Between beasts and men that run a country

Hard truths

The Week magazine has replaced The Economist as essential weekly reading to catch up on news for me. Whilst it is not as broad as The Economist in its global coverage, news of regions as Africa, South America and parts of Asia not considered in the Western frame of things does sometimes get a mention.

For instance, in the section about the world at a glance, they had a pointer to Ngouboua in Chad where Boko Haram had carried out a raid. However, the very striking piece of information in the snippet was this; “Chad – which has the region’s most competent army – had recently announced that its troops would be joining a multinational force against the militants.” [Quoted from The Week}

Helping Nigeria

The piece ended with; “So far, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Burundi and Central African Republic have all agreed to help Nigeria fight the extremists.” [Quoted from The Week}

This is a stark narrative on Nigeria, because it shows how we allowed the Boko Haram menace to fester, how we allowed it to grow that it began to threaten and attack neighbouring countries, how despite some victories, Boko Haram has shown gaps in effectiveness, efficiency, competence and ability of the Nigerian military forces and that Nigeria does quite need help in tackling Boko Haram. [Nigeria as covered in the Time magazine.]

Who runs the place?

Another interesting piece I will like to share which I cannot get online is a little box beside the publisher’s details usually written by the founder and editorial director, Jolyon Connell or the Editor-in-chief, Jeremy O’Grady.

The founder writing about a piece in the Sunday Times that had the line, “The best way to understand any political system is to examine what its rulers did in their formative years.” This column written by Adrian Wooldridge in December had the title, “Engineers rule China. Lawyers lead the US. We get bluffers and blaggers.” Alas, this sits behind a paywall and I have not been convinced that the Sunday Times is worth shelling out for.

However, this is what he had to say, “Israel is run by former soldiers (hence the constant warmongering belligerence – my view), the US by lawyers (hence the endless lawsuits), China is run by engineers (hence the indifference to human rights), while Britain’s elite is dominated by people who studied PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) at Oxford.”

Focus lost in the cloud

He goes on to say, regarding this contextual ‘Jack of all trades’ preparation for leadership that allows politicians to have opinions on everything and move effortlessly from one Cabinet post to another; that PPE is “a bluffer’s charter: a dog’s dinner, a mishmash.” For there is no specialism in this generality of study and hence no depth leading to a tendency to “dash off policies at high speed without any serious thought.”

Now, is it any wonder that Great Britain is a mess with the way our economy, health, education, transport, police and business have been overwhelmed with policy initiatives that waste time, cost money, show lots of frenetic activity and offer no particular benefit?

But then

Yet, there is much to be said of those schooled than those without the structure of rigour who have exploited populism and rhetoric to the full like Nigel Farage, who only had a secondary school education, albeit, a public school one or Alex Salmond, who being an economist and academic still has the chops of a reactionary unionist.

Then, one wonders if Nigeria and Russia is run by crooks, spooks or oligarchs, I cannot seem to find another profession doing much in their politics if it does not involve aggrandisement, ostentation, braggadocio and reprehensible conduct projected as power.

Note: Large parts of this blog were quoted verbatim from pieces originally written in The Week Issue 1010 and the Sunday Times.

Africa: Take another look

Africa - Revisited

A few years ago, I came across what is now known as a strange map of Africa. Not so much about Africa itself but putting it in a kind of perspective in comparison with other countries in order to disabuse the view of Africa being out there, out of sight and homogenous.

The blog Africa Is A Country attempts to send up the impressions that tourists and workers to Africa, especially from NGOs give about Africa, but there comes a time where some basic enlightenment is useful.

In terms of size, Africa is the second largest continent in the world with 54* countries. [Source: WorldAtlas (Size)]

Continents

Continent	Size (km2)	Size (mi2)	Population	Countries
Asia	43,820,000	16,920,000	4,164,252,000	44
Africa	30,370,000	11,730,000	1,022,234,000	54
North America	24,490,000	9,460,000	542,056,000	23
South America	17,840,000	6,890,000	392,555,000	12
Antarctica	13,720,000	5,300,000	0	0
Europe	10,180,000	3,930,000	738,199,000	47
Australia/Oceania	9,008,500	3,478,200	29,127,000	14

*There are 54 fully recognised African states that are members of the United Nations with Algeria being the largest by size. [Source: Wikipedia]

However, this detail is hardly effective if one does not catch a visual side of the real comparisons which is where the map below comes in.

