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Malady Of The Nigerian Elite by obatala15(m): 10:27am On Feb 18, 2016 |
I have the feeling that Nigeria has not been very lucky
with her elite class. When one reads the history of
renaissance and how developed societies evolved from
primitive beginnings, one will not underrate the crucial
role of the elite class in nation building.
The elite referred to here is in the corporate business,
academic, military and, of course, the political class,
who are to be the forerunners of great reforms and
ideas as they deploy the power of education to
challenge mediocre values.
The very nucleus of development and attainment of
lofty heights of any society resides in this peculiar
group.
I want to believe that the last time Nigeria ever
benefited from this class of people was during the pre-
independence era through the Pan-African nationalistic
struggles as they put their trained minds to work for
the emancipation of their fatherlands from the
draconian handling of the colonial masters.
However, one may be tempted to conclude that the
mandate then was for self-aggrandisement and
enrichment.
Immediately after attaining independence, something
came over them that corrupted their egalitarian values
as they fuelled narrow ethnic preoccupations to
negotiate power at the centre.
They invariably transformed over time to become
another cohort of native colonial masters as they
continuously strategise to plunder our collective
resources in the guise of leadership.
At this point, I disagree with scholars who push the
theory of neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism to
explain our underdevelopment and the malady of our
elite clan. The colonial masters handed over to this
group about six decades ago to creatively manage
these resources for the social, economic and political
development that would impact our mental wellbeing.
The Europeans did not frustrate our plans to build
roads and provide us with uninterrupted power supply.
The mediocrity of our elite caused us these goodies.
This malady of the elite class is not immediately
traceable to our diagnostic categories in psychiatry but
their behavioural pattern definitely satisfies the criteria
for some attention since it comes with profound
negative impact on them, their family and the society at
large.
I prefer to explain the root cause of this malady
emanating from an elitism that predated the colonial
adventures of the Europeans. This pre-colonial elitism
furnished our colonial masters with the facility to
articulate the indirect rule effectively. Historically, we
have had empires presided over by kings who had
absolute control and effective subordination of the
masses assisted by the army generalissimo that
guaranteed security for the king and the elitist
priesthood that placated the conscience of the king
even while he became reckless with power.
There is apparently no vivid record of a process through
which power was seized from the elite class by the
vulnerable masses because they were trapped in a
strange form of communal existence within the context
of a draconian elitist arrangement.
Whenever the king was reckless and the other public
office holders were uncomfortable, a change of baton
would be articulated in a way that had no recourse to
the preferences of the masses while the offending king
was given a soft landing through canonisation of his
burial site. The site could be a river, a rock or forest to
be worshipped by the masses without his wrongdoing
exposed.
The colonial masters used this template on ground to
formulate the indirect rule that empowered the then
ruling elite class to give their brothers into slavery and
plunder our economic resources.
What our scholars label as neo-colonialism is an
excuse for the malady of our elite class who are
continually exploiting the loophole of our culture that
confers leadership with the status of a deity. The
Nigerian problem is not ethnicity and lack of resources
but that of a primitive and selfish elite class that
squanders our national wealth for the mundane.
We have them in the university, civil service, corporate
business world and unfortunately many clerics deploy
their intellectual resources in strategising to assist the
elite class to undermine government for selfish
accumulation of state resources. This has led to
pervasive hopelessness in the country with rising
unemployment and penury, which guarantees mental
distress. The priesthood arm of the elite class has failed
to be the conscience of the nation, which could have
been a template for healing the malady of the elite
class since they are caught up in the mindless material
accumulation derivable from the joint sharing of the
national cake.
That is why it has been suggested that many of the
nation’s leaders should undergo mental evaluation and
counselling before they take up political appointments.
Experts say this would make them conscientious and
empathetic to the challenges the average Nigerian contends with. www.punchng.com/malady-of-the-nigerian-elite/ |
Re: Malady Of The Nigerian Elite by masterblogger(m): 11:50am On Feb 18, 2016 |
Y |
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