When we dig so much in the womb of time

According to him, “the fruitfulness of utopia lies in the many realizations by man of his dreams on earth through his inventive genius and scientific discoveries that made possible, a constantly dynamic present that keeps breaking into the future.” Quoting several authorities in the literary and scientific world, Professor Nnolim noted that while the European […]

According to him, “the fruitfulness of utopia lies in the many realizations by man of his dreams on earth through his inventive genius and scientific discoveries that made possible, a constantly dynamic present that keeps breaking into the future.” Quoting several authorities in the literary and scientific world, Professor Nnolim noted that while the European concept of utopia is futuristic, reflecting a future oriented world-view, African concept of utopia is, in the main, backward looking.  For example, while scientific fiction which is futuristic continues to dominate the thoughts of Europeans, leading to more discoveries and invention, Africa continues to look backward without “prophecy, without paradise” quoting Ivor Case. The danger according to him is that a culture whose utopia focuses on the past holds no future promise, as the power to transform dreams into reality is lost.

The lessons drawn from the lines preceding cannot be more instructive to the nation than it is today. We are not in the woods, yet we are not completely out it. We are moving, yet tethered to impediments that draw us back. The fix is so much on the past, hence, the march forward inhibited. Whenever the past is credited with so much time and energy, the consequence is the bouquet of sterile present and a future, stillborn. When we dig so much in the womb of time, we run the risk of not being able to maintain pace with the societal changes and will be “doomed to a massive adaptational breakdown”, according to Alvin Toffler, thus, we become a slave of time-past.

And the future will leave us behind. Then, our time, instead of progressing, will recede. But Nigeria must be futuristic. Lack of planning and the inability to look beyond the moment always squirm at every good effort. Having to look back in time to ascertain what went wrong is proper so as to plan the future but probes should not tie us to the past. We must look beyond probes to tackling the cause of corruption.

Nwachuku Ngige is of the Directorate of Publicity, PDP National Secretariat, Abuja