The Necessity For Change In Philosophy

By

Odi Maduneke

odimaduneke@yahoo.com]

( New York )

In one of his major speeches, the late celebrated civil rights activist, Malcolm X, explained that “when your philosophy changes, your thought pattern changes, and when your thought pattern changes you start behaving differently and then you go on into some action.” In order to advance from our present predicament our philosophy needs to change. It is well and good to complain about Obasanjo or other Nigerian government officials and to blame them for the poor quality of life in Nigeria , but are we thinking differently from them? Do we have a different philosophy from them? Is it just a matter of bad guys in government? How are we different from them? Without answering these questions we fail to understand why successive governments since independence have failed the people of Nigeria . It is necessary to understand the philosophy of those who have been ruling us in order to comprehend the condition of Nigeria and indeed of Africa south of the Sahara .

When you have a president whose interest is in purchasing an executive jet in a country where the average family can not afford 2 square meals a day, it is clear that what is important to him is his life of luxury. His concern is fitting into the club of the world super rich. But how about his critics? A look at the house of assembly and senate will show a similar pattern. Did the Senators not furnish their homes with 4 million naira each? The most expensive cars that any country in the world can manufacture is in Nigeria . Take a look at the homes of our political leaders, take a look at the cars. Some have more than 5 cars including the SUVs and Mercedes 500s. They and the president are part of the club of the super rich. The government is an instrument of their class for sharing their oil payoff from the imperial nations who are carting off the oil resources of the country. In the mean time a country which is one of the 6th largest oil producer in the world can not boast of steady electricity for 24 hours in any city of the country.

Nigeria ’s per capita energy consumption compared to other countries of comparable level of development is appalling. In 1997 for example, Nigeria consumed 0.86 QBtu (Quadrillion British thermal units) of energy. Compare this with a country like Egypt that consumed 1.8 Qbtu or Algeria 1.32 Qbtu, even Lybia 0.59 QBtu. Now, Lybia has a population of 5.6 million (ie not up to the population of the city of Lagos ). This means that Lybia used 2000 % more energy per capita than Nigeria Algeria used 600% more and Egypt used 400% more. In 2001, Nigeria ’s total production of electricity was 18000 GWh (Giga watt hours) compared to Egypt ’s 83000 Gwh , Algeria 27000 Gwh. The population of Egypt is about half of that Nigeria and Algeria ’s is about one quarter. We can now see why there is perennial power shortages. Nigeria just do not produce enough electricity for its size and it is not something NEPA can fix. NEPA can only work with the tools provided.

As a result of the inadequacy of electricity, many people are forced to buy portable generators. A huge market is so created for the manufactures of portable generators in the industrial countries. These generators are major polluters of the environment, from noise to toxic exhaust emissions right inside homes. The enormous health implications are not even being discussed . This is a perfect colonial economic arrangement. The multinational corporations take the crude oil which they need for their industries and to keep their petro-based societies going and in return they get a large market to dump their manufactured goods. With a population of over 140 million, Nigeria is a haven for the multinationals in the global market capitalist economy. Consumption becomes the main economic activity of Nigeria . Everybody is buying and selling. Success is evidenced by how much one consumes conspicuously. If you have a fancy car or cars, wear expensive clothes and live in a big mansion, then you are very successful.

Those who have access to the crude oil loot naturally consume the most and so are the most successful. It doesn’t matter that the loot is not used in productive activities beneficial to society like the generation of electricity, provision of water or disposal of garbage and sewage (basic things in any modern society). The loot is rather used to finance expensive life styles on goods all imported from the colonial metropoli. The oil loot sector become the dominant section of the elite and fight like dogs using their ethnicity to bargain for bigger shares of the oil loot. In Nigeria the political elite is a representation of this sector. They, essentially, become models for measuring success in the eyes of the people due to their lavish lifestyles. What is important is money and acquisition of expensive highly manufactured goods not how to help improve the quality of life in the society at large. Conspicuous excessive consumption and big cash donations get rewarded with chieftaincy titles and special recognitions.

