘forget’. Digitally, files ‘delete’ from memory. People ‘recall’ after gaining consciousness of what transpire around them but electronically, the computer ‘restores’, that is, to bring back lost information.

    It is natural that humans grow from babies to adults and then come of age. During these stages of human development, we often find ourselves doing things that may hurt or please those around us.

    A question is put forward: “why on earth will someone live as though he is a computer system that needs to be refreshed always before it works properly? If I would say, he’d been affected by a virus.

    Judas’ brain, perhaps storage unit, is almost full to the brim with little or no memory to save information and limited processing speed. Thoughts of his present condition, secrets, financial status, and health weigh him down. Other peoples’ secrets are all enclosed in his memory. Always drunk and on hard drugs, he is often haunted by grievances and problems of all sort. The evil deeds he has committed are boomeranging. Feelings for others he could not express. He can’t think straight any more. Sometimes, he acts as though he is going crazy, with weird styles of dressing.

    Life to Judas has been turbulent like the sea waters. His habits are spiral in nature just like the spring. His subconscious has reached its breaking point and elastic limit almost exceeded. With dirty deals been executed, he has trampled upon lives to pave way for him to get to the top. Always fighting, he is full of envy and anger. Fear of being caught visiting diabolic places plagues him. Words, he could not utter. Plans and dreams have been dashed away.

    Properties worth millions he has stolen from both the church and from people have become an eternal yoke on him. The bribes he has given and collected; the countless lies been told; the hearts he has broken due to his lustful desires pretending to be in love; the unredeemed pledges; unpaid credits; images and notices declaring him wanted have taken a toll on him. All this thoughts and deeds in form of a virus are all encrypted in him.

    On this breezy and cold morning, Judas thought to himself within some micro-seconds. And he recalls the words of a preacher saying: “make way for the Son of God is coming soon”. He then exclaims in a low tone and said: “I wish I have no memory of all my life.”

    All this traits demonstrated by Judas, who is a young man, describes the situation of the Nigerian youth. Through a rebirth of our consciousness, instincts, beliefs, character, school of thoughts and attitude, our youths needs to wake up to the reality of their time. This is to re-awaken the youths to the challenge that much work is waiting for us to do and bring about the desired positive change in policy, governance, moral decadence of our dear country Nigeria. This will, nevertheless, create a new Nigeria that is void of bad governance, corruption, tribalism, drug abuse, religious sectionalism, cultism, nepotism, terrorism, unemployment, lawlessness and above all youthful exuberance.

    To start with, the change begins with the individual then collectively with the immediate family and largely with the community and by extension the country as a whole.

    Finally, in the last quote by our beloved literary genius, Prof. Chinua Achebe, in his book “There was a country”, he said: “…the task before the Nigerian youth is to transform this country Nigeria to a nation”. As Prof. Dora Akunyili would rather say: “Good People, Great Nation.”

     

    Benjamin, just finished from Physics Education, UNIAGRIC Makurdi

     

  • The dearth of historical consciousness in Nigeria (III)

    After the publication of the first part of this article, I received calls from two sets of readers. The first set – the optimists – are of the opinion that we need to be historically conscious if indeed we are serious about Nigeria “moving forward.” They wondered why any serious nation will neglect the teaching of history which often brings with it a sense of national identity and consciousness. The second set – the pessimists – believe that Nigeria, as a “contraption” is already unravelling and we only have to wait for this to eventually happens. To them, the Boko Haram (BH) insurgency is the beginning of the end.

    While I don’t share in their pessimism, I’m also not blind to the fact that we are at a crossroad as a nation with many Nigerians lacking the understanding of what being a Nigerian is or what Nigeria as a nation actually stands for. A colleague told me last week that after reading a simplified, but comprehensive history of America written for children and teenagers, he wasn’t surprised that Americans are the way they are; patriotic about their country.

    So we may ask ourselves why study history, and what does history have to do with all that is happening now? The answer – in my opinion – is because we virtually must, to gain access to the “laboratory” of human experience. When we study it reasonably well, and so acquire some usable habits of mind, as well as some basic data about the forces that affect our own lives, we emerge with relevant skills and an enhanced capacity for informed citizenship, critical thinking, and simple awareness. We need to study it in order to make progress, even though this progress may take years in materialising.

    I’m aware that any subject of study needs justification; its advocates must explain why it is worth attention. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve “useful” purposes, the functions of history can seem more difficult to define than those of say architecture, engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually indispensable, but the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines.

    History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society as it helps us to understand people and societies. In the first place, it offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. How, for instance, can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace. We can however do this with historical materials.

    Take the BH crisis as a case study. Terrorism – in the scale we have it today – is totally strange to us that is why our military were not effectively trained in counter-insurgency warfare; rather the effort has been on conventional warfare where you are trained to know your enemy who is expected to play by certain international rules and norms governing combats and the treatment of prisoners of war etc. Today’s enemy only puts on uniform as a decoy; otherwise he remains elusive or acts as a suicide bomber with scant regard to the sanctity of human life or decent societal norms.

