Excerpt from Something to Believe in: Religious Surrender and the Decline of Problem Solving in Nigeria. Originally posted Nov 1, 2018.

A society with a sense of purpose, strives as one entity to achieve great things and push beyond what is widely accepted, as within its realm of possibilities. From modern science, technology, and information management, societies have engineered new ways to overcome the daily challenges of life and found better ways to solve problems and improve outcomes.

With the landing of a Soviet probe on the surface of the moon in the very late 1950’s, the American government, led by the John F. Kennedy made it a priority to be the first nation to put a man on the moon. It was a project of epic proportion that had never been done before, so not only was its realization incredibly ambitious, it was downright scary. But fear and the enormity of work was not about to keep the determined government and its people from achieving what they wanted and the citizens rallied together in support, with pride and patriotism as they hailed the historic event.

From pronouncement to final execution – in a process involving putting together various teams, tons of planning, tests and some failures – the project took almost ten years. It also took vision, guts, and a can-do attitude from start to completion. The determination to succeed demanded the ability to look beyond what was considered possible and overcome the fear of potential failure. It involved citizens taking on their responsibilities with pride and ensuring that their part was done to the very best of their ability to ensure the success of the program. And everyone cheered and shared in the glory of a successful and safe mission. It remains to this day, one of the high points for the country.

Bold… determined… visionary…, are unfortunately not words we would use when describing our leaders in Nigeria. We are often told to pray, because there is nothing else that can possibly be done to salvage a situation that is steadily deteriorating. We have forgotten or perhaps never really developed and learned to listen to our intuition, taking calculated risk and seeking understanding regardless of religious or cultural affiliations. We bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away as we revert to our favorite mantra - May God help us.

May God help us indeed, because we as a people, are not discerning enough to understand that the violent actions carried out by terrorists, when they attacked innocent school children was wrong and we need to bring them swiftly to justice and do all we can to preserve and protect the lives of the citizens. May God help us, since we cannot see that the more our university professors spend their time bargaining for better conditions of service, the less time they have to impart knowledge on the growing minds they are meant to be shaping. May God help us yet again, because we do not know that a public worker who does not show up for work promptly or collects bribe to carry out his/her routine responsibility is perpetuating corruption in the society. May God help us still since we don’t see the value of building something tangible and contributing value added services to our economy.

The Nigerian government applied this same feeble cry for Gods’ help, towards the Nigerian citizens sold by their fellow Africans in Libya, where everyone else showed – not just outrage – but a desire to correct the situation and do right by those economic refugees. All of course, except the government of the victims, who sat, twiddling their hands, unsure of how to proceed. Their minds completely devoid of an action plan, hoping for a messiah to come to their rescue and ceding the responsibility of liberating its citizens to others more concerned than they were.

In late 2017, the president of the United States Donald Trump - allegedly referred to African countries, among others, as “shit-holes”. There was also a lot of outrage, condemnation and demands for apology from leaders and heads of states around the world including those categorized in that word. But the general consensus among the citizens of these countries was that, though Donald Trump is crude, uncouth and juvenile, he wasn’t wrong! So, what is being done to correct that impression the world has of us? Nothing, it seems! We are the most populous black nation with access to huge brain and manpower, who could be a beacon for innovative progress in the continent, yet we still drag our feet in the way we respond to issues like crises in our communities; there are still no concrete ideas from within on how to handle problems, big and small. Religious conflict continues to take place and the government seems to be oblivious of the situation, lacking the will to swiftly bring the perpetrators to book and ensure effective deterrence. The police are ill equipped to handle a simple robbery, much less get a handle on domestic terrorism. There are no ambulances in times of emergencies and fire departments are non-existent or inefficient. The life of the citizen is not worth much as dead bodies lay in the street for days with no department equipped to rescue the situation, to avoid further health hazards. And let’s not forget the ‘jungle justice’ of vehicle tire, petrol and matches meted out to petty thieves caught in the street without due process or repercussions.

We can count the many atrocities we allow to happen in our country, but it would make no difference, if we are talking to people – be it individuals, communities or the different levels of government – who feel no sense of responsibility or compassion towards each other and the world they live in, and thus make no sustained effort to improve it.

Considering we are always searching for international solutions to our local problems, why wouldn’t the president of America, who feels they have given us too much in aid – for which we still have very little to show for it – not feel emboldened to call us names?