For those that read the PART I of this and commented on it, I believe the issues you raised are addressed in this second part. I still look forward to your comments. For those who haven't read the first part, please do so. I was heartened to hear great comments from fellow concerned Nigerians.


The problem with the National Football Federation is a minuscule version of the Nigerian problem. What is frustrating is that there seems to be no way out of this quandary.This is so because the nation lacks a system of accountability.

The difference between Nigeria and, say, Britain or the United States is not so much that these countries don't have corrupt officials as it is in the fact that these countries have systems that work. First, they have working infrastructures that renew themselves through budgetary allocation and execution, tangibly visible to the citizenry.

For instance, in the state of Minnesota, the long and harsh winters mean that roads are in need of constant repair as a result of expansion that causes them to crack and break when temperatures warm up in the spring, so much so that natives joke that there are only two seasons in the state: winter and construction, and construction there is. No state has better roads than Minnesota despite this constant need for repair. Remember that this is the state where, tragically, a major bridge collapsed in 2007, yet within a year the bridge was rebuilt.

Second, there is a judicial system that works. Corrupt officials in these countries engage in a sort of tango with the system, attempting to beat it, with the knowledge that if caught, they would be ruined. In these countries, there is no broad daylight thievery as it has become wantonly customary in Nigeria.

Although no one, I suppose, would condone acts of corruption, I have a suspicion that Nigerian would not worry or mind too much were there working infrastructures that keep them happy, or were there a punitive system that really works, which routinely tries and jails (really jail) corrupt officials. I am wont to think that it would be a lesser evil, for instance, were those who embezzle national funds to invest them in their local communities in industries and companies that employ the masses.

Nigeria has the resources, natural, human and otherwise, and the wherewithal to industrialize (in fact, this is truism that hardly needs a mention). Industrialization will benefit every strata of the society. For one, it will stem the tide of exodus of Nigerians to foreign countries. For another, it will empower the Nigerian and make him/her self-sufficient. To do so, the common good must be foremost.

As it is, the Nigerian mind does not think of the common good. It is hopelessly narcissistic and self-aggrandizing as well as simplistic and uncultivated, so much so that the first thing a Nigerian thinks of as soon as he/she attains a public office is how to buy a car and furnish a house, inflating the cost in the process, this being an a priori objective, naturally. Car for him or her is still a symbol of achievement, pity!

Recall, the recurring contemptible clamor by members of the congress for the refurbishing or refurnishing of official houses and the purchasing of new cars after every election cycle. This is always their first order of business, which immediately exposes their class. With such a mind that is so darkened, like the mind of Mammon in Paradise Lost, Book I, the Nigerian is hopelessly condemned to mediocrity. John Milton describes Mammon as

the least erected Spirit that fell
From heav'n, for ev'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts [ 680 ]
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav'ns pavement, trod'n Gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, [ 685 ]
Ransack'd the Center, and with impious hands
Rifl'd the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid.

Like Mammon, the basic inclination of the Nigerian is to despoil the nation in blatant disregard of common decency and conscience. The mind of the Nigerian is lost, it seems.

The mind, of course, is the seat of consciousness and of knowledge. Here is constituted that which makes and drives the person. Within it are stored memories, attitudes, mannerism, ideology, et cetera. These are elements that form the mind and consequently determine the behavior of the person.

Memories, once entities of the conscious present are forces, heaped together in the mind like the tectonic layers of the earth. They are encoded information, if you will, showing how a particular personality developed. How did the person respond to the reality that was in the past? What informed the response? How did this response prepare or fail to prepare the person for future realities? This preparation may be understood as the "culturing" of the person. At its most basic, it involves the development of appropriate manners in the individual, and at its elevated level, it develops principles.

While principles are often understood as traits of a personality, they are also collective and known as customs. These are specific to a local context and determine the behavior of people within this local context. Nigeria, of course, consists of a swelter of customs as numerous as its many ethnic groups.

There is yet again, a higher level of principles. This is ideology. Ideology informs national thought or mind. This, Nigeria lacks.

What drives the national consciousness is a rat race mentality, where nepotism, sectionalism, tribalism, and narcissism reign. At present, the nation lacks a unifying identity besides the necessary geographical glue that loosely holds the squabbling and variegated ethnic groups together. There is yet to be a unified Nigeria, held together by a common ideology and aspiration.

While the phrase "the common good" may surface periodically in essays like this and in speeches of government officials, I doubt that anyone can define what this common good is. The common good can, of course, be a common goal. But who can say what this common goal is for Nigeria?

To cite a negative example, it was Nietzsche who thought that the goal of humanity is to march towards the production of a new generation of Übermensch (the superior man or the superman). The mad man, Hitler, thought that this meant the Aryan race and set a goal for the German people to conquer the rest of the world--negative, but nevertheless a definite goal that was pursued, if unfortunately.

