PREDATORS AND PRODUCERS
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding
of the hands to sleep: 11 So shall thy
poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man – Proverbs 6
10 For even when we were with
you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat –
2 Thessalonians 3
Following the defeat of the Japanese
at the Second World War and the subsequent commitment of western nations to
help build this war torn country, the Japanese people channeled their inherent
work ethics to rebuilding their country. The result was that by the 1980s Japan
had become a world economic power and one of the most productive countries that
ever existed. The other side of this story was that the average Japanese was
working too much, taking very little vacation and many were dying from strokes
and other related diseases. Karoshi
is the name given by the Japanese to the situation in which an individual dies
from overwork1. Despite
these unfortunate incidences
emanating from the Japanese success story, it is
an established fact worldwide that what builds a nation and makes a people
successful is their productivity. A consuming nation will end up preying on
itself and becoming a failed state; a productive nation has the sky as its
beginning. This article shall be analyzing the Nigerian story and we shall be
endeavoring to point out what is inherently predatory in our society so that we
may avoid them and then we shall extol the productive aspects of our nation so
that we can encourage them. At the end of the story we hope that more and more
Nigerians choose productive paths in every aspect of their lives for our nation
to move forward.
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| Overworked Japanese Workers: the cause of Karoshi |
The fact that a people are either
predators or producers will determine whether they would be progressive or
retrogressive. It is this writer’s honest observation that most Nigerians are
predators2, an unfortunate
outcome of our nation’s possession of the black gold – oil. Prior to this country’s
discovery of crude oil, agriculture was our leading source of revenue as a nation.
Nigeria had its northern part producing groundnuts in such abundance that
brought them so much wealth that the northerners were threatening cessation from the
Nigerian state – a favorite refrain by the South-south in Nigeria today because
of it's possession of crude oil which is the country’s main means of revenue today.
In the south we had rubber and cocoa, and many Nigerians enjoyed great wealth
from these agricultural products. These were days when Nigerians understood
what hard work meant and saw how it brought wealth their way. With the
discovery of oil in the 50s/60s and the coming of the “oil boom” in the
70s, agriculture waned and Nigerians began to enjoy a new found blessing.
The Nigerian government understood that oil wealth should be used to develop
other aspects of our national life, so as to enhance greater productivity in
these places and thus ensure fast development of the country as a whole. This
is what our government saw in other oil rich nations like the United States,
Russia and middle eastern countries. The Nigerian government of Gowon and
Muritala invested greatly in infrastructures and the building of public institutions.
Those were the days in which Nigeria had such excellent road networks, power
supply, hospitals, schools, etc. The result was supposed to be greater
productivity of the Nigerian people that will lead to the rapid development of
the nation. This had happened in countries like Brazil, Japan, and South
Africa but the Nigerian situation failed because its people chose the path of
being predators rather than productive. The predatory tendency of Nigerians
began to increase when the rule of law declined and corruption ran riot in the
nation.
Two leading predators in Nigeria
today are her politicians and preachers. The Nigerian politician sees politics
as the easiest way to wealth. The Nigerian politician invests
greatly in his
political pursuit either from his personal wealth or from the wealth of a few
political associates. When he gets to office he sees to it that every kobo he
has invested is recouped. Those who may have helped him out financially during
his campaign period are also adequately compensated. Politics in this country
is primarily to serve self, family and friends; and only secondarily to serve
the people. Because the ballot box does not work and because often enough
elections are rigged and people’s votes do not count, the average Nigerian
politician does not see himself elected to office by the people’s popular will
and so he does not feel obligated to serve the people. Most times politicians
come to office by rigging, which is usually accomplished by paying off a good
number of people of position and means. These are the individual who then make
the decision for him to come to power. They become his godfathers. When he is
in office, he sees to it that his “investments” are recouped and that these men
of means are properly “settled”. This is the making of the predatory nature of
Nigerian politicians. One way to end this is to ensure that the Nigerian
people’s votes count. This will happen if the electoral act is revamped and the
process of selecting who heads the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
is removed from the hands of the presidency, who himself is a politician, and
put in the hand of an independent body like the National Judiciary Commission
(NJC). Following this, the INEC must be truly committed to ensuring that the
Nigerian people’s vote count and other government parastatals, particularly the
police, must be committed to seeing that votes casted are protected up till the
point when they are duly announced. Until the predatory nature of Nigerian
politics is addressed, this nation will not be ready for any true development
because genuine development cannot be divorced from well thought out political
plans that are executed with firm political will.
