I was enroute by bus from Lagos to Kwara State of Nigeria recently. On the bus sitting next to me was a young Malaysian fella. We said our pleasantries as the fares were collected from us, then as we sat in the bus hawkers and beggars alike converged on us. The hawkers were pushing and shoving, shouting and hedging, frantically trying to sell their stuff while the beggars were trying to convince us to part with any change that we might be carrying. I watched for any sign of cringing from my seat-mate but he calmly waved them all aside as he made himself comfortable. To my curious look he smiled and said “Naaah, they don’t bother me…i’ve been in Nigeria for several years…”
I was impressed and that began a lengthly and eye-opening discussion between us that lasted the whole four-hour journey.
…So here I was with a young Malaysian fella, who’d indicated that he was comfy with our peculiarities in Nigeria…aye, the third world as a whole. Okay, what exactly did we discuss that took up the four hour trip? Everything from politics, the Nigerian ways of life, to professionalism. I was bent on hearing his opinion about Nigerians.
To him, Nigerian politics was not about fairness but about no-holds-barred competition (and we all ought to deal with it that way and stop pretending). He felt that not one of our politicians was a saint, each one of them could and would use whatever means at his disposal to win …but cry foul if he lost because the competition had an ace (particularly if it was a dark ace) that led to his loss. My Malaysian friend believed that Nigeria got the leadership that was in harmony with the sum-total of its societal development…that the quality of its leadership would improve as the society improved while the society would improve as the leadership improved…I didn’t quite get that but I was not ready to interrupt him. He was convinced that every society improved despite its leadership no matter how slowly…I didn’t get that either. I wanted him to say more so I simply agreed.
On the Nigerian ways of life, my Malaysian friend gave an incredulous nod and said ‘You Nigerians are just the very meaning of the word ‘tenacious’. He felt that many other countries would have completely crashed to a halt after going through what Nigeria has gone through but also opinioned that the Nigerian ways of life has been more of a liability than an asset. To this, I refrained from comment so as to keep him talking. He then went ahead to explain to me that Nigeria missed it’s calling in allowing its oil boom to brainwash it away from large-scale agriculture. Nigeria should have stuck to the basics and our leaders could have made Agriculture elegant enough to move Nigeria into an agricultural world power.
Food for thought…Nigeria could have pointed itself in the direction of agricultural world power but we didn’t. Instead we went after the proverbial carrot hanging from a thread on a stick dangled by the industrialized nations riding on our backs. Oooooh! we goofed.