In contrast, influenced by the ideas of philosophers such as John Locke, pilgrims set sail from England for the New World to escape repression. They set themselves a goal to create a new democratic world, where the Four Freedoms would reign: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

They aimed to create a country where people would be free to pursue a dream of prosperity, which is now known as the American Dream. The full charter of this nation is contained in its Declaration of Independence. It is safe to say that these goals have been etched into the American consciousness and that they have been tenaciously pursued, such that it may be truly said that America is really the place where dreams can be achieved.

In the age of colonization, European nations determined to explore the rest of the world and colonize it. Great Britain outdid other nations in this endeavor and created a vast empire, over which it reckoned the sun would never set. If the sun did set, Britain nevertheless enriched itself greatly. It should be sufficiently clear from these examples that specific goals have transforming power for any given nation.

The goal in reference here is informed by a particular ideology, specific to a nation. It is not mere statement of vision that is only as good as the paper upon which it is written.

National ideology, in time, transforms into a collective custom. Ideology may otherwise be known as a mutual or collective intentionality, which may manifest in what John Searle calls "intension in planning and acting," or "collective prior intensions and collective intensions-in-action," expressed otherwise, as he says, in such assertions as ""we are doing such and such," "we intend to do such and such," "we believe such and such."" (Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization (Oxford: University Press, 2010), 43.).

As I see it, Nigeria lacks such intentionality. Thus, she fails to progress and rather flounders about like a rudderless ship. Ideology is deliberately nurtured. The history of the founding of the USA and its specific aims and goals provides a good example. This nurturing, in its negative form, manifests as propaganda, with tokens such as posters, magazines, schoolbooks, music, and movies, et al, which pervades the national consciousness.

These are tools that Nigeria could use to advance a national ideology, a common goal for the nation, for propaganda needs not be negative. It may be understood as reeducation or reorientation, without which the nation is doomed.

Although I have so far singled out the ruling class, the root of the Nigerian problem does not really lies with them, otherwise, a change of leadership would alleviate the problem. The fact is, almost everyone that is elected into office becomes a national thieve. Why is this so? Surely, the propensity for corruption is already inherent in the individual before he/she becomes a leader.

In fact, isn’t it true that the very reason why people want to be government official is so they could steal from the public? The implication, naturally, is that, it is not the office that corrupts, but the intention or nature already in existence in the person. One example of its manifestation is in our infamous 419 stigma.

Of course, it is not the elected officials that conduct these scams (although one may not put it beyond them), it must rather be the common Nigerian. And why does he/she do this? Does it not flow from a culture of greed, which manifests itself in every strata of the Nigerian society, for instance the religious sphere, where every Sambo, Chidi, and Bola erects a structure to play church, profiting from the offering that gullible people freely contribute, if hoodwinked?

Most of the so-called "men or women of God", the reader would agree, are in the business for the money: note the flashy cars and attires. How many of them would willingly go to the villages to minister (as they say) to the destitute?

Greed beside, the Nigerian mind needs reorientation because the average Nigerian is uncouth and uncultured.

Those who have the privilege to travel outside the country would note that disorderly conduct begins at final boarding lobby to Nigeria, where almost everyone is now Nigerian. Surprisingly, Nigerians find ways of bringing aboard carry-on luggage beyond the restricted weight and proceed to force them into the overhead luggage bin, often resulting in run-ins with hostesses. At Nigerian airports they jump queues, are rude, and display lack of basic decorum.

An African abroad can be identified as a Nigerian by how loudly he/she talks. Less this be interpreted as taking cheap shots at Nigerians or as a desire to cast aspersion on them, let me state here that the foresaid behavior is not the fault of the individual Nigerian. How can he/she behave otherwise, having never been educated to behave differently?

To change him/her, he/she needs to be cultured. This begins in the kindergarten and continues through the national communication system. It manifests in art, in literature, and in the entertainment industry, and continues in religious institutions, which should shift their focus from preaching greed to preaching more constructive topics, such as how the Nigerian can become a better neighbor and a better citizen, or how he/she may serve his/her fellow human being and society, and how a good name is better than the hoarding of wealth.

A reeducation or reorientation of the mind such as the above will in time produce a cooperative behavior, manners by which Nigerians may be identified. One of the greatest benefits of such a drive would be the birth of a new generation, not of Übermensch, but of principled Nigerians, who would rather have a good name than steal and hoard wealth in Swiss banks.

Another benefit might result in a collective language of ideas and concepts in the common consciousness of the nation, similar to the American Four Freedoms. This reorientation and reeducation would need to focus on art; it would need to borrow bits and pieces from our rich and diverse cultural heritage and weave them into a national narrative; it may lead to the creation of monuments and an appreciation of those already there; it may also cause a reevaluation of some of our national symbols, such as the flag or the national anthem, aiming at enriching and grounding them in our cultural heritage.

Above all, it might lead to the articulation of a singular ideology, a goal for the nation, which will serve as beacon to steer the nation through today's fast-paced world. In essence, emancipate ourselves from our nature of greed, for indeed, none but ourselves can free our mind.

Please, join the conversation.