[Original Source: ThinkBig – 35 The Size of Africa now inaccessible.]
[Updated with a picture grab from WhiteAfrican on 23-11-2015]

Why it matters

The map is quite apt for many reasons because most of the people I have heard from that say they have visited Africa even though it might have one of three major destinations being Egypt, South Africa or Kenya have hardly seen Africa.

It was the Europeans that colonised most of Africa, Americans that do get to travel besides their economic or military influence are likely to be missionaries if they go off the beaten path or belong to some NGO helping fight one of Africa’s many ills.

The Chinese have been coming to Africa and it is estimated over 1,000,000 have set up home in Africa, the reception of the Chinese varies between great excitement and serious foreboding.

India, Incredible India just allows for those who have been there to know that it is just about a tenth of the size of Africa though with a similar population size.

In the end, I hope that this map just helps put Africa in perspective, it is not a country and even within the 54 countries there are nations, tribes, languages, traditions, cultures and much else that might be the topic for another write-up.

Just take in the wonder of the size of Africa for starters. Thank you.

Nigeria: Stand Up! For Nigeria

Not to be dignified

When that mendicant (read megalomaniac) from Libya first suggested Nigeria split up, I considered it beneath me to dignify his rant with an opinion, having never equivocated about the entity of Nigeria or the identity of Nigerian, I could not be perturbed.

However, this new atrocity of a comment from Muammar Gaddafi [1] requires a comprehensive put-down but better still it is that one opportunity for true Nigerians to stand up for their country in purpose, in unity and in truth.

Feeling the whole of Nigeria

I do wish I had lived all around Nigeria, I only lived in the North and the SouthWest, but I do speak two of the three major indigenous languages of Nigeria.

My mother was born in the SouthWest, grew up in the North before travelling out for studies and returned to the North afterwards, she however speaks the three indigenous languages even though she learnt the third without having first visited that region.

She can well pass for an indigene in any of those places for her command of the language and her understanding of nuances of those tongues.

I remember my father struggling with his Hausa lessons, he really did not need to speak Hausa but the sense of Nigerian in him lead to his desire to integrate.

The great Nigeria

But Nigeria as a whole is a wonderful place, a country of 150 million people, maybe 250 tribes and just as many nations but with a common purpose and identity of which we must all be proud and be ready to defend.

If no one has yet seen the evil, despicable and Machiavellian notion of Colonel Gaddafi, review once again his absurd suggestion.

Nigeria should split along ethnic lines, if Nigeria really had clear-cut ethnic lines there might be a second to consider it, but to then give the example of the Yugoslavian split, it sends a clear message of a deep felt hatred for everyone who boldly declares their Nigerian pride.

Working this Nigeria

I would have welcomed the peace of a Czechoslovakian split, but Yugoslavia is one of bloodshed, sectarian violence, war, genocide and backwardness in comparison to ones neighbours - a split would make our sad history of Biafra child's play.

Obviously, we have to find ways to accentuate the things that make us uniquely and wonderfully Nigerians whilst we in unity militate against those things that divide us and take us away from the common purpose and desire of a great fatherland, great to us and great also in Africa. That potential greatness threatens small minds.

There is no clamour for self-determination in our country; what we seek is equity, justice, fairness and peace - with all the abundant resources of our rich country used to the welfare and development of our people by honest, courageous and visionary leaders.

This is the time to ask yourself if you are really Nigerian or someone seeking an unviable fiefdom with speculations of Utopia that do not exist.

The country we have

For 96 years, we have had the entity called Nigeria, whilst it was handed to us by colonial masters, we have run this country for 49 of those years, very few of the countries of colonial progeny that have split up in Africa have ever done so peacefully.

Nigerians need to rise above their religiosity and primitive clannish tendencies to the promise of a worthwhile commitment to a place called Nigeria.

We inter-marry along all sorts of lines, religious, ethnic, tribal, ideological and what else, we have one pledge, one anthem and one identity – it is Nigerian.

Any division would definitely lead to abnormal divisions which is very much like a cancerous growth which eventually kills the host – you can begin to kill Nigeria by entertaining the rotten thought of division and watch it die or starve this travesty of an utterance of oxygen and make Nigeria rise by condemning the notion in its entirety.

You can however allow a Libyan dictator to take away your right to be a Nigerian, but for me, all men would have departed the earth before Nigeria is no more.

My fellow compatriots – Stand Up for Nigeria.

Source

[1] Gaddafi suggests Nigeria split along ethnic lines