Today, I wish to humbly pause and turn my eyes, concern and thought from the many challenges that bedevil Nigeria and have done so much to hinder her from fulfilling her manifest destiny. I do so deliberately to enable me to focus on, and to pay tribute to, a group or class of people in the society called variously as activists, radicals, progressives, or revolutionaries whose efforts in various ways help to bring advance, progress or positive change to society.
One of the many fascinating characters, incidences and narratives that any keen reader of novelist Chinua Achebe’s classic novel No Longer at Ease cannot easily forget is the community of Pre Independence Easters resident in Lagos the former capital city of Nigeria from which Abuja inherited the glory.
The members of the Umofia Progressive Union in Lagos who came from various parts of Iboland and only congregated in Lagos saw themselves as ‘strangers’ or sojourners resident in Lagos. They did not see themselves either as nationals of a country called Nigeria or as subjects of an imperial power called the British. No. They came, as I have said, as Ibolites who variously came to Lagos but with a single-minded determination to succeed against all odds. This explains why one of their major prayer points was a very interesting one which says as follows:: ‘’We are strangers in this land. If any good comes to it, may we have our own share’’ (interpretation of this segment of prayer: Although we are strangers in this land and not full sons of this soil to demand a full share, we nevertheless feel entitled to a share because we are also contributors to this good. On the other hand and as the prayer continues, ‘’if any evil should come to the land, ‘’may it go to the owners of the land who know what gods to appease’’ Again, an interpretation of this concluding portion of the prayer: (If truth be told, we are indeed strangers in this land and because we abandoned our own gods from our respective natural homes in the East from where we came and the gods that protect our new environment we know them not and how to pacify them if we or our hosts provoke them to anger to seek revenge. This is a fair enough prayer, if you ask me).
There are some, who like me, think this is a fair enough prayer point for anyone to pray for his own good but there are many who will say it is a selfish and unkind prayer for visitors or sojourners in a place to pray. But one uncontroversial progressive ideas that the Umofia Progressive Union in Lagos had up its sleeves to bring improvement to their community both in Lagos and back home from whence they came is contributing money to send their bright young men and women to study abroad. Obi Okonkwo, the hero of the novel, was one of the beneficiaries of this kind of noble effort.
As a matter of fact, in those good old days, the UPU and many others like it in many big towns and cities of Nigeria were the major producers, through selfless, sacrificial self help efforts of a wide variety of professionals like doctors, nurses,
This incident in Achebe’s classic novel came to my mind when I encountered a trending video on facebook wherein a progressive Nigerian traditional ruler, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was speaking passionately about the backwardness of certain sections of the country in indices of economic development.
Today, the objective reality that led to the birth of Umofia Progressive Union and many others like it, may not exist anymore. But we still have many versions of the Umofia Progressive Unions in our big cities across the country.
Unfortunately, just as there has been a progressive degeneration in the quality and content of the hearts of our political and even religious leadership, the idea that dominates the thoughts of these village unions is far from progressive. Opague leadership, inclination of the leadership to steal or corruptly enrich themselves at the expense of helping the general community they are serving, conspicuous consumption of alcohol and meat and other delicacies at the expense of development projects are the tales of woes we usually hear about some of the Umofia progressive unions we now have across Nigeria.
I am telling Emir Sanusi that the only way illiteracy will be decisively tackled is the village members in towns and cities focus on education rather than leaving that vital sector of development to our governments.
The likes of the Umofia Progressive Union produced some of our pioneer professionals such as lawyers, administrators, doctors, nurses, accountants, town planners, estate surveyors, name them.
Emir Sanusi is privileged enough to borrow from the type of idea of the UPU by rebeginning to cultivate a culture whereby various unions and gathering of northerners and other disadvantaged groups can begin to have scholarship and other incentives which will motivate our out- of- school children and adults who missed schooling at ages appropriate to easy learning can go back to school. It is not too late.
The thing about education is that it can never be too late at all for any person, group or community that becomes determined to begin schooling again. Lamentation about this challenge will never solve the problem. It is taking proactive steps that will solve the problem.
We must deliberately encourage competition among the various parts and units of our country. It shall be healthy competition and not a destructive rivalry among them. The broad agenda is that every unit or village should set for itself the goal of excelling in educating all its children whether boys or girls.
No village should compete in squandermania or the marrying of many wives and the having of side chicks. These are destructive and lead to the retardation of any community of people. Those pursuits are inspired by Satan and not the Holy Spirit of the Living God.
The modern versions of Umofia Progressive Union now produce people who invariably become criminals, loafers and all manner of evil people. One of the most irritating assignments leaders of these new kind of unions are called upon to do is they often go to police stations to bail and sometimes repatriate back to the villages, their tribesmen and women who have become evil doers in the cities where the cosmopolitan nature provide an anonymity conducive to crime committal and perpetuation.
There are certain parts of the country down south who still preserve corpses of some of their deceased members in the mortuary for days, months and in some cases, for years so that their relatives or loved ones within the country or in the Diaspora can come to see the dead persons before they are buried.
Some of these modern versions of the Umofia Progressive Union do nothing but raise funds to engage in a night of tribute, sing song nights or they buy tonnes and tonnes of alcoholic beverages drink all night or drink and become drunk as if they are paying tribute to our destructive habit of taking alcoholic beverages in large quantities Aas if we are celebrating baccus the god of revelry, fornication and adultery.. Good money is used to uphold a non-progressive idea founded on greed, eating and revelry. We need to adopt new ideas that will replace centuries old customs and traditions that do nothing but hold us from moving forward with our lives rather than being held firmly to the ground.