    So what is a historian expected to do in this instance? He will sift through historical documents; study how similar scenarios played out elsewhere, what was done there and how it was countered. He will also strive to understand the role that belief systems play in shaping individual and family lives. By studying several societies where similar situations subsist, a conclusion can be drawn with solutions provided on how to address the situation.

    Some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behaviour, but even these depend on historical information, except for in limited, often artificial cases in which experiments can be devised to determine how people act. Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our “laboratory”, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex society behaves the way it does. This, fundamentally, is why we cannot stay away from history: it offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives.

    History also helps us to understand change and how the society we live in came to be. The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why something happened—like the BH crisis or religious/ethnic conflicts—we have to look for factors that took shape earlier.

    Sometimes fairly recent history will suffice to explain a major development, but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change.

    So how do we start to put the right foot forward? Realising the importance of history, Lagos State Government started the process of teaching the subject from the basic level two years ago, if handled well it may be the pedestal for grooming generations of Nigerians who would understand what being citizens of this potentially great nation really means despite our current challenges. I urge the state government to explore other avenues beyond the four walls of schools to enable its citizens have a positive and progressive sense of history.

    For those who may not know, history also serves as a platform for moral contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals and situations in the past allows a student of history to test his or her own moral sense, to hone it against some of the real complexities individuals have faced in difficult settings. People who have weathered adversity, not just in some work of fiction, but in real historical circumstances can provide inspiration that can galvanize an entire nation. The late Nelson Mandela and South Africa is a classic example that most people can easily recollect. Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Great Britain’s singular role in rallying his people to confront Nazi Germany during the Second World War also readily comes to mind.

    In galvanizing a nation, – we all agree that Nigeria, as it stands today, need leaders that can galvanize her – no singular attitude is necessary than having a sense of identity; history provides this, which is unquestionably why all modern nations encourage its teaching in varied forms. Historical data include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and whole countries were formed and about how they have evolved while retaining cohesion.

    In my study of American history, I discovered that for most Americans, studying the history of their family amount to the most obvious use of history, for it provides facts about genealogy and a basis for understanding how the family has interacted with larger historical change. Histories that tell the national story, emphasising distinctive features of the national experience, are meant to drive home an understanding of national values and a commitment to national loyalty.

    Perhaps a key area we need to have a positive sense of the subject is in the area of good citizenship.  Most Nigerians will agree that we have a citizenship crisis in the country today. This is the most common justification for the place of history in school curricula. Sometimes advocates of citizenship history hope merely to promote national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual success and morality. But the importance of history for citizenship goes beyond this narrow prism.

    History that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns, in one sense, to the essential uses of the study of the past. It provides data about the emergence of national institutions, problems, and values which offers evidence about how nations have interacted with other societies, providing international and comparative perspectives essential for responsible citizenship.

    One salient feature of an advanced country is the ability to see the importance of nearly every discipline in the development process. While we see the study of history in Nigeria as “irrelevant”, an advanced country will tap into the mind of the historian and use his analytic mindset for progress, for instance in the business world. In the United States, Britain and France, there are historians that undertake historical research for businesses or public agencies, or participate in the growing number of historical consultancies. These categories are important to keep the basic enterprise of history going.

  • Muslim students tasked on time consciousness

    Muslim students have been advised to manage their time effectively for the attainment of success. This charge was given by the chairman, Conference of Islamic Organisations (CIO), Mallam Abdullahi Shuiab, at a symposium held by Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), University of Lagos (UNILAG) College of Medicine, Idi Araba.

    The annual programme was tagged Islam Propagation Week.

    Shuaib, who spoke on time management, took the students through the importance of managing time and adhering strictly to one’s set goals. Noting that proper time management is pivotal to success in life, he listed responsibility, commitment, confidence, curiosity, optimism, courage, risk-taking, determination and ingenuity as elements of success.

    Shuaib said successful students were blessed with the habit of acting professionally and being friendly with their instructor.

    “For you to manage your time effectively, you need to set goals that are realistic and achievable; break down tasks into steps; prioritise your programme and lastly most important avoid procrastination,” he told the students.

    The Amir of the society, Lagos State Area Unit, Alhaji Qazim Badrudeen, urged the students to be serious with their studies. He said they should aim high and work towards achieving their set goals.

    Badrudeen urged the students to take to what the lecturer has told them and start implementing them in their lives for them to achieve their desired goals.

     

  • National consciousness as camouflage

    National consciousness as camouflage

    It is time once again to mark (celebrate?) the flag independence of our dear country and to lament what turns out to be its unfulfilled promises. Yet while this lamentation comes natural to many who invested a sizeable amount of capital in the prospect of a strong, united, and democratic nation-state, many others are not surprised at the ugly turn of events. There are good reasons for both reactions, though as I would argue, the second group has the benefit of the facts.

    To the first group, it is the case that the struggle for freedom forged a united front against the colonial powers universally condemned as a rampaging force of racist exploiters responsible for the dismemberment of motherland Africa, first through the enslavement and physical separation of its sons and daughters, and second through the balkanisation of its land without the courtesy of involving any of its rulers.

    The resentment of the European master brought Africans to the realisation of their kinship as the dispossessed and, in the words of Frantz Fanon, the wretched of the earth. Pan-African ideas bolstered the resolve of Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent, and decolonisation became a rallying cry for the mobilisation of the people against imperialists and exploiters.

