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The Need For Ideological Parapoism-(Traditional Togetherness) Sometime Today By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria
When did it all begin…when did paradise become hell? From the start even the conquest was a regrettable misunderstanding. Europe gave the land to its conqueror but the king knew nothing of it, it was always about greed, arrogance and power.
And when we finally grasped the horror it was too late.
I started writing this essay after watching the docu-drama ‘Sometime in April’, it takes on the Rwandan genocide among Hutus and Tutsi, the role of the West and it allies and other sundry issues. I recall the scene where the officer was being asked by his son if he was Hutu or Tutsi and the father’s reply which ended with the hope that one day that question may not be necessary. I also recall the part where one of the warlords told the US why bother as there was no oil, gold or any i nterest for them in Rwanda.
Two things can to my mind while that movie ran- the negative power of indoctrination and persuasion and the place of a national ideology. In the light of the recent kidnap in the Niger Delta, the political voodoo in the ancient Southwest city of Ibadan, the confusion in beautiful but now dirty Plateau, the crisis of truth at the Caliphate Sokoto, I could only wish movies like this particular one could be aired on national television so that Nigerians can appreciate that they can be one somehow, and not the dirty politics of confusion being played by the ‘ra ms’ posing as leaders, there are complexity of factors in our own story and we may not find it as lightly as elsewhere...In Nigeria lies a great interest, in whose interest is our continued lack of an ideology even when we are told in 15 years we may not exist as a nation anymore and the government rather than get to work calls it propaganda.
This year I had resolved that I would try to be positive about Nigeria, breath Nigeria, think Nigeria and dream Nigeria, sadly events right from the first day of the New Year has choked my breath, filled my thoughts with grumbles and turned those dreams to nightmares. In writing this piece I have had to think of the need s of the larger population of the nation that are marginalized be it, in the North, South, West or East, at this point in our national life there is greater need for us to have an ideology, in doing so we can better appreciate and hear the grumblings, wishes and aspirations of a crying silent majority who are intimidated by the sheer force of leadership and by the fear of economic survival, not the illogical selfish driven rantings of our leaders.
The present led misadventure led by Obasanjo has used power to dominate and dehumanize rather than heal and dignify the populace, so there is very little that binds us together, but then even if we disintegrate as it is, the problems will simply follows us in macro sizes into the units and once more pose insurmountable mountains.
In 46 years of national independence, successive governments be it civilians, military, or quasi-civilian like we have now have tended to overlook the question of a national ideology. As a people we have taken the attitude of the docile Muslim/Christian that explains his/her inability to go to church or pray five times a day with the argument that religion is in the mind and soul-not how you practice it. Our leaders have never really felt the need to define an ideology to guide the nation…why? Because, they had already done so by encrypting, corruption, maladministration, electoral violence, greed and selfishness, inequality as national ideologies on the fabric of conscience.
In the recent past we have tried in six and sevens to create one but have simply underlined the ideological chasm in our society. Our ad-hoc attempts are only pathetic in circumventing the real need for an ideological base as a nation. We have only by our actions admitted that we are ideologically bankrupt and inadequate. The War Against Indiscipline, the ‘ethical revolution’, the National Orientation Movement, the Due Process and Anti and Uncle Corruption stance have proven that much.
The intellectual, critics and writing community, for our part has not lacked the energy, enterprise or a wide range of ideas on the question of ideology. However one thing that has always been lacking in the ideological debate is an ideology with a truly indigenous foundation that can relate to the Nigerian environment, experience and political culture.
There is the need to embark upon a search and journey for an ideology that derives from our life and culture, from our political experience and our environment, and can thus relate to them. Something that is practicable in our unique political, economic and social condition. This I believe is not an impossible task. If an ideology is a set of ideas, principles, ethics and values by which a nation guides and regulates itself towards the achievement of its political, social, economic and cultural objectives. It is then obvious that we can see why we are a confused nation with everyone crying wolf from end to end. It is a result of the absence of a guiding doctrine. When we have ambassadors that cannot recite the national anthem…
We can only see chaos and indiscipline and the President need not deceive us or himself that the kidnap in the Niger Delta is an act of terrorism…it is an act rather of discontent and it is growing by the day…no one has monopoly of violence, the society is suffering social menace and disgrace of bribery, large scale fraud all due lack of national values and objectives which are normally inherent in a national ideology.
For such, an ideology is an important factor in the development of every aspect of society. There must be something more that the so-called oil that holds us primarily together as these it is Professor Ango is not happy with the revenue formula or Senator Waku is telling the South to go to hell, we are gravitating towards social and moral disintegration at every level of national life. We as a people are blessed with or without oil; the problem is that we have never been able to distill a national ideology from the enormous wealth of ethical values and social order of our traditional heritage.
Down the ladder of poverty I have always asked a question…is the average Nigerian selfish, greedy, or hater? Certainly no, some necessities of life all hold us together, food, shelter and food, irrespective of tribe, religion or creed. But we have so easily overlooked our traditional heritage. A close exanimation of the various elements of our traditional societies will show that they embody the democratic principles which recognize the fundamental equality of all men so much so that our original pagan societies were fundamentally theistic in nature and we lived in ‘parapoism’ (togetherness)…one for all, all for one and none of us was stronger than all of us.
One very significant aspect of our heritage be it Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba, minority or majority is that it has evolved over the years, deriving from the fundamental brotherhood of all community, and all respecting each others theistic principle of equality. No one bothered about the Fulani cattle herdsman or the owanbe partying Yoruba and the business minded Igbo trader.
While this traditionalism may not have abolished poverty which many have blamed for a lot of things including the lack of a national ideology, the traditional socio-cultural life embodied a strategy that recognized that the welfare of the poor was that of the community. Like is the case today, the sick who could not afford treatment was not left to die. The promising child whose parents were poor was given communal aid. This was the Nigeria of our “brothers’ keeper” despite the mutual suspicion that existed. The truth is that there was an inherent ideology in our traditional heritage, our pluralistic society have existed in relative tranquil, peaceful and progressive manner if not for the machinations of power players, which has been successfully due to the impoverishment and abuse of the mind.
Like the movie ‘Sometime in April, it may start, we won’t be prepared, but the picture is bleak, the very few tiny threads holding the fabric of our society is gradually being strained beyond bearing point. And when we finally grasp the horror of our present may it not be too late.
…Only Almighty Allah will save us from ourselves. |