Wake up calls for Nigeria

Professor Iyorwuese Hagher, Playwright, Poet, Diplomat and public intellectual has again written another book on Nigeria “Diverse but not broken.” His first book “Nigeria after the nightmare” made its debut in 2012 stirring considerable excitement, controversy and anger among western intellectuals. In “Diverse but not broken” published by Ahmadu Bello University press, Hagher puts to-gether […]

Professor Iyorwuese Hagher, Playwright, Poet, Diplomat and public intellectual has again written another book on Nigeria “Diverse but not broken.” His first book “Nigeria after the nightmare” made its debut in 2012 stirring considerable excitement, controversy and anger among western intellectuals. In “Diverse but not broken” published by Ahmadu Bello University press, Hagher puts to-gether in  twenty three chapters an overall picture of Nigeria: its promises, its challenges, its macabre  failures and the hope for a truly greater Nigeria where according to him “We are diverse but not broken, we are a people willing to take the opportunity to build a diverse multicultural society.”
“Diverse but not broken “makes easy reading. In typical Hagher style, the book’s simplicity is couched in vivid and engaging prose, satire and poetic rendition. Hagher is master of satire and brutal honesty. He deals his blows with clinical detachment and we can see him; laughing with his eyes while his lips are sealed. For instance Hagher describes Nigerian leaders. “Telling lies is a dominant cultural trait of Nigerian leaders and perhaps the signature of Nigerian global identity, unfortunately. The Nigerian scammers have given Nigeria notoriety as a land where there is no integrity and a dangerous place for people of high morals.”
In chapter one “not just about Jonathan” Professor Hagher presents a sympathetic view of President Jonathan whom he sees as a virtuous man and as a victim of Nigeria’s Leadership culture. This fascinating chapter is vintage Hagher; witty, scholarly, pushy, affirming, declaiming and moving on to his amazing conclusions. Consider his prophecy that President Jonathan will run and win in the 2015 election. “He will surely run. Those who have made his running a foregone event are his unloving critics and his uncritical lovers. No Nigerian President has had so much limelight like President Jonathan. After all he is the first President to use the social media to campaign. No Nigerian president has had so much insult, venom and disrespect like President Jonathan. The activists, who swear that the president must run for election or heaven will fall and those who declare a similar fate for heaven if he runs both push the president to run. For the President not to run would be to accept harassment and admit cowardice”.
In his reflections on Democratic governance in Nigeria since 1999, Hagher demonstrates rare humility in a man from whom much is expected: Senator, two times Minister, two times Ambassador, Member constitutional conference Founder of Leadership Institute, Officer of the Order of the Niger etc . He does not absolve himself from the problems or corruption of Nigeria! He goes on to say: “my reflections therefore do not set me apart as moral judge over my country or the operators”. It is this sense of Hagher as insider/outsider that makes his works so credible. As an insider; grassroots person, he is well informed, and as an outsider; scholar, diplomat and member of the diaspora, Hagher speaks with authority and yet with so much love. According to Hagher “there is a fundamental zeitgeist at work in Nigeria, which constitutes a major setback to democracy and good governance”.
When Senator Hagher berates the elders for wasting our most precious assets, our youth, he advises; “let us leaders, parents and politicians today bury our negative perceptions of the Nigerian youth in a storm of positive impressions. Let us lay before them their generational challenges instead of always insulting them they are leaders of to-morrow which we have already stolen from them”.
In chapter four Ambassador Hagher the cultural diplomat, is able to draw from his diplomatic experience in Mexico and Canada to make a strong case for Nigeria to invest in soft power diplomacy, rather than engage in silly and wasteful practices like re-branding. He demonstrated how his use of cultural diplomacy in Mexico and Canada achieved results with minimal cost. In chapter five, eight and twenty-two Hagher tries to plod the Nigerian intellectuals to wake from slumber and take up the challenge of nation building with new ideas and creative strategies. These chapters, it seems to me, is where Hagher’s wake up calls become louder and louder.
The Afe Babalola Pro-Chancellor, Hagher speaks ex-cathedral that “the role of the intellectual whether in the University system or outside the University is to talk truth to power and disturb the status quo ante”. But he soundly condemns ethnicity as the main killer of intellectuals. According to him “Our desire to be fair, tolerant and just is hijacked by ethnic lynch mobs: we end up becoming pawns in ethnic networks and hide under this to deny justice to people of other ethnicities”.
The book oscillates between politics, arts, culture and diplomacy. Throughout the book, is a visible strand unifying the chapters as a manifesto of hope. Every problem brought out to the discussion table is provided with a solution! There is a massive engagement with issues of social justice.
In chapter seven, Hagher discusses the Fulani –Tiv conflicts as a raging war in central Nigeria and even though the chapter is brilliant scholarship it falls short of other chapters. Hagher struggles with his subject matter as Tiv man and as a scholar.  In my opinion, the Tivness gets the better of him and condemns him. Hagher had in his own words condemned ethnic intellectuals. “How can such intellectuals be open to all views and how can their conclusions be consistent with empirical evidence? The intellectual dies when he is unable to free his mind from the shackles of ethnicity”.
Similarly when Hagher talks in chapter twenty one, “ Tiv struggles in the Nigerian project”, he becomes less objective and more emotional. Hagher blah blahs on his ethnic ego trip without empirical data! According to him. “ It was Tiv land that led the post independent revolt against injustice “. Show us the empirical evidence our beloved Professor and stop whining! Prove to us that the Tiv are founders of progressive politics in the country when your kinsman Professor Jibo thinks they contributed nothing except hatreds. The two chapters damage the book and fall far short of the very high distinction and regards Hagher is held in academia.
In chapter twenty-three, Hagher redeems himself in his profound analysis of Chinua Achebe as a patriot and contrarian. Hagher takes on a popular figure and sketches new vistas of Achebe as a leader of a democratic movement. According to Hagher, Achebe “taught the world the importance of self esteem” and propagated the ideal that “democracy fails to take root in societies where the people cannot bear to hear each other, especially the anguished voices of those that are undergoing oppression”. Chapter twenty three, is also filled by poems written when Hagher served as High Commissioner to Canada and was captivated by the cultural way of the native Indians “ first nation “ and the beauty of northern Canada.
This book is a very serious book written by a very serious mind and a great patriot. Despite the flaw noticed in the two chapters above where Professor Hagher falls prey to his Tiv ethnicity and becomes an ethnic warlord. This is a book about Nigeria that reads like a love story. Ambassador Hagher lovingly reproves, denounces, declaims and condemns the corruption and lies that characterize his country. He also provides the serum to the poisons and profound solutions to make Nigeria a greater country.
This book must be read and re-read by all who need to join hands to build a greater Nigeria –politicians, administrators, diplomats, university professors students and farmers. Iyorwuese Hagher has without doubt proved that he is one of the topmost minds needed to influence public policy to build Nigeria to greatness .