We Need a Different Thinking in Nigeria
In this new century, many of the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
-- Nelson Mandela
Globalization has improved the lives of people throughout the world, but it has also widened the gap between rich and poor...Working to end poverty will make the world safer.
-- Robert Alan
I got out of bedroom this morning thinking about Nigeria and little did I realize that tears were already rolling and crawling down from my face. I quickly wiped it off before it gets too far for anyone to notice. It was all about Nigeria. Instantly, a question came to my mind that, can we ever have a poverty free society? And if so, how can this poverty free society be achieved? I therefore have to ask myself if really, we are really on the correct path. Are we pursuing the correct paradigm? Are we properly philosophized? What is that we are doing correctly and what is it that we are doing wrongly?
I came to a conclusion that, we have a wrong paradigm and we have for the most part of our lives listened to the wrong teachers. We have, through all these abandoned our own cultural teaching for the mere fact that they where not documented. If we keep the paradigm we have now, then the poor will remain poor and the rich will get richer. "Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit."
We are now trapped in a paradigm that promotes personal success and enrichment at all costs. We are characterized by rotten appetite for accumulation of personal wealth. We have learnt to call our neighbour’s lazy and ourselves hard workers.
To make things worse, our early cultural error is worsened rather than rectified. This error is the error that says, “If I can only take care of my biological family then I’m done”. This is an error that promotes and validates biological relationship more than any other, worsened by familiarisim. This is why you will see the whole family working for Government and only people connected to those working for government getting JOBS and TENDERS from government.
I’m convinced that we need a complete paradigm change. It is no wonder we experience so much fraud and corruption in a government whose role was to care for and protect the poor. Because of this hypothesis that says that ‘Success is about self’, people will do what ever it takes to look successful and to make those that they are biologically connected to look super. Now, people are not ashamed to enrich themselves through the taxpayer’s money. They are not afraid to look rich on the expense of the poor. We therefore need a paradigm overhaul.
This type of paradigm shifts our focus from being concern about the pain of others to being merely concern about our cravings and our wants. The error we are in needs a different type of political leadership across Nigeria. It needs a leader that cares.
In the olden day as my grandfather told me, when you Join politics, the first teaching is that, you are not here for personal gain but to serve and contribute selflessly. But as soon as people join the Government, they forget this teaching. They turn to focus on their own personal image and the wellbeing of their biological family and friends, forgetting that their main ROLE is not really to work, but to care for the society.
But, Alli Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola etc are lauded as the better of Nigerian people, not on emphasis of what they have done for Nigeria, but on emphasis on how much money they have manage to accumulate. This is a sickness of our era that consumes us all.
When the President (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) bought a Jet worth of billions, he was not at that point thinking about people in South West, he was not thinking about people in South South, he was not thinking about people in South East, he was driven by the thinking that, he will look successful and respected among African Presidents and the world at large.
We have indeed entered a very dangerous phase, while the people on the ground protest for service delivery, the National Assembly Members controls the resources of those people and mostly they are not driven by the passion to serve the people, but by their eager to succeed and self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement.
We need to start to say; I can’t eat, while my neighbours sleep hungry. I refuse to drive a 10 million naira worth of car while there is a community without running water. This sounds like too much, but is not. We need to dedicate the next years for poverty eradication. Politicians in government must trim down and use their own cars to go to work, live in their own houses, like any other employee who lives on their salary.
When we say we don’t have the money to provide for free education, we must also say we don’t have money to maintain people’s extravagant life styles, or build extravagant stadiums that’ll soon be pink elephants. We must limit the allowances of politicians, why can’t we do this? Unless we have accepted that the poor deserve to live in the conditions they live in, and we don’t view their conditions as urgent because our own families are living a better life, our kids go to good schools and we have graduated from three meals a day, as we can spend any amount for food per day while some of the people we serve struggle to make ends meet.
We need to move from the paradigm of self enrichment to that of community success and prosperity. We need to start saying that my neighbour is my family, irrespective of their biological genes. To say if I can take a neighbour’s kid to school, I would have succeeded.
The Government must then be poverty alleviation machinery in the true sense of poverty alleviation instead of been a poverty elevation machinery. It could have a list of extremely poor communities and their most urgent needs and the deadline on which those need must be met. Honourables, Senators, Governors, Chairmen, can cut their benefits and a portion of their salary in dedication to a community in which they come from.
My aim is not to castigate anybody but Nigerians can boldly say that the current politicians in government do not have the passion to serve the people; they are more focused on their own personal success, both Careerist and financial wise.
Even those who do well are mostly motivated by trying to look good in the eyes of the countrymen, or to impress the people than anything else. That is why when they do something significant they will go to the media to advertise themselves. We’ve fallen into a narcissist culture. If you give a deep personal scrutiny you will realize that they careless about the wellbeing of poor people especially infrastructural and educationally. This is an error in thinking.
The first thing to do fix is to force government officials to reside in the poorest community they serve, so that they can be reminded of the conditions people live in daily. And people can bother them daily about their concerns. As soon as that community is uplifted they must move to next poor community. Doing this and not ignoring other community, but imposing a constant reminder on our public servants that more needs to be done.
We need a different thinking, we need fresh leadership. President Goodluck Jonathan must realize that talk is indeed cheap, and pretending to be doing something while you are doing nothing, it’s very dangerous.
There is a need to review government revenue and spending to see if we can’t do better in channelling resources towards alleviating poverty. Let’s build our communities and be proud of them.
We need a serious Paradigm Shift in the Way we think in Nigeria.
