Firstly I would like to take this chance to give everyone here a warm greeting. Greetings! I hope I have your attention, at least for the length of this introductory paragraph. Now, it seems to me that you are hungry for change. Perhaps with Obama's current election success, we see more in ourselves than meets the eye. We see more in ourselves than history has told. We see more in ourselves, than what we have achieved. Yet, what we cannot see in ourselves is the courage to stand up against what we believe is wrong doings by some certain fellow countrymen. And that is understandable. Why should we? Why should we risk our lives for backstabbing tribal politics? Why should we risk our lives and the lives of our family so we can remove one corrupt politician and place another corrupt politician in his place? The system is broken and even the deaf, dumb, and blind can profoundly hear, understand and see the circumstance of our hopelessness. What we cannot see in ourselves we seek in others, when we cannot find what we seek we feel despair. We despair at the state of our current affairs. We begin to ask ourselves; "Can we, blacks, run a country effectively?”, "Can we, blacks, put tribal differences aside and come together around a common cause?". These questions are irrelevant. However I will seek to shed some light on these topics in my one, and preferably only post here.

What we must first do, is delve into a bit of soul searching. We must look inside ourselves. What perhaps is a relevant question is; what was life like in Nigeria, at the point of contact with the first Europeans? Nigeria, circa 1480. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come to Nigeria. What they saw were war like tribes, stuck in the Stone Age, quite happy to butcher each other for a living. Fair enough, not the first from a European perspective. Europeans at that time were Bronze Age tribes, albeit larger ones, also quite happy to butcher each other. Fair enough.

Now let us we fast track slightly, perhaps 20 or so years into the future, past the discovery of the new world, loosely named after Italian Amerigo Vespucci. Our Portuguese 'trade partners' were now convincingly moving westward, grabbing pieces of the new world into what is today known as modern Brazil. With this they needed labour. More labour than they could bring from Portugal, as the competition for the new world now would heat up. One could say the Portuguese had good hindsight. I will not provide you with another bitter in depth history lesson, and you all know how the story ends. Men and women from Western Africa, specifically Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Benin were forced into boats and shipped to the new world to be sold in the slave market for a good fee.

What we fail to point out and I do like bringing this one up as often as I can, is that it was African chiefs who sold our compatriots into slavery. How could they not? The allure of sugar, spices, and gold was far stronger than the allure of boring human life and dignity. Yes, the Europeans did kidnap Africans at later stages when there were times when our chiefs would not sell warriors, prisoners, and other men that did not meet their fancy, but the Europeans learned this primarily through us. Monkey see, monkey do. And while it may be white monkey, Europeans cannot deny their primordial ancestry. We taught them very well how to exploit us. We are the best, at exploiting us.

Now let us do another fast track to the modern period, a period where skyscrapers litter skylines of all but African metropolises. This is a period where the pale blue dot, as seen from space in the dark illuminates with mega cities. Ah, but not Africa, not Nigeria, not Africa. The slave trade continues. Our chiefs have changed their traditional clothing for brash western suits, stylish ties and well tailored shoes. They have replaced the burden of capturing weary warriors, with the much easier to deal with starving children sporting well defined rib cages, illiterate militias, and the intelligentsia huddled in boats by the thousands trying to escape the pathetic situation they find themselves in. Long gone are the sugar, spices and gold imports, replaced with cheap credit from the IMF, partially uncollected taxes from foreign oil firms, and healthy Swiss bank accounts. The average Nigerian? Bah, let its corpse rot on the highway stretch between Ibadan and Lagos!

Apparently the success of the rest of the world has not yet even penetrated the outer reaches of the collective African psyche. Success, a frequent story of the twenty first century, but alas, not an African one. The black man continues to aimlessly wonder the Earth.

And that brings me to my first Question? Can we blacks effectively run a country? The answer to that is, not yet. My second question; "Can we put tribal differences aside to rally behind a common cause?” the answer; we have not done so yet. But there is a caveat; for what we have not yet achieved, is a great opportunity to not only attain, but to exceed all expectations of the doubters. The doubters are we. The original blackman. The tribal warrior. The survivor. The resister, the perseverant.