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| Ibori: a Nigerian Politician convicted by a British court |
Nigerian preachers, especially those
of the Pentecostal genre, are becoming leading predators in this country. The predatory
nature of these preachers stem from the kind of gospel they preach. This gospel
which has come to be known as the health and wealth gospel or the Prosperity
Gospel is gaining grounds among the Nigerian populace chiefly because these men
take advantage of the widespread illiteracy in the land to sell to their
listeners a superstitious belief in a God who is ready to lift a person out of
sickness and poverty as long as that person gives him enough money through his
representative who turns out to be the preacher, of course3. This version of the gospel is a corrupted version of
the gospel of Jesus Christ as is recorded in the New Testament of the Holy
Bible. This gospel sits very well with a Nigerian populace that is already
reeling in poverty and its resultant effect of sickness and diseases.
Corruption in the country has also divided the nation into two desperate camps
of a few rich and a vast population of poor folks. The prosperity gospel tells
the rich to give so as to secure his riches and informs the poor to give so as
to become rich - at the end of the day it is the preacher that smiles to the
bank. This
giving takes up many forms but the leading one amongst them all is the giving
of a mandatory 10% of one’s income that is called the tithes. The result is
that leading preachers of the Pentecostal circle are about the richest men in
the country. Many young men and even women, who happen to have some education
(and sometime no education) are seeing preaching as an avenue to quick riches. Today,
Nigerian towns will have hundreds of these churches in just a single location
alone. Churches, in a said bid to evangelize the world, are outdoing themselves
at opening new branches just to have members who in turn will bring
tithes and offerings to them.
A close look at this scenario will
show any careful observer that there is nothing productive about preaching to
people to get health and wealth, who at the end of the day will not get any
wealth except the person preaching. What brings wealth to a nation is not
superstitious beliefs, regardless of their source, but plain hard work.
Countries
like the United States got their stringent work ethics from reading
the bible that teaches that a man who does not work will not eat. Other nations that are wealthy today may not have imitated the
American people’s religion but they imitated their work ethic and are today the
better of for it. This is the reason why nation that profess atheism, that are
animistic and have beliefs far from those taught in the bible are reeling in
wealth today. These countries have not taught their people a stupid belief that
wealth will suddenly fall on the lap of an individual who gives enough to the
god he worships. Nigerian Pentecostal churches are doing great disservice to
the minds of our young people. What is essentially productive in a man who
stands before a people for one hour and teaches them principles of wealth or
some motivational jargon on Sunday morning but who at the end of the service have
the people listening to him pour in tithes and offerings into an offertory
basket? What exactly has this preacher produced that can be equated to the
millions he reaps from these unsuspecting folks every Sunday? How does a nation
develop when hundreds of its young people who are supposed to be using their
youthful strength to work and be productive but whom instead opt for a “call to
ministry” - opening up churches to further reap other unsuspecting people of
their monies? What exactly does this kind of preaching produce? We know what
Christ’s ministry did on earth. When Jesus Christ preached in first century
Palestine, he spoke to the people about righteousness; about love; about
helping the needy and the poor; Jesus preached a humanistic message and sort to
better the live of the needy. Our Lord and Savior was very productive in his
preaching because his preaching produced people of honest vocation who worked
hard to provide for their families and for those who were poor. Today, much of
the preaching we hear is anti-Christ because it despises the poor and exalts
the rich; it seeks the comfort of Mr. Preacher; and it is not productive in
anyway. Our young people need to know that there is no future for a country
that is buried in an avalanche of superstitious beliefs, which despise hard
work and seeks to gain riches the easy way.
