What We Sow Is What We Shall Reap On 27th March, 2014, my father Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah at University of Nigeria, Nsuka delivered convocation lecture titled “AFTER THE INSURGENCY: SOME THOUGHTS ON NATIONAL COHESION.” It was an interesting lecture; Kukah argued that ‘what we sow is what we shall reap. Below is excerpts of the lecture: For any nation, history matters. Without a proper understanding of the past, the future is in jeopardy.In his influential book, In Defense of History, Richard Evans has argued that: Historians should not judge the past in moral terms. Their purpose is rather to understand how the past contributed to human progress . Nigerians like to think of their country and its past in such negative terms as if somehow, nothing has happened to us and no leader has done anything positive or worth celebrating or remembering. There is hardly a former Head of State that commands the required respect of Nigerians across the board. Our views about our former public officers are shaped by self-serving assessments, tainted by selfish, clannish, ethnic, regional or religious considerations. Thus, there can hardly be a common view about any single former Head of state or President that can command cross cutting respect and integrity. “The recent reaction to the inclusion of the late General Abacha to the list of those who were honoured in the celebration of Nigeria’s centenary speaks to this issue. I have no intention of getting bogged down by the debate except to say that, for whatever reason, had there been no Abacha, there perhaps would have been no President Goodluck Jonathan, no Governor Tinubu or my good friend, Kayode Fayemi, today. This is because there would have been no Ekiti, Nassarawa or Zamfara States. We can judge General Abacha over his theft of state resources, but try telling that to the people of Sierra Leone where he is revered. History is a highly contested terrain, but we must develop the capacity of managing the good, the bad and the damn ugly. We can subject them to any interpretation, but we cannot wipe them out of history. “A new generation of Nigerian historians must fill the vacuum left by such giants as the late Professor Dike, R. A Adeleye, TekenaTamuno, J Ade Ajayi, ObaroIkime, ToyinFalola, to name just a few. No matter how contested the issues are, we must provide a clear narrative of what our past has been, warts and all, so we can courageously build the future. Our accounts of ourselves have become too incestuous to enable us create nation we can be proud of. It is this lack of a collective narrative that has created the room for the endless talk about marginalization. A national discussion among Nigerians is often crowded by primordial sentiments which we invoke to justify why we must hate one another. This is why Muslims blame Christians and vice versa, Igbos blame Yorubas, northerners blame Southerners and vice versa. The result is that we have no more energy left to defend our country which is why it is in the hands of elements like Boko Haram among others. It is also the reason why we die as either Christians or Muslims, but never as Nigerians. “Today, our Universities which should be the centre of ideas and intellectual curiousity have become in many respects, incubators of ethnic jingoism where Professors are competing not for excellence in research in their areas of endeavor, but to get the attention of politicians and secure political appointments. If we lose the nobility of the intellect and its capacity to create ideas and visions, our future will remain in the firm grip of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. So, if there is any lesson to learn, it is that we must seize the initiative and reclaim the ideals that led us into academia rather than other pursuits. “We are trying to create a new order by way of a new Constitution. Rather than gathering men and women of ideas who know about law making, we have assembled interest groups based on primordial considerations at a time when everyone is angry with everyone and everything else in Nigeria. And, at N12m per month, per participant as it is alleged, delegates to the Conference must think they are writing a Constitution for the Sultan of Brunei. But this is the beginning of the problem before us. “There is the challenge of Leadership and the recruitment to public life in Nigeria. This is an area that has occupied much attention but most of the discussions have been too superficial. We continue to confuse leadership with holding public office. In a country where public office is largely the subject of patronage, what we see is a system that reinforces and feeds on narrow cleavages. For a country like Nigeria where one would expect that public officers should possess a certain level of exposure, what we see is god-fatherism and politics being the defining factors for access to public life. Ethnic jingoists are often concerned with the nature of the portfolios held by their favourite sons and daughters. This is because within the DNA of public life in Nigeria is the tragic belief that you are in office to help yourself, your family, your clan, your tribesmen and women and indeed, create a government of sorts for your people’s welfare. “At the highest levels of government, this is taken for granted. The Party in power takes no prisoners and thus, public offices are dispensed with this in mind and that is why, it is natural to expect that every public officer must necessarily be member of the party in power. The idea of theft of public funds as part of the DNA of being in public life is amply demonstrated by the fact that as elections draw near, Ministers are expected to resign to go and run for the office of Governor without anyone asking how and where they have found such huge resources. “Too many people from top to bottom are coming into public life with no preparation and no pedigree or evidence of exposure and success in any other form of endeavor beyond the patronage of politics. Too many people are therefore in Office but not in Power. With too many key actors with limited capacity, ability and exposure, we see that our public officers are soon weighed down by raw power, leading to manufacturing of election results, tinkering with the processes and wanting to stay in power far too long. As I have said, what we call Boko Haram today is just a handing over the baton in a long relay race of injustice and incompetence in government. Yesterday it was Odua Peoples’ Congress who burnt and killed and ended up getting a President Obasanjo. Today, the Niger Delta think President Jonathan is a reward for their struggles. Why will Boko Haram not think that it is only violence that will give them a President or an Islamic State? We cannot go on this way and in our situation; perception is reality, tragic as it may be. What we sow is what we shall reap.”
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 05:54:28 +0000
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