If I came back this way again…(I)

if man was to choose, at re-appearance, or re-assemblage, and  he was to have a choice of space of re-emergence, and that macro-space were to be Africa or anywhere else for that matter, I would opt to be born again a Nigerian. And this will be in spite of all the bizarre, absurd and outrageous […]

if man was to choose, at re-appearance, or re-assemblage, and  he was to have a choice of space of re-emergence, and that macro-space were to be Africa or anywhere else for that matter, I would opt to be born again a Nigerian. And this will be in spite of all the bizarre, absurd and outrageous manifestations that being a Nigerian has meant—both in terms actual failure of becoming, of full realization of the potentials which nature has endowed this land, due mainly to dysfunctions of structure, inept and visionless leadership, and all that. I would love to be a Nigeria over and over again.

I know that many who have come into contact (life, in print, on the screen, and so on) with me in my unhappier and seamier moments of anger and discomfort—moments when I have expressed myself in acerbic and deeply cynical terms – due to needless, annoying even frustrating manifestations of national hopelessness, murderous, mortal violence, national insecurity, and such other images of grim dystopia and anomie, would be sceptical of my sincerity, or would read out-right mischief/cynicism to this wish. Truly, there are those moments in which one is totally at a great loss as to how it has not been possible for this country to be where it ought to and should be in terms of development and growth—in terms of world-wide expectations from us given the enviable endowments God had placed at our, often times wanton and prodigal, disposition. Still, I have come to the conclusion that there is nowhere else on earth that I would prefer to claim as home other than this country.

First of all,I have seen it myself. I have travelled far and wide in Africa, Europe and America. I have not seen much of Asia, but I have a damn good idea, through education and my voracious consumption of the knowledge of the world, what exists there. I have a few anxious moments, leading to temporary wish-full sensation of being attracted to the point of wanting to replace my citizenship with those places. You find a country like America, with its developed spaces, its nuclear power, its abundant energy, its political panache, its love of itself and its justifiable claim to superiority in its conversion of nature to massive advantage, such that produces instant patriotism among its citizenry. Yes, those moments of actual contact with the best values in America; its fast foods, its dashing trains and exotic hotels, its mammoth cars and ultra-moderns Boeings and space crafts, make you green with envy—make you lust and wonder why we are so bled. But when you look at the disfavour and set-backs that God’s own country suffers—the raging fires of California, the Katrina floods, and such other natural disruptions with bewildering mortalities, you wonderwhether she is truly God’s own country,after all.

What of Japan, with its fast development and digital modernity—its ingenuity with car-making, always state of the arts, its wrist-watch sophistry. When you place Japan’s wealth today against its almost total absence of natural endowments, its utter paucity of resources before the Meiji Reforms of mid-19th century, you are overcome with utter despondency over the state of under-development that Nigeria experiences, in spite of what nature has placed at her slumbering disposal. But again, when you think of the horrendous earth-quakes that make Hiroshima a child’s play but which come at not infrequent intervals, then you think twice before becoming giddy with seizing a green card if one is available), Japan-bound.Even those countries that took off with us as third-world comity of nations—the Asian Tigers, the BRICS (Brazil, Argentina, India, China and Singapore)—some of whose gross national and domestic products were distant second in comparison with ours. Where are they today? Some of them, like Singapore, with scant nature’s bounties, have joined the so-called First World. So, why would I want to remain a Nigerian when a lot of the members of our power elite, with ailments as amenable as back-pain are rushed to India for treatment?

Still, I have seen it myself. There is nowhere else in the world that provides the fullness of life and living, realizable possibilities, humane values and innateness ofhuman passion that I can exchange for Nigeria.When you travel to those countries, mere police states (USA, Germany, France, etc.) that appear on the surface as bastions and havens of freedom and democracy, but where your freedom is anchored to chains at the end, you begin to wish to rush home with all its inadequacies, absurdities, abuses, insecurity, and so on. When you travel in Africa, especially in the West African sub-region, you find that your nation is the envy of your kind. At times, when African leaders and their functionaries express, with candour and unabashed sense of respect; when they praise your nation and state with great hope and anticipation that this great nation would lead them ( that if Nigeria does not lead Africa, no country else can or will), you are at first sceptical as to the seriousness in their expression and the genuineness of their gestures, but invariably, you find that they mean it, then you begin to wonder whether they talk of this country whose citizens love to despise, love to condemn and denounce before showing other forms of appreciation or patriotism is the same space and nation that these other countries praise and adore to high heavens.

I have been to many African countries and I know what I am talking about. I am presently in Guinea. The story is the same. There is genuine appreciation of brotherhood with Nigeria. There is also expectation in the air. There is the wish, for instance, that Nigeria leads the socio-economic transformation of Africa. There is a nudge that Nigeria rallies ECOWAS for its proposed single currency. Guinea, remember, is the most independent of all Francophone African countries. It is the only former French colony that insists on not converting to the CFA currency and will hang to its Francs Guinees (GNF). They have paid dearly for this fierce independence established by its founding father—Sekou Toure. They have suffered untold reprisals for their national defiance and dare—economic sanctions, infrastructural development denials and so on, until the Soviet Union came to her rescue—she being a socialist democracy, some opponents of that  social ideology would call it a dictatorship! Guinea, this country of aquatic splendour and delightful topographic aesthetics; this small country of 11 million people with one of the richest mineral resources endowment on our continent, believes in Nigeria and its leadership role in Africa.  Ditto for, Senegal, Namibia, and many other countries.

To be Continued…