Restructuring the Nigerian Mindset: Lessons from Okey Ndibe's Visit

by Deji Yesufu

Two weeks ago, I began the "Restructuring the Nigerian Mindset" series on this column and it is obvious to me now that the series is going to run longer than I expected. So I invite you to just sit back and savour the discussions. Last week I looked at Mrs. G's statement at my daughter's school about a teacher giving his primary one students freedom but yet still in control of the class. Today I want to discuss various lessons I gleaned from Okey Ndibe's recent visit to Nigeria, with the hope that those lessons will liberate our mindset as Nigerians. By the way, my focus in these series of papers is simply that Nigeria does not need political restructuring; rather, it is our mindset that needs to change. So far, since introducing the subject, I have been dwelling on education.

Okey Ndibe is primarily a writer. He is known in the Nigerian literary community as a columnist. His Sunday column in the Guardian in the year 2004, introduced me to political literature. I was always so enthralled at his manner of taking the Obasonjo government to task without mentioning a word of insult. For this, he was arrested many times at the airports as he sought to leave or enter the country. He is still on the SSS list at our airports. Okey is also a novelists and has written a couple of books that are international bestsellers, including "Arrows of Rain" and "Foreign Gods, Inc". His latest book, "Never Look an American in the Eye", is his memoirs of his stay in the United States since 1988. The stories are so captivating and the book is the talk of town in the literary world today.

I learnt via Facebook that Okey was coming to Nigeria in July on a book tour for his latest work. Ibadan was to be his last stop around the country, so I planned to be there to hear him. Fortunately he was billed to address students at the University of Ibadan too. So I keyed into the two events. Even though I had never met him, I had learnt that Okey was a good friend of my father and had stayed at my Dad’s place in the State of Nevada, USA, when he was once visiting. Therefore it was a "reunion" of some sort when we eventually met in Ibadan. Now to the lessons Okey's visit taught me and the need for restructuring the mindset of the Nigerian.

Okey repeated a phrase often: "a story that must be told never forgives silence". That statement was made in response to questions on why his literary style was so much similar to those of Chinua Achebe. He explained that his writings were actually a mixture of Soyinka's literary ethics and Achebe's writing style. He said that the aforementioned quote was his reworking of Soyinka's "the man died in every person who kept silent in the face of tyranny". Okey was urging his listeners to find their voices. It is instructive to note that Okey's visit to UI drew only a couple of students and lecturers to the Arts Theatre were the event held. However when the ignominious “Apostle” Johnson Suleiman visited the same institution in April this year, the car park of the Chapel of The Resurrection was filled to capacity. Lesson one: The man is dying in many Nigerians. Nigerians must find their voices in the face of political and religious tyrants. We must discover the things that are important and pursue them.

Okey spoke a great deal about the wonders of Providence in his life. This story is important because many Nigerians look to God for miracles but they forget that vital aspect of hard work, patience, thriftiness and good old common sense. Okey left Nigeria in 1988 to be Editor of a magazine that Chinua Achebe and some other persons had founded. The magazine was highly acclaimed but it suffered low advert patronage, and folded up after two years. Okey was therefore without a job only after two years in the USA. By an act of Providence, he met a Professor who offered to get him an opportunity to do a Masters degree in creative writing, if he would only submit the first few chapters of the book he was writing. Okey was not writing any book; he had no plans to be an author but in a few days, he had written out a draft and submitted it. It won him the grant to do his Masters and that book became his thesis, which was finally published as his first book: "Arrows of Rain". Lesson two: Miracles and God's Providences reach men in the place of duty and not in the house of prayers.

My observation of the man Okey Ndibe reveals him to be a man of great humility and simplicity. In contrast to his column, where he can be quite vitriolic, I saw a man with a genuine love of people at heart. Probably this is what informs his attack on rent seeking establishments. Okey wore only one type of clothing in all his public outing, throughout the book tour: a black shirt on a black jean trouser. Probably in line with the thinking of a Mark Zuckerberg, Okey will rather spend time with thinking than dressing to leave a good impression on people. His simplicity was legendary; with absolutely no sense of an air of importance around him. He answered questions forthrightly, he reeled out his accomplishments as a writer with grace at heart, and the aptness to teach was so profound. There is no doubt that that simplicity that is found in many persons that possess substance in them could be seen in him; rather than the noise that emanate from empty barrels. Lesson three: be meek.

The final lesson, out of many others, that one could glean from Okey's visit is the tragedy of the brain drain that has befallen our nation. While Okey's journey to the USA was not so much due to the phenomenon called brain drain, it is a fact that a person like Okey cannot be a permanent teacher in our public institutions because the establishment, both political and institutional, will frustrate him out. The best that we can get of him are occasional visits like this or honorary academic lecturing opportunities. Nigerians need to see people like Okey Ndibe as true heroes and learn from them. Unfortunately, even learned people don't know him. Probably when he wins the Noble Prize for literature, he would become well known. But for now, I present to you Okey Ndibe: a Nigerian doing us proud in the committee of nations. Get his books, especially the latest "Never Look an American in the Eye", and glean something of the way and manner true graceful and great men think.

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/restructuring-the-nigerian-mindset-lessons-from-okey-ndibes-visit/