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
-- Confucius
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
In this new century, many of the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.
-- Nelson Mandela
Globalization has improved the lives of people throughout the world, but it has also widened the gap between rich and poor...Working to end poverty will make the world safer.
-- Robert Alan
I got out of bedroom this morning thinking about Nigeria and little did I realize that tears were already rolling and crawling down from my face. I quickly wiped it off before it gets too far for anyone to notice. It was all about Nigeria. Instantly, a question came to my mind that, can we ever have a poverty free society? And if so, how can this poverty free society be achieved? I therefore have to ask myself if really, we are really on the correct path. Are we pursuing the correct paradigm? Are we properly philosophized? What is that we are doing correctly and what is it that we are doing wrongly?
I came to a conclusion that, we have a wrong paradigm and we have for the most part of our lives listened to the wrong teachers. We have, through all these abandoned our own cultural teaching for the mere fact that they where not documented. If we keep the paradigm we have now, then the poor will remain poor and the rich will get richer. "Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit."
We are now trapped in a paradigm that promotes personal success and enrichment at all costs. We are characterized by rotten appetite for accumulation of personal wealth. We have learnt to call our neighbour’s lazy and ourselves hard workers.
To make things worse, our early cultural error is worsened rather than rectified. This error is the error that says, “If I can only take care of my biological family then I’m done”. This is an error that promotes and validates biological relationship more than any other, worsened by familiarisim. This is why you will see the whole family working for Government and only people connected to those working for government getting JOBS and TENDERS from government.
I’m convinced that we need a complete paradigm change. It is no wonder we experience so much fraud and corruption in a government whose role was to care for and protect the poor. Because of this hypothesis that says that ‘Success is about self’, people will do what ever it takes to look successful and to make those that they are biologically connected to look super. Now, people are not ashamed to enrich themselves through the taxpayer’s money. They are not afraid to look rich on the expense of the poor. We therefore need a paradigm overhaul.
This type of paradigm shifts our focus from being concern about the pain of others to being merely concern about our cravings and our wants. The error we are in needs a different type of political leadership across Nigeria. It needs a leader that cares.
In the olden day as my grandfather told me, when you Join politics, the first teaching is that, you are not here for personal gain but to serve and contribute selflessly. But as soon as people join the Government, they forget this teaching. They turn to focus on their own personal image and the wellbeing of their biological family and friends, forgetting that their main ROLE is not really to work, but to care for the society.
But, Alli Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola etc are lauded as the better of Nigerian people, not on emphasis of what they have done for Nigeria, but on emphasis on how much money they have manage to accumulate. This is a sickness of our era that consumes us all.
When the President (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) bought a Jet worth of billions, he was not at that point thinking about people in South West, he was not thinking about people in South South, he was not thinking about people in South East, he was driven by the thinking that, he will look successful and respected among African Presidents and the world at large.
We have indeed entered a very dangerous phase, while the people on the ground protest for service delivery, the National Assembly Members controls the resources of those people and mostly they are not driven by the passion to serve the people, but by their eager to succeed and self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement.
We need to start to say; I can’t eat, while my neighbours sleep hungry. I refuse to drive a 10 million naira worth of car while there is a community without running water. This sounds like too much, but is not. We need to dedicate the next years for poverty eradication. Politicians in government must trim down and use their own cars to go to work, live in their own houses, like any other employee who lives on their salary.
When we say we don’t have the money to provide for free education, we must also say we don’t have money to maintain people’s extravagant life styles, or build extravagant stadiums that’ll soon be pink elephants. We must limit the allowances of politicians, why can’t we do this? Unless we have accepted that the poor deserve to live in the conditions they live in, and we don’t view their conditions as urgent because our own families are living a better life, our kids go to good schools and we have graduated from three meals a day, as we can spend any amount for food per day while some of the people we serve struggle to make ends meet.
We need to move from the paradigm of self enrichment to that of community success and prosperity. We need to start saying that my neighbour is my family, irrespective of their biological genes. To say if I can take a neighbour’s kid to school, I would have succeeded.
The Government must then be poverty alleviation machinery in the true sense of poverty alleviation instead of been a poverty elevation machinery. It could have a list of extremely poor communities and their most urgent needs and the deadline on which those need must be met. Honourables, Senators, Governors, Chairmen, can cut their benefits and a portion of their salary in dedication to a community in which they come from.
My aim is not to castigate anybody but Nigerians can boldly say that the current politicians in government do not have the passion to serve the people; they are more focused on their own personal success, both Careerist and financial wise.
Even those who do well are mostly motivated by trying to look good in the eyes of the countrymen, or to impress the people than anything else. That is why when they do something significant they will go to the media to advertise themselves. We’ve fallen into a narcissist culture. If you give a deep personal scrutiny you will realize that they careless about the wellbeing of poor people especially infrastructural and educationally. This is an error in thinking.
The first thing to do fix is to force government officials to reside in the poorest community they serve, so that they can be reminded of the conditions people live in daily. And people can bother them daily about their concerns. As soon as that community is uplifted they must move to next poor community. Doing this and not ignoring other community, but imposing a constant reminder on our public servants that more needs to be done.
We need a different thinking, we need fresh leadership. President Goodluck Jonathan must realize that talk is indeed cheap, and pretending to be doing something while you are doing nothing, it’s very dangerous.
There is a need to review government revenue and spending to see if we can’t do better in channelling resources towards alleviating poverty. Let’s build our communities and be proud of them.
We need a serious Paradigm Shift in the Way we think in Nigeria.
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
-- Confucius
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde
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