In the mean time the people are kept praying. After the initial colonial military conquest, the colonialists turned to religion in order to pacify their subjects. We may recall the famous statement of anti-colonialist Dennis Osadebe that “the colonialist came with a sword on one hand and a bible on the other. Soon we had the bible and they had the land.” Religion is the oldest tool of ruling classes since the emergence of class society, from ancient Egyptian civilization to the present, for controlling the lower classes. In the case of Africa , two major religions were used, Christianity and Islam, both of which derive from Judaism. It should be noted that these three religions are the most violent and intolerant religions in the world. Every now and then poor people who receive no benefits whatsoever from the oil loot are manipulated into massacring each other in the name of religion. Religion is the ideological ace in the whole of the Nigeria elite.

In the industrialized nations religion is no longer as effective in pacifying the working classes given the relative level of sophistication of the societies. An additional idealistic concept of ‘democracy and freedom’ is necessary. ‘Democracy’ is served by the right to vote in elections and ‘freedom’ is served by the right to criticize government without the power to change anything. There is a ‘free’ press and we have seen how free it is with their coverage of the destruction and slaughter going on today in Iraq . In the United States , the presidential elections is around the corner. It will be a contest between the incumbent President, George Bush and John Kerry, a Vietnam war veteran. But are there any real differences between the two?

Young working class American men and women have been shipped to Iraq to kill and maim Iraqi people and in turn to be killed and maimed for the right of big American corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel to control the oil resources of Iraq . The chosen challenger to the President, John Kerry, had fought in a similar war against the Vietnamese people in the 1960s. When he came back he became an outspoken antiwar activist. He talked about how they were deceived into going to kill and destroy people that have done nothing to them. But today as he is running for President, what is he saying? As a Senator he voted for the bill that empowered George Bush to start this Iraqi war. He is unable to even promise to end the war if elected President. Is it not clear that he and George Bush essentially represent the same interest?

The United States government is spending billions if not trillions of dollars developing all kinds of weapons. It is the only country in the world known to drop nuclear bombs on a civilian population, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Yet, George Bush can hypocritically claim that he sent his machine of mass destruction to look for ’weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq . In the mean time, Israel , next door is known to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons, but no mention is made of that. What does John Kerry promise? To continue the massive military spending in a country in which unemployment and homelessness is high and still growing, millions do not have any medical coverage and the soup kitchens can not keep up with the hungry. What matters is the super profits being racked by the multinational corporations. The economists say we have a jobless ‘recovery‘. We can see that it is an illusion to think that George Bush and Jon Kerry are really different. They represent the same interest, the big corporations.

The Nigerian political elite and the American political elite think alike. They have the same philosophy. It is mega bucks for them and dreams for the people. The American political system offers no alternative as many Nigerians often think. A real alternative empowers the masses. This requires a different way of thinking, a different ideology. The question is therefore whether those opposing Obasanjo have a different ideology from him.

In 1871 the workers of Paris , France rose in rebellion, seized the government, and established the famous Paris Commune. It lasted for only about six months before it was brutally suppressed by the French bourgeosie, but their effort had inspired working people all over the world . The internationale, an anthem inspired by them, became the clarion call to action for the international working class. The words of the internationale heralded the arrival of a better world. It declared that “ The earth shall rise on new foundation”. They recognized that the world will have to be reorganized in a fundamentally different way in order to create a better world, a world of equality and brotherhood, a world without rich and poor. Such a world is possible, but it will ‘rise on new foundation’. They prematurely thought that such a world was around the corner with the declaration in the internationale saying, “a better world is in birth“. Nevertheless, their effort have shown the direction for the future of humankind.

The establishment of such an egalitarian society has not easy because the privileged classes fight by all means to maintain their class position. They use idealist ideology like religion and ’democracy’ to pacify the people and where these fail, they use brute force. Philosophy matters. Today, we are living in a time of unprecedented technological advancement. But how is this technology being used? It is by and large being used to destroy mother earth, hold the entire world at bay, and pollute the universe. It is used for developing mass killing machines. Agro-business farming have literarily wiped out individual family farming in the United States and is increasingly making it difficult if not impossible for poor farmers in developing countries like Nigeria to survive. Forests are being destroyed for wood. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are wrecking havoc on the soil. Now we have genetically altered seeds which is about to wipe out natural seeds, all for maximization of profit. Little or no attention is given to the effect of all these on the ecosystem. Already there are famines and serious climatic changes which could eventually result in major ecological disasters. The philosophy guiding this development is individual greed and private accumulation of wealth. By convincing us that it is ‘human nature’ to be greedy, to accumulate wealth at the expense of others, to enjoy excessive consumption when others are starving, to beat up any one weaker than you and take what he has, it has been possible for a hand full of people to loot and terrorize the entire world and make others serve them in one way or another.

