Silence at war is the loudest noise possible. In ancestral Igbo, enormous respects were reserved for kindreds and kingdoms who were known for resolving disputes among communities and warring clans. Those respects were possible because the mediators were credible people. When they spoke, everyone listened, including opponents.
In those communities, the high (chief) priests were seers and exceedingly respected men, as communities believed they heard from the gods. Even the Eze (the king), most of the time, will defer to the opinion of the high priest, even though the Eze on the hierarchy, runs the kingdom. The Eze’s job is to preside over the people; the chief priest is to connect the deities and humans. Chief priests are the Ezemmuo (the king of the spirits before humans and the messenger of the deities) and they transcend humanity in the ancestral Igbo mythology.
Whenever the elders seek directions from the gods on if they would thrive in a battle, they expect the high priest to deliver nothing but the absolute message from the gods. If the gods say ‘Go”, the ikoro will beat and young men will be ready for battle. But if the gods say “No”, mediators would be engaged to find a way out.
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Today, Nigeria needs high priests who can speak to the citizens and the political leaders on the economy and other important matters. Yes, many things are broken – and we need credible messengers.
Why? The gap has widened; Aso Rock does not hear ASUU and ASUU operates in another frequency from Aso Rock’s. Also, the citizens are out of the game – how can you be “broke” as a nation, and yet you are building railtracks, buying expensive cars for another country, etc? Someone must step forward to explain.
Who can those be? I think Nigeria’s organized private sector has a moment with leaders like Dangote, Elumelu, Innoson Motors founder, BUA Cement founder, Jim Ovia, etc. I hope the citizens see these people as credible to bring sanity in the land.
Comment on LinkedIn Feed
Comment: “…..how can you be so broke as a nation, and yet you are building rail tracks, buying expensive cars for another country……” The alleged Railtrack if completed will serve the interest of Nigeria more than anyone because 97% of the will be within Nigeria. Of the about 400km distance, only 25km will connect Nigeria to Niger. I don’t know why the wailing. I am waiting to see who will do better than what is being done now. Unless our present reality changes, I don’t see any positive change coming our way.
My Response: we can of course build to Libya, Morocco, etc all the way to France. It does not change anything. My point is simple: do not say you are “broke” when you can do those things. You are spending $3 billion to connect a country with GDP of $14 billion when you have many states worth more than $20b will no connection. Delta state GDP is bigger than Niger Republic’s GDP but it has zero useful rail track.
I mean, this nonsense where citizens are made to think that Niger Republic will magically provide HUGE opportunities is part of our problems. The addressable and accessible value this train will capture is less than $2 billion in Niger Rep.
The economy of Eti Osa local government which has no train connection to anywhere is bigger than all of Niger Republic. Why was that not a priority? But if you found money to build it, do not complain you are “broke” to teachers and pensioners.
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The citizens don’t have much trust in the potential chief priests you mentioned either, because we have managed to convince a poor man to believe that the reason why he’s poor is because someone else is rich. With this conflicting reality, you have created an eternal distrust, so until you re-engineer minds, you will always run out of luck.
We put people who specialize in bad judgments as government officials, so irrespective of how warped and incomprehensible their decisions are, there will always be justifications, with their lackeys planted across all social backing them up.
The only way to restore sanity is to send all of them packing, including those who justify their misdemeanours; nothing else can be effective.