Introduction

Many in Africa spend a great deal of ill-gotten wealth on frivolities - exotic cars, mansions, jewelries, yachts - even embellishing websites with photos of their resplendence. These are actually in pursuit of a name that would last only a quarter the length of a generation. Massive fortunes are left behind for their progeny, hoping a legacy of personal wealth will endure through children left behind. Immortality - a monumental and enduring reputation, a legacy known to all in their country and beyond, a name celebrated by several generations to come - is a concept with just about too much depth for a shallow mind seeking instant gratification. But here is a way to etch one's name in the books of history. For those who want immortality, here is the elixir.

THOMAS HOLLOWAY - His "Gifts to the Nation"

Professor Thomas Holloway, (1800 - 1883), an English man, amassed great wealth for himself by selling his Holloway's Pills and Ointment, aided by a worldwide mass advertising campaign. Having no child, no heir, the question of what to do with his money led to Holloway's first philanthropic project.

Holloway went on to immortalize his name by building two large institutions in England: Holloway Sanatorium and Royal Holloway College, a college of the University of London. At the opening ceremony of the college in 1886, three years after Holloway's death, Queen Victoria, who herself took Holloway's Pills, was so pleased with what she saw that she allowed the college to use "Royal" in its name.
These institutions were founded by Holloway as "gifts to the nation."

Buying Immortality in Africa

Philanthropic contributions in African societies, in the spirit of Thomas Holloway, can have a monolithic impact on jobs, infrastructure, and the names of the benevolent contributors. Sahara Reporters of Nigeria gave a few examples of how a certain contentious $1.62 Billion could transform the Nigerian economy. (Note: Funds unaccounted for in Nigeria is estimated to be over $500 Billion)

Victoria Falls International Airport (see pictures on Google for shear beauty) was built with a petty $150M. Just one individual in a country like Nigeria can afford to build 11 or more of such airports as "gifts to the nation." Imagine building, and naming after you, just one of such airports, and offering it as a gift to the general population? That is immortality guaranteed.

The Enfidha International Airport in Tunisia was constructed with $520M. With $1.62 Billion, Nigeria could boasts three of such magnificent airports, all named after well-deserving philanthropists.

The Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago was built with $654M. The hospital has 8,436 employees, and till date, has generated $3.79B in revenue, showing how infrastructure can give boost to an economy. Only one of such hospitals built in Nigeria and named after a philanthropist can transform Nigeria into the medical capital of West Africa, ending medical tourism and the resulting leakage of funds from the economy.

The above analysis is for a fiddling $1.62 Billion. Now imagine the impact a whopping $500 Billion (not corrected for inflation) would have on Nigeria's infrastructure and economy. Cities in the Middle East, like Dubai, developed at a rapid pace over a short period only when oil prices began to climb.

With high oil prices now a thing of the past, and with oil facing a grim future, unless Africa becomes a philanthropic society and learns to empower and enrich its vast human resources, the odds will always be stacked against the continent, despite the piffling efforts by some to promote human welfare in the richest, yet poorest, region in the world.

A Revolution, A New Mindset

African civilization would leapfrog only when Africans learn this fundamental cliche: a man is defined, not by what he puts on his body (clothes and jewelry), but by what he puts in his head (ideas and values), and what he cultivates in his heart (sympathy and love). This is what defines humanity.

Equally important are the thoughtful and deliberate actions taken to transform altruistic ideas into wheels of change, not just for personal enrichment, but for societal and collective advancement.

The grandiloquence and magniloquence, along with the civilization-busting mindset observed in sub-Saharan Africa, the least developed region on planet earth, is also replicated in black communities in Chicago, Los Angeles, South Carolina, etc.

A doctor of sorts once said in a radio talk show in America: "In 2016, African Americans spent $2 Billion on Air Jordans, $4 Billion on liquor and alcohol, $600 Million on fast food, and bought twice the number of Mercedes Benz as White Americans, although White Americans have twice the wealth of black folks."

Interestingly, these items have become a "status symbol" for the African American community, he continued, symbols of freedom for an "oppressed" and disadvantaged demographic. Indeed, wealth has become the only true currency that guarantees respect, prestige and honour for some, for those who are shallow and lacking in depth, who would rather monopolize wealth for themselves rather than advance their civilization forward.

Conclusion

Sub-Saharan Africa's civilization is a century or more behind Western civilization. The reason is simple. Billions of dollars worth of Africa's wealth seats in offshore accounts. When embezzled funds from Africa crosses the continent's borders, they simply become "grants", as they are almost never repatriated. They end up being disbursed as loans with ultra-low interest rates to help small and big businesses in Europe and America. Some of the stolen funds are even loaned back to cash-strapped African governments, where they are once again mismanaged, re-stolen and expatriated offshore. As streets in the civilized world gets paved with their internally generated revenue and much 'gold' from Africa, Africa's infrastructure continue to crumble.

But Africa can reverse its fortunes within a fraction of a lifetime, by harnessing moral energy from the story of Thomas Holloway, one of the greatest philanthropist the world has ever seen.

This has been the elixir of immortality and the tale of Thomas Holloway, as told by Stanley Ochuko OMADOGHO.