You live and work outside Nigeria but you keep a tab on
Nigeria. You come home when you get the opportunity. Why do you do this
repeatedly?
Let me begin with the obvious: Nigeria is my country and my home. I
didn’t leave this country to live elsewhere until I was 50 years of age
in 1997. My family and I had to go for certain reasons. The United
States of America came to our rescue at a time we were desperate about
the educational and health situation of our daughter. Today that young
lady is taking full advantage of the generous facilities provided by the
US for people with her kind of challenge. If we had kept her in
Nigeria, she would have wasted away. This country cannot take care of
the able-bodied, let alone those with special needs. Continue...
In the past 17 years, I have been shuttling between the United States
and here. The University of New Orleans extended its hand of assistance
when I needed it most by providing me a job and a conducive
professional (and personal) environment. When I arrived at the
university in August 1997, my colleagues made me feel at home; some of
them even contributed furniture for our small apartment near the
university. And ever since, they’ve shown their appreciation of my
humble contributions to the growth and development of the university.
Thus, about two years ago I was selected as Distinguished Professor,
about the highest academic honour the university bestows.
Needless to say, the US provides a much more conducive environment
for scholarship and creative work. The things you need are there: well
stocked libraries and book stores; state-of-the-art laboratories,
ubiquitous internet service, and uninterrupted power supply. The
terrible irony about our situation in Africa is that most of the time,
if you want to do authentic research about African literature, you have
to go abroad. Yes, the University of Wisconsin, for example, has more
research resources/archives on Nigerian writers than any of our
universities in Nigeria. The developed countries of the world know that
the reason they keep leading the world is because they respect ideas:
the generation of ideas, the sustenance of ideas, the interrogation of
ideas, and the consolidation of ideas. They know that investment in
education opens the door to the future. Our society here doesn’t have
such facilities or such an attitude.
Ours is a society in a process of regressive illiteracy. It is
amazing. This country used to be much more literate. It used to have
universities that devoted a large chunk of money to research. When I
started teaching at the University of Ibadan in the 1970’s, we had
research funds and these funds were allocated every year. There were
also conference funds. All these things existed until the 1980’s when
General Babangida introduced his Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP),
the Nigerian spirit was sapped and our educational system began to
nosedive.
So, the US has virtually all the things you need to function as a
scholar/writer. However, Nigeria provides that sense of place, that
sense of home that may be difficult to feel or achieve abroad. To put it
frankly, America swallows you up as an immigrant the way you are not
likely to be swallowed up in a country like Nigeria. As I’ve often said,
it’s good to have a place in the world where you do not have to spell
your name all the time, a place where as a poet, you begin a
song/proverb and your audience completes it with you. That aspect of
human touch is important, that spontaneous sense of community. On
another plane, I also feel more comfortable being part of the building
squad rather than a lucky inheritor of a mansion already built and
furnished by others.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country whose praise you cannot sing
without sounding like a masochist. I am angry with Nigeria because we
are not where we should be. I am angry with our rulers because they have
not aspired to be leaders. They have no vision; they are callous; they
are corrupt. They do not respect the citizens of this country. I am also
becoming increasingly angry at the ruled, at the people of this
country, for our endless, almost mule-like toleration of injustice, of
oppression. But I also know that anger which is too overwhelming could
become disabling. I belong to the school of those who profess
regenerative anger, the kind that is never at peace with injustice and
other assaults on human dignity. It is not just anger for its own sake. I
don’t just shout at darkness. I try to light a candle. There is a lot
of work to be done in our country.
Many academics, like you, left Nigeria in anger following
the misrule in the country. In specific terms what can the government
do to get it right?
Point of correction: I didn’t leave Nigeria as a result of anger. I
left for family reasons, as I’ve said above. In a manner of speaking, I
have left without leaving.
