CONNECT THE DOTS

[nigerian_admin]

CONNECT THE DOTS

Poor countries today are characterized by corruption, disorganization, mismanagement, disease, aid recipients, violent and unstable government, nasty and brutal misuse of power, unpatriotic citizens, lacking liberty, freedom, and justice, aggressive, confrontational, and wicked society. Is it poverty that creates these characteristics or is it the characteristics that creates poor societies?
All poor countries share same history, they were colonized. Could this be the causal factor for their demise? Do these characteristics develop over time during and after colonization? In a poor society’s quest for answers lay the required needs for change that will make them equal among nations.
To evaluate the impact of colonization I can only make assumptions of what transpired during this period. My assumption will primarily be based on the likelihood of what happened, the effect on the society, what will happen after domination.
Imagine that a highly advanced civilized society from another world (alien) came to our world for a rear product in their world (silicon). Assume it is a hundred years undertaking. How will this affect our world?
What happened?
(a) Purpose. The alien’s primary interest is the need from our world. They will develop the structure to assume silicon and will direct the best minds, the most physically and mentally capable in our world to the development of (silicon) either by force or by assigning the best incentive e.g. wages. The least capable will produce and exchange our domestic goods and services.
(b) Infrastructure: The physical infrastructure developed will be concentrated on the means to produce, transport, and export silicon to their world. They will structure the following;
(1) The education infrastructure that will enable communication between them and our world. Education is necessary as instructional instrument for us to comprehend how to perform duties and calculate in their own system. The aliens would find out quickly that the abundant skilled labour here is economical for usage instead of importing their own people.
(2) They will require laws that will govern us and a disciplinary structure (the judiciary and the police) to maintain law and order. The function of this structure will primarily be to condition our populace to their rules and needs. This structure is necessary to destroy and eliminate dissent because no society will accept domination willingly. Opposition will be dealt with brutal force. Since they dominate us the laws will not apply to them. They will live like kings and (our social structure) the welfare of the populace will be neglected.
(3) These aliens will structure a banking system in the likeness of theirs that may be a better system since they are advanced. This monetary or banking system will be required to exchange for labour utilized, for the goods assumed to their world and as conditioning incentive. They may use our existing monetary system but most unlikely since type of currency used is a form of dominance.
(4) They will require a bureaucratic structure that will manage the production, prepare wages, and provide logistics on total production for export. This management is required to attain optimal production and labour management etc.
(5) The development of transportation, export, and import structure will be a priority. A place to bring all the equipment to produce, a venue to come into our world with ease, and the structure to transport the goods produced from the production site to the export venue to their world. The immediate surroundings of their production to destination for export and import will be priority.
(6) Because their rule is authoritarian they will rule the country from a control center. Every decision will be made centrally by a few. All political, economic, and social decisions will originate from the center. All resources will flow to the center and redistributed to the rest of the country. Communities, cities, and States will have minimal contribution and there will be no bottom up contribution, decision making, organization, and creativity.


