By: Most Rev Prof Godfrey Onah (Catholic Bishop of Nsukka)
If any German had any idea about how to influence atmospheric conditions
in such a way as to make it rain or stop raining on desired dates, at specific
times and in designated areas only, we would probably have had “professors of
rainmaking” sitting among us today; that is, if they would not have been in the
different parts of Africa helping solve the severe problem of draught ravaging
the area, or somewhere else (in Europe and America) stopping the rains from causing
destructive floods and inundations. Unfortunately, those who claim to have such
knowledge are our own people and they seem to use the knowledge they claim to
have only to disrupt celebrations. (There are claims too in some quarters that
even some foreign road construction firms now engage their services.) Nobody
knows exactly who believes these claims and who does not. What is certain is
that for some celebrations in some months of the year, most of us are likely
either to hire them or, with some unexpressed gratitude, pretend not to know
when others do so on our behalf.
That we jumped directly from the town-crier method of sharing
information to the cell-phone is evident from the way we shout into that little
piece of technology. Most of our people (whether they are the ones making or
taking telephone calls, or are simply passing or standing by), are not aware
that telephone conversations are supposed to be private. First, there is the
loud sounding of the gong (ivom/ogene — now the ringing tunes), then comes the
public announcement (ohaobodo geenu nti-o-o!). And although the mobile
telephone in Nigeria is very inefficient, because of oversubscription on a
fragile infrastructure, nobody seems to care. Indeed, most people will say that
it is better than nothing. For without it, most Nigerians have no other means
of telecommunication. Should the system collapse now (it is a miracle it hasn’t
already), we have nothing to fall aback on.
The word “malaria” is Italian in origin, a contraction of two words,
mala aria, meaning bad air. The sickness was endemic in the Italian peninsula
up till the period after World War II. Today, it no longer exists there, except
it is brought back by a traveller from the tropics. In our case, we seem to
have resigned ourselves to its incurability, until salvation comes from either
Europe, America or, now, Asia. It is common knowledge that many, very many
plants, on our soil are medicinal. Are our pharmacologists doing enough to
discover, catalogue and synthesize these substances for better use?
The political system we are running in Nigeria today is not working
because it was designed for societies that are completely different from ours
and took centuries of trial-and-error to arrive at the stage in which we found
it. Rather than evolve a system from what we had already, or adapt the borrowed
system to our exigencies, we have obstinately insisted on moving contemporary
Washington, D.C. to Abuja, in the same way that we transplant models of houses
from England, Scotland and Wales to Imerienwe, lhiagwa and Amaimo, without any
regard for geography or culture. Do our political scientists and philosophers
really think that what we have now is the best or the only form of
representative government in our present context? Have we nothing better to
propose, or are we merely content with being considered a “democratic” nation
by the rest of the world? Perhaps we expect our politicians themselves to
“think out” a better system. Supposing that some of them are still able to
think at all, they seem to think only about their personal interests. Given
that the present system is to their advantage, with all the corruption and
abuse of power that it permits, these same politicians who profit from the
system will not be the ones who will try to change it.
There are simple savings and interest-free loans systems that have been
operated by women in our area for a long time now. Some of them were
life-saving for local women during the war. If our economists ever thought of
developing these systems, perhaps by now they would have arrived at concepts on
par with or even better than the microcredit and microfinance concepts, which
have earned the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, Muhammad Yunus, a harvest of
prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize. But since our intellectuals are not
rising to that challenge, our economic policies are being driven by the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to the advantage of their
masters in Wall Street.
Metal craft and pottery were flourishing in many parts of lgbo land
‘before the white man happened to us,” to borrow yet again the expression of
Theophilus Okere. The waste from the blacksmiths is still there, but the
industry has completely disappeared. Is there any possibility of reviving this
industry? What help can our intellectuals offer to the expert to codify their
knowledge and art in a way that would make it easier to preserve and transmit?
Whom are we waiting for to translate the sounds and beats of our local musical
instruments into notes and signs in order to make it possible for anybody who
wants to learn how to play any of them to simply buy a “teach-yourself’ book on
it, rather than depend exclusively on reluctant local masters who prefer to die
with their art?
Our intellectuals have to persistently ask similar questions in all the
sectors of our life as a people, if we really want to develop. The issue at
stake for Ndigbo today is not whether or not we need intellectuals and
intellectualism for our development but rather:
Which intellectuals and whose intellectualism will guide our
development? So long as we keep answering only the questions asked by other
people, we shall continue to produce what we do not consume and to consume what
we do not produce. That is a recipe for dependency and underdevelopment, not a
pathway to development. James Parkinson, Alois Alzheimer, John Langdon Down,
Gabriele Faliopplo, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Andres Celsius, Rudolf Christian
Karl Diesel, Louis Braille, Franz Anton Mesmer and many more have become part
of our everyday vocabulary as we discuss health issues, education, temperature
and transportation. The world is waiting for the time when Ona, Okere, Anyanwu,
lwuagwu, Nwachukwu, Okonkwo… will make it to other languages through the ideas
and discoveries of the intellectuals who bear these names. Nobody denies that
some of our intellectuals have been working hard in their various fields. But
the fire of intellectualism is yet to be ignited in our own area. Here, once
more, I find the following words of Theophilus Okere, which he referred to the
entire continent of Africa, pertinent:
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