Other predators in Nigeria will
include "419ers" – people who seek to dupe others of their riches; religious
fanatics, the leading one being the Boko Haram people who are literally preying
on many innocent Nigerians lives in the north-eastern part of the country. We
also have many corrupt government officials – some civil servants – who would never
carry out the duties they are paid for except they are given a bribe. The
Nigerian police can also be predatory atimes as they turn on the very people
they are supposed to be protecting to collect bribes from them. And lastly, the
Nigerian people do also prey on each other. The recent discovery of a den where
human parts are traded to prospective buyers found in Soka, an Ibadan sub urban
area, is proof of the fact that Nigerians also prey on themselves. Note however
that the list of predators given here is in no way exhaustive
Despite the gloom that is painted
here one must admit that there are a few Nigerian people who are honest in
their work and are very productive in them. The first of these people are our
technical workers – especially those mechanics, plumbers, hair dressers,
tailors, factory workers, manufacturers, etc. There are also market women, business men and
women, who are doing great work for themselves and earning good clean money.
Although there is something essentially lopsided about an economy that is
mainly retail. Everywhere you look in the Nigerian market, we find most people
buying and selling; in fact too many times what is being sold is foreign. But
this is a lot better than people who earn money from dubious ways. There are
also the Nigerian farmers who work 24 hours, seven days a week through the
rainy season to produce food for the very large Nigerian populace to eat.
Recently, the market has begun to feel the effect of the Boko Haram insurgency
with food items like beans and beef that come mainly from the northern part of
the country, sky rocketing in prices. Nonetheless, the Nigerian farmer, who
despite the weight of the import ridden Nigerian market and the oil sector,
still labors to produce food for us all to buy and eat. These people are
particularly to be praised. We also have young Nigerian graduate who are
realizing that the so called white
collar jobs are virtually non-existent;
these young men and women are venturing into all kinds of jobs to keep body and
soul together. In the process they are contributing to the productive end of
the country and they need to be encouraged. I was particularly touched by one
young Nigerian graduate who uses his evening hours to fry and sell akara (beans cake). His story has become
a source of inspiration to many4.
I cannot conclude on Nigerian workers’ doing the nation proud by their
productivity without mentioning the indefatigable civil servants, particularly
Nigerian teachers who labor day and night, despite the pittance they are paid,
to develop young and great minds. Indeed the Nigerian Teacher’s reward is in
heaven and God shall ensure that they reap some of it here on earth. Lastly,
Nigerian writers, especially those of the print and electronic media, must be
commended for adding to the productivity of this country. Their critical
voices, hidden in their write up, have helped fine tune or even change many
hurtful government policies.
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| The Nigerian Graduate that sells akara |
Despite a great number of Nigerian
people laboring to ensure that this country works, we have a number of other
people who will not involve themselves in any legitimate work and who are
rendering the effort of others useless. Production is what creates wealth for a
nation. Nigerians need to eschew the predatory culture and learn to do good
works. We must imbibe in our national psyche and our moral fabric the principle
of working hard; while those who earn illegitimate money must be punished to
discourage others. Nigerians must begin to fight corruption themselves and not
leave it to government establishments like the EFCC and the ICPC. We must
understand that this is the only country we have and it is incumbent on us to
make it work. A nation where predators exceed producers is tending towards a
failed state. Providence has been very kind to this country in giving us so
much as far as raw materials is concerned and that is why we have the crude oil.
We must however get down on our knees and work the raw materials into finished
goods and then help provide them for the citizens of this country, while we export
others. This article is not espousing the Japanese Karoshi for our nationals, however, we should not kill our selves
with another kind of karoshi called
hunger which is what will certainly befall a people that refuse to work hard.
References
1. The story on Karoshi can be found from Time Magazine of January 30 1989, page
51.
2. A fine article had been written by a
colleague on the consuming nature of the Nigerian people. You may read this
story on this link http://bizlabel.blogspot.com/2014/04/anything-for-me.html
3. This article did not do a thorough
exposition on the errors of the prosperity gospel. Others have done it and their
article are replete on the www.
4. This story of Ayo Fatoki may be found on
this link http://bizlabel.blogspot.com/2014/04/akara-ayo-written-by-segun-o-adio-and.html