    Interestingly, for the masses of African colonies, it was the colonial factor that brought them together and developed in them the consciousness of a common bond. A semblance of national consciousness was thus generated as the direct outcome of the people’s encounter with the colonial system.

    To those who invested a lot of capital in the development of this consciousness as a result of their leadership of the anti-colonial struggle, and later in the newly independent country, Nigeria in our case, it was this semblance of national consciousness that enticed and entrapped. It enticed them to the possibilities of a truly new and bold experiment which, they thought had a great potential for becoming a reality. While the enthusiasm could be explained by appeal to the investment of time and resources, there were indications even right from the beginning of serious impediments.

    To the second group referenced above, the whole idea of a common nationality or national consciousness has been a ruse all along. The coming together of different groups and forces was motivated by different and in many cases, conflicting interests, with traces of these emerging during the “nationalist” struggles. Indeed, as some analysts have observed, it could be surmised that there was a conscious decision, independently or collectively arrived at, by the differing and conflicting forces, to first gloss over their divisions for the sake of working together to eliminate the common enemy.

    Frantz Fanon’s analysis of “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness” in The Wretched of the Earth captured vividly the imagery of a disjointed and inept national middle class at the dawn of independence. Of course, while Fanon saw something worth commending in the initial act of solidarity against the imperialists, he also worried that it could lead to an anomalous outcome of dog eating dog if and when national consciousness slides into ethnic consciousness: “National consciousness, instead of being the all-embracing crystallisation of the innermost hopes of the whole people, instead of being the immediate and most obvious result of the mobilisation of the people, will be in any case only an empty shell, a crude and fragile travesty of what it might have been.” Fanon laments the “facility with which, when dealing with young and independent nations, the nation is passed over for the race, and the tribe is preferred to the state.”

    The fear and the agony passionately expressed by Fanon are shared by many Africans in and outside of the continent who decry the post-independence rot. But while they blamed the slide into ethnic consciousness as culprit, I would suggest that we take another look at the issues. For this, we must acknowledge the groups that were involved in the original struggle: the masses, the elite, and the coloniser.

    For the most part, the masses were never unmindful of the reality of their primordial attachments. Indeed, for them the ethnic community—the original nation—was their only reality. They were never properly attuned to the reality of the new nation, which was more of an imposition than a voluntarily assumed consciousness. The masses were right at home with their ethnic nationalities.

    The elite, on the other hand, had a love-hate relationship with the new “national” reality. It promised a new lease on life with the prospect of taking over the perquisites of office at the departure of the colonial lords. On the other hand, there was the fear of the Other—the rivals from pre-existing primordial groups competing for the same perks. And so, while national consciousness meant little or nothing to the masses, it proved to have a dual meaning for the elite who must therefore present a bifurcated relationship to it: take full advantage of its promise for self-advancement, and at the same time undermine its potential for genuine national consciousness which supersede primordial attachments. Since national consciousness is an essential prerequisite for national unity, it is not a surprise that the latter has been so elusive.

    In the special case of Nigeria, recent history is no different from the now apparently ancient times of anti-colonial struggles. Consider the so-called North-South divide. It seems clear that the self-interest of the political elite has been the motivating factor of the crisis of mistrust. Northern governors want to re-open the litigated and adjudicated offshore-onshore controversy. They are against the creation of more states in the South and they reject the idea of embedding zonal arrangements in the constitution. The South is against the position of the North in every instance of these issues.

    I like to believe that northern governors believe sincerely that these issues have a direct bearing on the welfare of the northern masses and not just the interest of the elite. To that extent, they must also believe that it is their sacred responsibility to fight for their people. In the same way, the southern governors have similar belief about their position vis-à-vis the welfare of their people. Is there another group that is looking after that other entity that is named NIGERIA? Indeed, does any one of the antagonists in the current debate acknowledge the existence of that entity? National consciousness will be mouthed ad nauseam in this season of remembrance. But it is hard to not see it as a ruse.

    There is one more thing. Both northern and southern political elites get motivated by self-interest. It is human as psychological egoists would argue. But there is a difference. In the case of the Southwest in particular, precedence was created at the dawn of Western Nigeria’s self-government in 1957 when the foremost welfarist of our space, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, consciously aligned his self-interest with the interest of the masses. Awolowo was not a saint. But he knew the game of politics well and he made a calculated effort to ensure that the welfare of the masses was the measure by which his success would be judged. It paid huge dividends politically and morally.

    Since that successful experiment in political engineering, the political elite in the Southwest are hard-pressed to ensure the congruity of their elite motivation with the interests and welfare of the masses. Awolowo ensured that the struggle against colonialism culminated in massive investments in welfare institutions—education, health, employment, rural development—that cater to the basic needs of the people. This was how a fractious people, united only by a common language (with some dialects mutually unintelligible), came to see themselves as one. This was how a Yoruba nation was born out of a myriad of tribal enclaves. And it is a lesson for how a Nigerian nation can emerge out of a multitude of tribes and tongues. That is, if the train has not already left the station.