How will this affect our world?
The intrusion will affect every aspect of our lives, the political, economic, and social life. The whole society will become subservient to this invader.
(a) Political effect.
It would be devastating for a society to see their leaders as powerless. The citizens will lose the sense of purpose and direction. We will be scared, insecure and confused. Confused on where and who we will place our loyalty, who we are, and our future. The new system of governance will be totally oblivious to us. There will be two system of governance, one in the capital cities where control centers are situated and another in rural areas where they will continue their traditional social livelihood. Most of us will not speak or read the new language it will be total chaos. The authoritarian rule, the brutal force necessary to condition the world to the rule of law and the total disregard for the rule they created, will start to be the culture of the people especially those of us closer to them who they placed in position of authority. The (aliens) that are in charge will be designators from their world and the unconditional power and authority they have will be corrupt after all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Their primary interest is the resource they need therefore there will be the least interest in the welfare of the people they dominate and our culture will absorb it all. A culture was developed in this institution.
(b) Economic effect.
Our domestic production and its exchange are now in the hands of the least productive among us since the most capable physically and mentally had been lured to the production of (silicon) either by force or by rewarding incentives. Our primary needs food, shelter, and security will be neglected. Our domestic production and its exchange will be unorganised, undirected, unsupported. There will be two methods for exchanging goods and services, the traditional method and the new imported structure and new currency introduced. The new banking system and currency will be complicated and therefore the traditional system of saving, raising funds, and exchanging our goods will continue within the least informed in rural areas concurrently with the new monetary system enforced upon us. New products will emerge from their world and some of their products will be produced in our world. Domestic production and these foreign products will be distributed and retailed at two different markets concurrently.
(c) Social Effect.
Our world will be socially bankrupt. Our culture is now interrupted. It will be forever affected unless we fix all the stages we missed when our social system was neglected and when we quantum leap. Since culture has a major impact on the functioning of a society, any interruption will directly affect our political, economic, and social functioning.
What will happen when the (aliens) leave?
The structure they left us was primarily for their purpose which is to produce, manage, provide the infrastructure to import and export, educate us for instructional purpose, and create institutions that will condition us to accept their rule of law The structure they left us was for their needs and purpose we must revisit our political, economic and social structure and fix it to fit our needs. There are many things that were not suitable for us and there are many things that were not in place before we quantum leap.
Examples:
The politicians who succeeded power after domination must have been mentored for take over. We still rule from the center, only a few make decisions, and it is still top down management. The brutal force, the corruption, the disregard for the citizens need and the rule of law continues. The political leader’s primary interests are in the resources (money in this case) they can assume to ship out of the country just as their predecessors shipped out our resources. How do we change this inherited culture from domination?
The education infrastructure that was for instructional purpose has yet to change. We educate our children and left them after graduation. We failed to provide the structure necessary to invent, to be in business, or to be ready for employment. How do we support our youth from schooling to actual production and/or gainful employment stage?
Our judiciary and police were created to serve the colonials purpose. Today they are still doing the same thing with those in power. There are no defined and rigid division of power, responsibility, and accountability. How do we change the culture and restructure these institutions so that they now serve the country?
Our domestic primary needs; food, shelter, and security were neglected. This is the foundation of any economy the roots of the tree that produces the fruits. In advanced nations shelter and food approximate more than 20% of the GDP. This is now our society a building without a good foundation will have difficulty with stability. How do we now ensure that our citizens can attain these needs to strengthen our economy? When and how are we going to revamp the infrastructure?
The provision of collective needs for optimal production and its exchange such as roads, uninterrupted electricity, uninterrupted access to water, co-ordinated consumer and producer information structure, and a supported market large enough to exchange our total production need improvement. Investment in collective needs create conducive environment for production and increase employment and GDP.
The need for continuity such as, unemployment insurance, health insurance, life insurance, property insurance, old age security, etc. condition the culture, contain bribery, corruption and lessens stress. It is very important in the continuation of our lives, how do we inform, direct, organize, and support our people to all accept, participate and contribute to it?
It is time that we become digitized with identifications that will make each of us responsible, so that our country and each of us can know who we are, where we are, and our needs. If we are made responsible we will become responsible and some of these little things will begin to restructure our culture. You cannot support us all unless you know who we are. Likewise we cannot exchange our goods and services amongst each other unless we know each other. Fraud, uncertainty, and irresponsibility flourish in any society that does not make the people responsible. It diminishes the GDP potential.
It is time that we have in place checks and balances to inform ourselves of irregularities and imminent dangers to us all and to discipline and condition us to the rule of law. ‘Call centers’ and ‘leak centers’ are required today to start conditioning our culture that has been neglected for far too long.
Let us know we are not alone. This has created a culture of selfishness, uncertainty for the future, and corruption. Create the infrastructure that will make us safe. That will give us the confidence that we are part of our community that care for us and we will care for our community. We are in charge of our country now our need to be secure is a primary need.
All colonised dirty-poor countries have a very ugly policing system where those who are sworn to protect them are the ones that extort the citizens. They have these system where they harass, shakedown, and kidnap their own citizens for money. The filthy money they extort is distributed among them all the way to the top of command. How and where did this horrific system start? Who created it? How do we destroy it? These countries have informed citizens and they have political leaders. It is difficult to believe that this is possible in a country. How is this acceptable and why today in the year 2013? How can there be patriotism, respect for authority, respect for each other, and respect for the rule of law when those responsible to save the society are primarily destroying it? Is this a system introduced during colonization because all colonized police force practice it? What are the educated elite, the political establishment, and the human rights organization within the country doing about it? The police are the savoir of civil society without them there is no hope for a country. If they are corrupt or seen as corrupt the whole society will fail. What are our political leaders, the educated, and every citizen expectation for our country?
We must connect all the dots that are the foundation for a civil society before our country can move forward. We need a ‘think tank’, a group of people that will continually seek to connect these dots for a better society. It is not poverty that creates our problems our problems are created by what we collectively choose to be as a nation, our expectation determines our character. All these separate needs have to be all connected because each is interdependent on the other and some have to be accomplished before the other. There are inflationary factors to consider, there is the present corrupted system, and there are new structures that need to be developed. We need forums where we can continuously engage, inform, contribute, support each other, and our elected officials. The appointment of family, friends, ethnics, and less informed Nigerians will keep us where we are. ‘We all remember Oga at the top’. For once let us all think about the country we will leave for our children. After all, regardless of what country they chose to live later in life, this country will remain the country of origin, the only boundary that we all call our home, Nigeria.