Now to your question: what can be done? Indeed, a very large question
to which I can only give a short answer here: BRING BACK OUR COUNTRY by
giving education the priority it deserves. Fund it adequately and
consistently from elementary to tertiary level. Improve the quality of
teachers through teacher-training and staff development programmes. Give
the teacher back her/his sense of pride and self-worth by paying them
the kind of wages that will give them a decent life. Make the learning
environment human-friendly by refurbishing dilapidated school buildings
and putting learning tools in place. Put an end to the proliferation of
universities which are mere ‘Miracle Centres’ for the spread of
illiteracy. Re-order our value system. Make education matter once again
by ensuring high standards and providing employment for products of the
school system. Eliminate MEDIOCRITY. Bring back the old virtues of
thoroughness and assiduity. Improve the work ethic: demolish the
ise-kekere-owo-nlanla (little-work-big-money) mentality. Ensure the
provision of reliable power supply, water, healthcare, decent housing,
safe transportation….. And, above all, adequate security.
In case you consider all this a pipe dream, let me tell you that
there was a time Nigeria enjoyed something very, very close to these
ideals. That was in the 1940’s and 1950’s and 1960’s and early 1970’s -
those golden years that produced the kind of education that made it
possible for Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka to write Things Fall Apart
and A Dance of the Forests, respectively, in their mid-twenties! Above
all – and most important – overhaul Nigeria’s socio-economic and
political systems. Kill corruption which concentrates the nation’s
resources in the wrong hands for the wrong purpose. Insist on the right
kind of leaders – cultivated women and men deep in learning and
humanism, with adequate control over the appetites, people who know the
true value of education as a sine qua non in national development.
Leaders who combine the best of Nkrumah, Awolowo, and Mandela whose
vision and action are a blessing to humanity.
With the state of terrorism and insecurity in the
country, don’t you think development would be difficult in other areas
of Nigeria’s national life?
What happens when you live in a country whose government cannot
protect you? Our government here is telling us ‘terrorism is everywhere
in the world; so don’t blame me.’ No. We know terrorism is a global
scourge but different governments have different ways of responding to
it. Who could have believed that anybody in the world could get Osama
Bin Laden? America got him. It hasn’t stopped the spate of terrorism
against America but you know that as a terrorist today if you do
anything to an American citizen there would be a consequence. Again, I
say, Nigerians are orphans. We have nobody to protect us. This is what
has always happened. Those who rule us are only interested in their own
personal welfare: money, power and how to abuse them. We, the Nigerian
people, are the last on their priority list. They don’t even remember us
during elections. All they are interested in are the ballot boxes and
how to rig the polls. They are not interested in the voters; they are
only interested in the votes. We live in a country where rulers have not
the tiniest bit of respect for the ruled.
The Chibok episode has really exposed the weak underbelly of the
Nigerian government. It has made us so ridiculous. I love this country
but I decry its fatal flaws, its murderous weaknesses. I am embarrassed
as a citizen of this country that the Chibok kidnap caught us so
sheepishly, so unawares. My heart bleeds every day as I remember what is
happening to those over 200 students who were taken away almost 120
days ago. I have never stopped feeling as if I were their parents... For
the first two weeks, the Nigerian government was in a state of denial,
and all kinds of conspiracy theories were being bandied all over the
place. But foreign governments were not deceived. The people of the
world were not deceived. Their BRING BACK OUR GIRLS Harsh-Tag campaign
stung the Nigerian government into action. America got interested. So
did the UK. And France. Even China.
Let’s be humble enough to learn from our adversaries. What has
emerged in the last two years or so is that Boko Haram is more
organised, more focused, more committed than the Nigerian army. There
are certain virtues in Boko Haram that the larger Nigerian government
lacks: Loyalty. Accountability. Answerability. There is a fatal
affliction of the Nigerian nation whose symptoms have not bedevilled
Boko Haram yet: corruption. Corruption is at the root of the Boko Haram
problem. Boko Haram understands this country. It knows that many of
those who control the fate of Nigeria are as buyable as merchandise on
the open market. I suspect this weakness is no secret to the foreign
governments either. I don’t know how willing some of the foreign experts
are to share their intelligence findings with their Nigerian
counterparts. The Nigerian security system is extremely porous,
unreliable, and untrustable. It is a victim of innumerable
vulnerabilities.
