Slavery is any system in which the principles of property applies. Big English isn’t it. It is a condition in which one person is owned as a property by another and is under the owner's control. Well that may be too harsh, let just say it is a situation where an individual works very hard without proper remuneration, appreciation, reward or benefit.
Although, as good as all these dictionary definition sound, it still does not express the debt of effect the act of slavery can be to a people or a nation. Independence is not an activity of celebration, it an ability to determine the direction of your future. Once this decision is left in the hands of another man you are doomed for servanthood.
You are like a donkey without choices. Used in a more recent term, you are like a robot program to serve. Imagine a nation in such a situation their outcome can easily be predicted.. And like a circular motion always going round and round, they will always keep returning to same spot to begin again. How did we get here in the first place?
Every master has a purpose for the servant when the British colonized Nigeria they created an educational system that was orchestrated to serve them.
You go to school to work for the British government, hence you have a certificate to prove that you are fit to serve (work) for them.
You are not supposed to have the right to be independent. You must answer to a boss and more recently you must look for the boss by yourself brandishing graduation certificate all over the street searching for a boss to lord over your future. You work until you are tired and ready to die and at this point they start paying you peanuts as retirement benefit. Today, many of our parents who served this system, die on the queue trying to collect such money. What an endless chain of pity, living your entire life in a system that those who created it have long gone.
Now because the system was not created to produce bosses or masters in themselves. For many years after our so-called independence, we are still slaves economically. New companies were not given birth to easily. Government had all the monopoly and the few companies that the British left behind became conglomerate lords on the streets with jobs only for the high end to serve.
They poor Nigerian graduate treks the streets looking for jobs until all his shoes wears out (some of those shoes are so tired out that they start looking up to heaven in want of deliverance)
With a tie in their neck as they were trained on how to look for masters (job owners), they jump from one office to another looking jobs in a system that was never orchestrated to produce or create. At the end, they run into the hand of the new generation labour lords (the Indian companies who pay graduates an average of N15,000 monthly putting them on shift as casuals).
Hay stop there! Why should you blame these Asian countries? They too have been there and they know the pains of being enslaved. It is a rat race. They had to liberated themselves. They closed their doors to the world and turn every house, family, homes, villages, cities and town into an industry. The completely dislodge what their colonial masters had done and overhaul the entire educational system, turned it into outfit that produces owners, masters, lords, bosses, producers, entrepreneurs, engineers, makers, manufacturers, builders, constructors (don’t mine the language), factory owners, industrialist, inventors etc.
In these countries, From the kitchen to the garage to bedroom, to the villages and towns everyone want to produce, own, and export their physical creation. They have orchestrated themselves to produce. They want to be lord over the world economically.
Now look at the forecast concerning these countries as they all power so hard to become a world economy. They have become large emerging economies that are likely to significantly expand faster than any imagination. Indonesia could become the fourth largest economy in the world (the own indomie and supreme Noddles in Nigeria), the India economy is likely to overtake Germany and Italy (they own almost all the plastic, nylon and packaging companies in Nigeria),. China is now a world economy, but was one of the world poorest nation in the eighties (they are gradually taking over construction, waste to wealth conversion, manufacturing in Nigeria, including taking their goods into Balogun market in Lagos Island by themselves).
Are you still there! The projections based on history, industrialisation and sustained growth potential shows that the rising might of the large emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil is not just about a large population, strong growth record and catch-up potential – but governance and economic independence in terms of tapping into their inward potentials which has historically played a key role in their fast growth.
After all, India just like Nigeria was colonized by the British, the Chinese were colonized by Japan, Indonesia was also under bondage at a time. But they all decided to slam the break. Today even the world cannot see their break light anymore. So as a Nigerian, there is no excuse for failure anymore.
Now don’t go there! I am already perceiving the blame game. “Government should do this; government should do that”
That a language for the slaves, you may just end up like the pensioners who die in the process of waiting for government.
So, Hope Eno, what can I do to get out of the woods?
Simple create your own world. Start something while you have the chance and become your own president. This is the time to pursue your dream of becoming a world economic power and let your dream be on the world map. Start what you can call your own. Be financially independent of the Nigerian economy. Become your own lord and boss over others. Chart me on 08023982600 WhatApp to get free products to start.
Happy independent day!