IKA WEEKLY
Unfortunately, my Nigerian brothers and sisters never like to hear the word “work”. Immediately we hear the word, “work,” we go and call the Whiteman. I know we do not like to hear this “whiteman” statement. But, it needs to be said so that you stop doing it. We must cultivate the habit````1 of solving our Nigerian problems by fellow Nigerians. We have all the experts with their various expertise around us, yet we are fond of going “abroad” to solve our problems. When are we going to start solving our problems ourselves? If you don't believe we have the expertise, then let's start doing more of human capital development as suggested by Gov. (Dr.) Emmanuel Uduaghan (CON).
I know you are in a very difficult situation which is why you run to abroad every minute at a little sneeze to dump our problems for them to help us solve. America used to be in a very difficult situation, too about 400 years ago, but they tenaciously held on and solved their problems themselves which brought them to where they are today.
I can recall several years ago when President Breznev of the former Soviet Union was seriously ill, and his Russian doctors gave him only a few months to live unless he would travel to America to cure his ailment. His retort was that he would rather die in the hands of his home doctors than travel to America to receive treatment. In fact, Mr. Breznev eventually died in Russia in the hands of his home doctors. Although life and death issues are pretty estreme in acting out national patriotism. The point is that it is about time we (Nigerians) started rowing our own boat unless we want to sink.
Patriotism, development strategy and stride must start from our leaders, paticulally our political leaders. Our shrewd Governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan is ahead of his time, because he has already proposed “accerlerated development for Delta State” by using the expertise of the 3-D Programme named Delta Diaspora Direct. He realizes that many Nigerians were sent abroad (and some went on their own) to study during the 1960s and 1970s after the Civil War by the Nigerian Federal and State Governments, especially in the areas of Technology, Mathematics, Medicine etc. Many have chosen to reside and remain abroad, but many have also come back home with their various levels of expertise. It is this group that have come back home that Dr. Uduaghan is trying to harness their expertise (“Expertrate”) for the accerlerated development of Delta State.
This dream of Dr. Uduaghan's should be made to become a reality by whoever emerges as our next governor come February 2015. The literature is replete with evidence of how several nations, especially the nation of Israel, developed by utilizing their respective Diaspora expertise. It works, because Diaspora returnese possess the knowledge and therefore the expertise of two worlds: the world of their native country and the world of their Diaspora country.
This two-in-one-expertise borders on perfection, an ingredient that is a sine-qua-non for society development. A society cannot develop where mediocrity reigns supreme: mediocre education, mediocre knowledge, mediocre businesses, mediocre jobs, mediocre workers (unemployable graduates), mediocre doctors, mediocre lawyers, mediocre lecturers, mediocre this, mediocre that. Nigeria is full of mediocrity; that is why we are experiencing immense difficulty in developing our society. And, that is also why a man that I met recently in our “OldBoy's” Association End-of-Year party visiting from America said that he couldn't come back home to live in Nigeria because in his words “nothing works here.” He told me “you try-o!; how can you live here?” We do things like other countries do, but we don't do them well. We must begin to take life very seriously in every facets of our lives. Additionally, I have knowledge of this Nigerian doctor who practised medicine for several years in Enugu before immigrating to the USA.
They would not allow him practise medicine in America until he passed the mandatory professional examinations to earn the MD (medical doctor). He eventually passed his exams and earned his MD. He began practising medicine again and opened many hospitals in different locations all over America, and now this doctor has become one of the most successful doctors in America. The point is that he combined the Nigerian method of practise without the use of technology with the American method of practise of using computer-technology to become perfect at his trade; that is, the expertise of two worlds: the world of his native country and the world of his Diaspora country.
To answer the question who will do the work of “nation building” after elections are over, a strong govenor-elect would first make community development the highest priority on his agenda (especially, since we are living in a 3rd world country). A researcher recently declared that Nigeria would develop in about 600 years when compared to America. However, the researcher recently reduced the years to 500, because according to him, we now have access to cell phones and computers to communicate with the rest of the world. This discussion is focussed on “development” because I am assuming that the reason our leaders are running and clamouring for political positions is that they wish to develop our society if they win. We don't seem to realize that we are very far behind other nations of the world in terms of development. Most nations of the world are living in the Information Age (the 21st Century), but we are still living in the Industrial Age. We still do everything by hand (manually) without the benefit of computer technology or ICT. Most of our middle-age and older generations in our society are computer-illiterate, and worst off, they are adamant and/or have refused to change to using computer technology in solving their daily life problems.
As a former Senior Civil Engineer for the Los Angeles Dept of Public Works for many years, I was previlleged to preview micro-films of how America used to look like 400 years ago. It looked almost like Nigeria of today! Everything was disorganized everywhere. Every-body did their own thing, built their own houses as they wanted. So their government (practising democracy) changed that and put plans in place and organized and developed the society to where it is today. It was not God's send. Although it took a long period of time, the people did the work themselves. We in Nigeria, can do same as America did for their country. But, we must first create and develop plans in place to follow and work upon. I strongly suggest a solid plan so that our children can continue to build upon where we stop.
Because nothing (well, arguably almost nothing) has really been developed in Nigeria, the beginning of this development strategy I am suggesting will be a rudimentary, foundational engineering (design and construction) work. Looking back on how America did theirs, it is mostly civil engineering work at the start. Civil Engineering actually means: Road and Bridge Construction engineering; Transportation engineering; Land-development engineering; Geo-technical (Soils) engineering; Sanitary/waste engineering; Water-resources(hydraulics) engineering; Building engineering; Structural engineering; Drainage/Erosion Control engineering. This is where a good leadership comes in. At the conclusion of our general elections come February 2015, I am suggesting that our governor-elect conglomerate our engineering experts and expartriates from the Diaspora together with our home-based Engineers to put a solid plan in place to commence a development design of our society in line with what is expected of a nation living in the 21st Century. Finally, our Education Sector also needs to be revamped and developed with training programmes to change the way we think so that we don't start tearing down what we build. Have a Prosperous and Happy New Year, and God bless!
Prof. (Engr.) Olom Okonta, Ph.D, writes from Agbor, Delta State.
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