Defeat
Just boiling below the surface of my experiences here was the suppressed truth about this place: the problem with Nigeria is Nigerians. Please don’t hang me for heresy before I get the chance to defend myself. I have grown to love this country and its people, but it is obvious from the moment I stepped off the plane into that mildew saturated airport that this country has some serious issues.
Today at lunch, I had an important and real conversation with Ladun, my coworker, and a man I had never met before, both Nigerian. I asked them if they had been keeping up with the issues developing in Zimbabwe and in Sudan, and when they said they had not, I briefed them on the presidential woes of both countries. This opened up a floodgate of opinions, not about these countries and their problems, but about Nigeria and its problems. Corruption, laziness, unfathomable geed, petty vindictiveness all were detested with such sincerity by my lunch guests. All of these evils were spoken of as if they had already won, that the country was firm in their grasp and nothing could shake it out. Bluntly, Ladun explained that it is the people, it is the mindset. This I thought I knew, but her interpretation of the Nigerian situation made me realize that I only scratched the surface.
One example: In America, you may have a police officer, and he may not be paid well by American standards. But chances are, that police officer will do his job with pride, be committed to helping others, and generally exhibit integrity. Here in Nigeria, there will always be one officer that ruins everything from everyone. The government will give the chief officer money for uniforms or supplies. Instead of siphoning off parts of that money, or collecting on the interest of the funds over time, the officer will take all of the money and cover his trail with lies.
Naturally, this is a worse case scenario, but in the newspapers and in conversation with people here, it is obvious that it happens on a grand scale with alarming frequency. This country is extremely rich people, yet no one sees the money. When a society produces government leaders that have no issue at stealing billions of dollars from impoverished people, that is a problem. I tried to argue that corruption is everywhere, even in the US, but they made the true point that other country’s corruption cannot even approach that of Nigeria’s. She said if a politician used 20% of a budget on himself and did something for the community with the rest, the people would praise the man. They would hardly care that he lived in a big house or drove 15 cars. But the situation here is that the official will use 75% on himself, 20% on friends, and 5% on improvements.
But the worse was yet to come. Ladun brought it home to our workplace. Mobil Producing Nigeria, 55% (at the minimum) owned by Nigeria, the rest by ExxonMobil is not immune. “I am glad I am on a project that has more whites than blacks,” says Ladun, “otherwise things would not get done.” I damn near choked on my water hearing that. My instincts of labeling this as self hatred were overcame by the fact that she was probably right. Accounting for the facts that Americans are generally workaholics, and that there are certainly highly qualified and highly capable Nigerians, the statement still rings true. In the month that I am here, I have noticed that westerners (I refuse to use the term whites) essentially run this place. And that the areas that are not ran by westerners are pretty bad. The gentleman who sat relatively quiet excused himself to leave, but before he left, he offered one last piece of advice. “We need to import our leaders. We import everything else we can’t make, from cars to refrigerators, we should do the same with leaders.” The words that stuck out were “can’t make”. When you feel you cannot make the leaders that can grow your nation, the society is failing. Their harsh criticism of their people was not borne out of contempt, but of disappointment. Their people have squandered so much and as a result, morale is terribly low. It was like Ladun’s feelings for her people mirrored my feelings of my people. The situation of blacks in America is horrendous and no matter how much you take into account the forces acting against us, our own selves are our biggest deterrent.
White supremacists need not rejoice at the admission that we (Africans and the diaspora) are suffering from major internal failings. This internal bleeding are symptoms of gross violations inflicted upon us by our fair skinned brethren. The vice grip of the West on Africa was not slackened until the last century precluding any periods of growth that was our due. The same story applies to brown people world-wide.
People of Africa and its legacy are trauma victims that have been widely unattended. We must not be blinded by the pride of the defeated. And yes, we lost, we did not know that we were fighting and they certainly did not fight fair, but we lost. We need help to get back on our feet. If we can help ourselves, lets do so, but if not, take the help wherever it is offered… even if it comes from our attackers. When we recover, we will awaken to a world molded to shape by those that conquered us. Getting off point now…
Nigeria, really Africa and its Diaspora, must grow, and it will take time. We have been stunted, but only temporarily. But the first step is to recognize that things must change. We must set our course on the right bearing.