A fundamentally different ideological outlook is necessary to save humanity from impending doom which the elitist, capitalist ideology is leading us into. The communards of Paris recognized this when they declared that “the earth shall rise on new foundation”. Despite its imperfections the socialist societies demonstrated that collectivity is a far better way to solve human problems. The Bolshevics of the former Soviet Union , in less than 30 years was able to unify hundreds of ethnic nationalities and transform a relatively backward society into a first rate power capable of defeating nazi Germany . The world was saved from the tyranny and brutality of fascism. A few days ago on LINK tv, there was a program on a small town in the former East Germany . This town before the unification of Germany had huge collective farms and processing plants for their harvest. The town had about 30,000 people. After the unification, the collective farms were closed and the members disbanded. Up to 20,000 of them have so far migrated to the cities and to the West where they swell the ranks of the unemployed. The unemployment rate, today, in the former socialist GDR is 20%. This is a society that did not know unemployment under the socialist government. Those left in the town have to live on food handouts. The farms and the processing plants lay empty and overgrown. We must learn from the mistakes of the early builders of socialism and build a truly communist society.

Technology can be used in a different way. For example, the New York City subway system, a model of mass transportation system, could be free and developed far better than what it is today. In the present system fare is always being increased while services are cut. Instead of the billions of dollars spent developing weapons of earth destruction, such money could be used in cleaning up the earth and preserving life. Medical care should be available free to everyone. No one should be hungry or homeless in the midst of plenty like today.

Africa is in a unique position in this respect. One is reminded of the famous statement by Dennis Osadebe, the premier of the Midwest region of Nigeria in the first republic when he said “Perhaps, in the final analysis, the greatest gift Africa would have given the world is how to be human”. South Africa under the presidency of Nelson Mandela is the only country in the world to unilaterally dismantle its nuclear weapons which was left by previous, racist, apertheid government. With the relative low industrialization of Agriculture, we are still in a position to save our soil. We can stop desertification by using scientific farming methods. We need to give some thought about tomorrow. An Indian lady by name Vandana Shiva, a nuclear physicist by training, took up such a campaign in India for going back to organic farming methods which restores and respects the soil. She pointed out that every geographical region in the world is capable of producing their food needs and were doing so.

Our present system of individual farming, every family farming small plots of land , can no longer meet the needs of society. If four or five families that have small plots of land next to each other get together and put the small pieces together, there will be a larger piece of land to cultivate. But more importantly farming decisions can be made collectively. Don’t they say that two heads are better than one? This will also provide the opportunity for younger people to participate and practice some of what they are learning in school. School will become relevant to their lives and they may once again enjoy learning and going to school. Such collectives have been tried in other places with great success. In a book by an Indian author, Dada Maheshvaranda, titled “After Capitalism”, Dada cited the case of Grameen bank in Bangladesh . A Professor of economics, Muhammad Yunus started this bank in 1983 to give loans to the poorest people in his country, “those who had nothing”. Grameen requires no collateral but insists that individuals form groups of five to receive a loan. Every week beneficiaries make a small repayment. The success was tremendous. Peoples’ lives were turned around. People who had nothing and had given up hope as individuals now became productive. The group dynamics had unlocked the latent abilities of these individuals. If we are to survive, forming such collectives is the way. This is the foundation for the society of the future of humanity.

With the collectives we can solve the problem of malnutrition by changing food habits. We need a movement of cooperatives This will require breaking archaic traditions and habits. Massive education will be necessary. It will take people knowledgeable in the revolutionary scientific ideology of Marxism Leninism. The earth shall indeed rise on new foundation.