My fellows, this is where my organization will eventually come into play. The political and socio economical environment is slowly blossoming into what will become one the biggest trials of human history. Not just for Nigerians, but for all Africans. Nigeria is a true microcosm of the whole continent. To understand Nigeria, is to understand Africa, but even more importantly, to win Nigeria is to win Africa. The time has not yet arrived for what will be a shock to the system. The plan is only a work in progress. Its fruition will depend on you, but not yet.

I will outline four important factors that will occur as soon as we have completed our objective. Let us call them, our first principles of reform. Security consolidation, energy reform, agrarian reform, and educational reform.

These will only occur after the establishment of the rule of law. A strict precedent will be set with the establishment of common law, legislated by you, and enforced by an independent judiciary system, also ran, by you. Accountability will become a phrase that will be as common as the sweltering African heat. The leaders that we elect will be civil servants, not thieves. The establishment of checks and balances should act as brick walls against the notion that power is to be grabbed and retained for one’s personal motives. The unwarranted acquisition of power will in effect be ended. This will be a check to protect us from ourselves. Certain Europeans had realized this in the past and hence created political and bureaucratic systems that prevented the acquisition of unwarranted and unnecessary power grabbing. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We are all the same, Christian, Muslim, Yoruba, Igbo, Hutu, Tutsi, Somalian pirate, we are all the same. We share one continent, we share one home. It is all we have. Ourselves and the land beneath us. There are over hundreds of ethnic groups, but you cannot have hundreds countries on this continent that will function. In eventuality we will have what we need.

It is now time to relax. Enjoy your life. Enjoy friendships, take the time to cherish your family, cherish the nature around. Visit the rural areas and acquaint yourself with the countryside and surroundings; do not be afraid of vandals and thieves. In time it will all seem irrelevant. We have several years of respite. When the spark erupts, we will work together, and you will not even realize it. But we will all work. We will all sweat, we will all bleed, and we will all cry. And alas, we should rejoice. There will come an eventuality, when it is not Africa that needs to bring itself to commonplace western standards, it is when western standards will be outdated relics, scrambling to bring themselves to our creation.

I see that some of you may have traveled from the west to see Nigeria, and you are sickened by the disparity that Africans live in, with the rest of western world. The western world burned and its citizens bled to achieve these standards. We must also set Africa on fire, and bleed to achieve ours. Do not fret and have hope. I will go first.

We shall meet in the coming years.


Sincerely yours



~U9

Nice article. Loads of truth in it. Loads!

While I read through, I couldn't stop wondering if 200 years from now, we would still be that "dark continent". Because, how come 600 years after the Portuguese landed, nobody has taught it necessary that the fortunes of Africa must change?

So much pain on this land. The strife, disease, despair and starvation. When will it all end? It hurts to be reminded that you are African at a time like this.

But then, this quote gives you some strength

Sepular:


But there is a caveat; for what we have not yet achieved, is a great opportunity to not only attain, but to exceed all expectations of the doubters.

~U9

We really can change. The problems of Africa can be confined to history books. We all need to raise our excellence bars.

@Poster
On your first principles of reform: Security consolidation, energy reform, agrarian reform, and educational reform, while I commend the principles themselves, I think one omitted principle with greater priority is Ideological reform. Our excellence bar in Africa has to be raised. Africans have to come to an understanding of what the meaning of life in itself is. 600 years and we still don't have much value for it.
Maybe these are the functions of education.It hasn't worked. Really, I think an ideoligical reform is top priority and of the essence.

Also, if your organization would seek to effect change strictly via political means, I don't have a crystal ball, but I fear it would be like many others that have come and gone.
On the other hand, if the goal is to impact change at all cost, every means possible; business, politics, Socio- Economics, every means, then the sky is the foot mat and we'll have no limit.

Again, I applaud this very insightful write-up and I look forward to see good things coming out of it.

interesting writeup even though I dont agree with some of it.