Today at lunch, I had an important and real conversation with Ladun, my coworker, and a man I had never met before, both Nigerian. I asked them if they had been keeping up with the issues developing in Zimbabwe and in Sudan, and when they said they had not, I briefed them on the presidential woes of both countries. This opened up a floodgate of opinions, not about these countries and their problems, but about Nigeria and its problems. Corruption, laziness, unfathomable geed, petty vindictiveness all were detested with such sincerity by my lunch guests. All of these evils were spoken of as if they had already won, that the country was firm in their grasp and nothing could shake it out. Bluntly, Ladun explained that it is the people, it is the mindset. This I thought I knew, but her interpretation of the Nigerian situation made me realize that I only scratched the surface.
One example: In America, you may have a police officer, and he may not be paid well by American standards. But chances are, that police officer will do his job with pride, be committed to helping others, and generally exhibit integrity. Here in Nigeria, there will always be one officer that ruins everything from everyone. The government will give the chief officer money for uniforms or supplies. Instead of siphoning off parts of that money, or collecting on the interest of the funds over time, the officer will take all of the money and cover his trail with lies.
Naturally, this is a worse case scenario, but in the newspapers and in conversation with people here, it is obvious that it happens on a grand scale with alarming frequency. This country is extremely rich people, yet no one sees the money. When a society produces government leaders that have no issue at stealing billions of dollars from impoverished people, that is a problem. I tried to argue that corruption is everywhere, even in the US, but they made the true point that other country’s corruption cannot even approach that of Nigeria’s. She said if a politician used 20% of a budget on himself and did something for the community with the rest, the people would praise the man. They would hardly care that he lived in a big house or drove 15 cars. But the situation here is that the official will use 75% on himself, 20% on friends, and 5% on improvements.
But the worse was yet to come. Ladun brought it home to our workplace. Mobil Producing Nigeria, 55% (at the minimum) owned by Nigeria, the rest by ExxonMobil is not immune. “I am glad I am on a project that has more whites than blacks,” says Ladun, “otherwise things would not get done.” I damn near choked on my water hearing that. My instincts of labeling this as self hatred were overcame by the fact that she was probably right. Accounting for the facts that Americans are generally workaholics, and that there are certainly highly qualified and highly capable Nigerians, the statement still rings true. In the month that I am here, I have noticed that westerners (I refuse to use the term whites) essentially run this place. And that the areas that are not ran by westerners are pretty bad. The gentleman who sat relatively quiet excused himself to leave, but before he left, he offered one last piece of advice. “We need to import our leaders. We import everything else we can’t make, from cars to refrigerators, we should do the same with leaders.” The words that stuck out were “can’t make”. When you feel you cannot make the leaders that can grow your nation, the society is failing. Their harsh criticism of their people was not borne out of contempt, but of disappointment. Their people have squandered so much and as a result, morale is terribly low. It was like Ladun’s feelings for her people mirrored my feelings of my people. The situation of blacks in America is horrendous and no matter how much you take into account the forces acting against us, our own selves are our biggest deterrent.
White supremacists need not rejoice at the admission that we (Africans and the diaspora) are suffering from major internal failings. This internal bleeding are symptoms of gross violations inflicted upon us by our fair skinned brethren. The vice grip of the West on Africa was not slackened until the last century precluding any periods of growth that was our due. The same story applies to brown people world-wide.
People of Africa and its legacy are trauma victims that have been widely unattended. We must not be blinded by the pride of the defeated. And yes, we lost, we did not know that we were fighting and they certainly did not fight fair, but we lost. We need help to get back on our feet. If we can help ourselves, lets do so, but if not, take the help wherever it is offered… even if it comes from our attackers. When we recover, we will awaken to a world molded to shape by those that conquered us. Getting off point now…
Nigeria, really Africa and its Diaspora, must grow, and it will take time. We have been stunted, but only temporarily. But the first step is to recognize that things must change. We must set our course on the right bearing.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 6:23 AM
1 Comments:
You're so zen these days. Also, if you're not going to be in the US on August 8th, come to Austin before you leave the country again. I miss you and I need someone normal to talk to. Also, my new place is a million times better than my old place and you won't feel like your car is going to get stolen. And finally, I'm going to teach you how to write. You're brilliant, but your publishing skills leave something to be desired.
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