Sometimes I feel like I can draw parallels between a good number of local governments in Nigeria and small town America with both having relatively limited resources and little to no high end economic ventures outside of educational institutions and some small scale industry. However in drawing these parallels one thing continually befuddles me - there really is nothing spectacular these places are doing but somehow everything works. I once tried to figure out what exactly they have that the average local government in Nigeria does not already have or at least have the capability to put in place but I really could not think of anything. This led me to the conclusion that the ultimate challenge to the development of the country lies in the ability or inability of its people to plan and execute said plans. We somehow prefer being reactive and even then, do not follow through with interventions to see them established. Once something else draws our attention, we drop everything and pursue that. These trends can be seen in almost every aspect of our lives both personal and professional. An industry opens up and everyone floods it until it is oversaturated. Then rather than maintaining or building capacity in it, we simply turn our focus to the next shiny toy. But develop I think should be a grind - a long slog and I am not sure we have built the discipline and resilience it needs.
All of this, but also poverty, specifically the Nigerian kind is a political design and weapon. How can we break out of that when those in power to effect policies and change refuse to and when private citizens make attempts, they are frustrated out of it?
That is the thing though. I do not think Nigeria's poverty and continued underdevelopment is by any particular type of insidious design or plan but simply by a combination of the sheer incompetence we seem to attract into leadership and by the general populace's inability to forge a common identity around what we want as individuals and as a society. I would posit that there are likely almost as many if not more instances of other private citizens working hard to frustrate lofty development plans as there are of government officials doing the same. And why is this? Simply because we are imbibed with a mindset of advancement as simply being better than the man next door. Heck we even named a generator for this mindset. We are raised to believe that we rise by beating others and so life becomes something of an existential struggle between even those who should closely collaborate for progress. Village people anybody? For our society to grow and develop, we must come to an understanding that even without homogeneity of thought (which I believe comes with its own inherent dangers anyways), sameness of purpose is integral to the survival of a society. Until we imbibe this mindset, we will just continue with the low hanging fruit of blaming politicians or some shadowy 'cabal' for our underdevelopment.
I believe Freud called it the Narcissism of small differences. The battle is fiercest where individuals are most similar. This lies at the heart of the average Nigerians quest to outdo his neighbor.
Sometimes I feel like I can draw parallels between a good number of local governments in Nigeria and small town America with both having relatively limited resources and little to no high end economic ventures outside of educational institutions and some small scale industry. However in drawing these parallels one thing continually befuddles me - there really is nothing spectacular these places are doing but somehow everything works. I once tried to figure out what exactly they have that the average local government in Nigeria does not already have or at least have the capability to put in place but I really could not think of anything. This led me to the conclusion that the ultimate challenge to the development of the country lies in the ability or inability of its people to plan and execute said plans. We somehow prefer being reactive and even then, do not follow through with interventions to see them established. Once something else draws our attention, we drop everything and pursue that. These trends can be seen in almost every aspect of our lives both personal and professional. An industry opens up and everyone floods it until it is oversaturated. Then rather than maintaining or building capacity in it, we simply turn our focus to the next shiny toy. But develop I think should be a grind - a long slog and I am not sure we have built the discipline and resilience it needs.
All of this, but also poverty, specifically the Nigerian kind is a political design and weapon. How can we break out of that when those in power to effect policies and change refuse to and when private citizens make attempts, they are frustrated out of it?
That is the thing though. I do not think Nigeria's poverty and continued underdevelopment is by any particular type of insidious design or plan but simply by a combination of the sheer incompetence we seem to attract into leadership and by the general populace's inability to forge a common identity around what we want as individuals and as a society. I would posit that there are likely almost as many if not more instances of other private citizens working hard to frustrate lofty development plans as there are of government officials doing the same. And why is this? Simply because we are imbibed with a mindset of advancement as simply being better than the man next door. Heck we even named a generator for this mindset. We are raised to believe that we rise by beating others and so life becomes something of an existential struggle between even those who should closely collaborate for progress. Village people anybody? For our society to grow and develop, we must come to an understanding that even without homogeneity of thought (which I believe comes with its own inherent dangers anyways), sameness of purpose is integral to the survival of a society. Until we imbibe this mindset, we will just continue with the low hanging fruit of blaming politicians or some shadowy 'cabal' for our underdevelopment.
I believe Freud called it the Narcissism of small differences. The battle is fiercest where individuals are most similar. This lies at the heart of the average Nigerians quest to outdo his neighbor.