As a people, we need to go through a major reorientation if we are to get Nigeria out of her current economic rut. For starters, the National Orientation Agency needs to wage war on vanity and ostentation

Ayo Akinfe

[1] If we do not accept our shortcomings, we are never going to overcome them. Our problems in Nigeria are multi-faceted but they can be narrowed down to three things - we produce too little, we are intellectually lazi and ostentation/greed reign supreme. In 1922, Frederick Lugard spotted all this and summed us up perfectly in his book Dual Mandate

[2] One thing that always cracks me up though is our delusional view that one day, some messiah is going to miraculously appear and solve all our woes. We are waiting for another Moses or Jesus Christ to deliver us to the Promised Land. But hey, USA for Africa summed up the realities of the real world in their song We Are The World when they said: “We can’t go on pretending day by day, there’s someone somewhere to make a change.”

[3] Our options are simple and straightforward. We sort ourselves out and prosper or we continue to wallow in poverty like fools. For me, the fact that a majority of Nigerians are not bothered about the fact that we are the poverty capital of the world and have the highest number of out-of-school children on the planet, is extremely worrying and tells me all I need to know about our mumurity. It shows we are unperturbed about our environment and are happy to go on with our daily chop-make-I-chop lifestyle

[4] This historical intellectual laziness has been at the centre of our woes. Do you know that in 1643, a five storey Pagoda was built in Toji in Japan out of nothing but wood. We are talking of pre-industrial agrarian Japan when 90% of the population were peasants. I ask myself why we did not manage to build similar five storey buildings out of mud and wood in Umuofia

[5] To tell you how forward thinking agrarian Japanese society was, do you know that this wooden building was even earthquake proof? It was made of sliding joints so it could absorb shocks. Up until today, it is still standing. Now contrast that with how comical we are, as in 2025 we are still building six storey apartments in Lagos Island on foundations meant for bungalows. Do we need to be told that such buildings will collapse? Have we never heard of steel frames? Today, all tower blocks have steel frames to make them sturdy yet light, which is why they can build their walls out of glass

[6] My people just want quick money, to show off wealth in an ostentatious way and then worship their God passionately. They then think that the responsibility of making their society better falls to the government. Everyone is hoping and praying that a set of incorruptible angels or super humans will fall out of the sky and solve all of Nigeria’s problems. No wonder we are so passionate about religion

[7] I wonder if my people who are Muslim fanatics wanting the purest form of Islam in Nigeria are aware of the fact that today, the tallest building in the world is in Saudi Arabia. My people pack themselves off every year to Mecca and Medina but never for once visit the 120 storey Abraj Al-Bait Towers to see how they can replicate it in Nigeria

[8] Let me shock you further. Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Towers is currently the tallest building in the world with 168 floors but Kuwait’s Burj Mubarak al-Kabir will overtake it in 2030 with 234 floors. Up until 2020, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa was the world’s tallest building

[9] Likewise, my Christian friends go on pilgrimage to Israel every year but none of them have come back with their agricultural expertise. Israel has taken irrigation to new heights, showing the world how to farm in the desert. My people go to the Wailing Wall to pray but alas never visit agricultural communities like the Kibbutz of Moshav. Are we damned to be eternal consumers?

[10] Some of you say I must be a Nephilim but I think all these things are just common sense. When you see other parts of humanity advancing, you look for means to replicate this. It may just be me but I do not understand how my people can go to Dubai and enjoy themselves and not feel so ashamed about how it has advanced over the last 20 years to the point that it challenges them to catch up

ayoakinfe@gmail.com