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.
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