The national confab has come to a close. Do you think
that its recommendations should be subject to a referendum or an
overhauling of the existing constitution?
The confab boasted some of our best brains. Let us give them their
due. Many of them went there to serve their country and contribute their
own quota – as the saying goes. Many of the participants are there for
patriotic reasons. But what I really have problems with is the intent of
the government.
As far as I’m concerned, the highlights were the debate about the
nature of Nigerian federalism, the issue of state police, revenue
derivation and revenue sharing, and the matter of part-time
parliamentary representation. (Those clamouring for the creation of
additional states at this time are merely trying to muddy up the water,
as many of the existing states are on financial life support!)
Should the mode of our parliamentary representation be full time or
part time? That is crucial. At the moment, our lawmakers whether they
like it or not constitute the most irresponsible drain on the resources
of this country. They know it. We don’t even know how many millions they
take home in a month, or what they do with their excessive Constituent
Allowances. All I know is that the money we have in this country is
finite. If care is not taken, Nigeria is going to get bankrupt from the
excesses at Asokoro. What laws are the law makers making? How have they
impacted the lives of the Nigerian people? The profligacy at Asokoro is
replicated down the legislative pecking order involving the state
assemblies and the local governments
Those members of the confab that recommended part time legislation
did this country a lot of good. I have always stressed the need to
de-monetise our political system. At the moment, majority of our
politicians are in politics for the money not because they want to
serve. If things go on at the present rate, maintenance of our law
makers will bankrupt Nigeria. It is in the interest of both parties that
something be done about the present prodigal practice. Too much money
chasing too little substance.. . . . . . I think it will be a little
untidy to go through a referendum because we are dealing with so many
issues at the same time. Referenda are best when they deal with one or
two issues. We are still a proto-literate society. Even many of our
legislators are not literate enough to handle sophisticated bills. I’m
not sure a referendum would work. Doing something about the constitution
is a credible alternative. Right now we don’t have a constitution made
by the Nigerian people. It was the military that concocted the present
constitution and they made sure that they injected the constitution with
their own interest. The Nigerian constitution as we have it now is not
workable. It cannot produce a just and egalitarian society that we have
been talking about. A new constitution is necessary and it is not going
to be a constitution that will be framed and constructed in Abuja and
foisted upon all of us. It will have to go from the bottom up. Not from
the top down .. . . . So I cast my lot with the constitution overhaul
option.
You live in the United States of America where gay
relations have been largely legalised. But the US is threatening to
sanction Nigeria following the latter’s enactment of anti-gay laws. As
an African, how do you confront this in such climes?
Not just as an African but as a human being. People come to this
world without having had the power to choose who to be, or who to be
not; what kind of preference to embrace, and which to shun. I have a
deaf daughter. Did she choose to be born deaf? No. I know people who
have no sense of smell. Did they choose to come that way? No. We have to
admit that there are so many people who do not have control over their
biology. It is not just the liberal way of looking at the issue; it is
also the logical way.
In some countries in Africa, to be gay is to carry a permanent ,
ubiquitous death sentence. It doesn’t have to be so. A just and
humanitarian society must be prepared to take care of the interests of
ALL its people and protect all their human rights. Let’s stop all this
noise about people’s sexual preference, for it reeks of intolerance and
hypocrisy. Many of the people who shout about the evil of being gay are
the treasury –looters and election riggers – those who have mortgaged
the future of this country . What did the Nigerian government think it
was going to gain by its anti-gay legislation? What difference has this
law made in the lives of Nigerian people? The anti-gay hullaballoo is
nothing short of a self-inflicted wound that has made Nigeria more
notorious. Is it really the prime preoccupation of our legislators to
legislate the DNA; to nose around for what fellow citizens do behind
closed doors? The gay person is not the enemy of the Nigerian people.
The real enemies are the people who steal our votes and plunder our
treasury – those who have turned Nigeria into the proverbial
‘big-for-nothing’ country.
No comments:
Post a Comment