In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
What can we make out of this statement? We were not told that this world was created with the mixing of materials to build or construct things, but through spoken words. In Yoruba, they called it ‘Ofo’. When God created heaven and earth, it was through pronouncement, it happened, it was gazetted, which could be interpreted to mean that it was published and that communication or journalism was one of the earliest skills.
As we are here today to exchange ideas, so also would be thousands of gatherings all over the world with the sole aim of getting people to listen to one another. But it’s easy to take this for granted, asking that what have we gained from all the talks of the past? This could explain why in this part of the world, we don’t seem to see the knowledgeable chief executives or top government officials readily sharing their wealth of experience with the rest of the world at conferences. They have left the burden to their spokespersons to clarify their stands on issues; that is when it’s absolutely necessary. But in most cases, they are only trying to be careful, to protect their comfort zone and avoid being misunderstood, and most importantly, not to be seen to oppose the position of the authority in power, even when they have different opinions about how things can be done better. But can we really make progress without speaking out our mind? If we are not making progress here despite how much we talk, could it be that we are not saying the right things or could it be that we are not even listening to one another?
The next thing after speaking out in order of importance is taking action. This event should have taken place on January 20th last year to mark my golden jubilee birthday, but it didn’t happen and a lot of things happened after that including the passing on of my inspirational father, Pa Joseph Adeleye on February 9, 2015, that should have prompted me to call it off, but because I acted and didn’t give up, that’s why we are here today.
What is leadership? Let me take you back to the first republic in Nigeria. After the major players had exhausted their weaknesses and ignorance, the trio of Major Nzeogwu, Ifeajuma and Ademoyega on January 15, 1966 put an end to the ‘Pekele mess’ and despite the divergence of views over the merit of their action, there was a national consensus then about the need for a change.
There was a similarity with what happened at a critical stage of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa in 1961 when the African National Congress (ANC) set up its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), headed by Nelson Mandela, to add fresh momentum to the agitation. It’s all about taking action.
Nzeogwu and his friends struck then in Nigeria because they were convinced that they were the only ones, through the instrument of their profession, the military, that could stop the nation’s drift. But since then, which individual using the instrument of their professions apart from Fela Anikulapokuti and Gani Faweyinmi have taken a great risk to rescue Nigeria from her persistent drift?
It is not common in history to see the masses taking action to change their plight. It has always being a case of one or few people acting on their strong convictions to change the course of history, or how do we explain why it’s Muritala Muhammed who ruled for only six months (July 30, 1975 – February 13, 1976) that is seen as the only hero of all those who had ruled Nigeria till date?
If we reflect on the major discourse in our country for so long too long now, it’s about corruption- the EFCC arraigning people almost every day for stealing millions or billions of naira. A lot of people had stolen so much in the name of taking their share of the national cake, such that the young ones coming up can no longer think straight of how to be successful, but waiting for their turn to have access to the treasury. If you are not in government, your reaction to the tales of billions of naira being stolen will most likely be incredulous, but if you’re inside, you may tend to have some understanding to justify how many loose funds find their ways into some private pockets.
Professor Wole Soyinka recently asked a thought provoking question about ‘where did we go wrong?’ concerning Nigerian youths in their 20s and 30s that are still depending on their parents compared with when “Awolowo was 37 years, Akintola 36, Ahmadu Bello 36, Balewa 34, Okotie-Eboh 27 and Enahoro 27 and only Zik was 42 when they led the struggle for Nigeria Independence after the death of Macaulay.
He went on to add that in 1966, the first military coup was led by K Nzeogwu who was 29 years and countered by M. Mohammed 28, T. Danjuma 28, I. Babangida 25, J. Garba 23, Sani Abacha 23, and M. Yar’adua 23. It brought into power Y. Gowon 32, Ojukwu 33, Obasanjo 29, and Buhari 24.
But today, he asked: “Why is it that almost all this age bracket is today still sleeping in 3-seater chairs in their parents’ homes? Why is it that this age bracket is today still collecting pocket money from their parents? Why is it that this age bracket is today still writing JAMB? Why is it that this age bracket today still ‘sagg’ their trousers? Why is it that this age bracket is today still searching for jobs and not yet married? Why is it that this age bracket is today no longer qualified to even be leaders of youth wings of political parties? Why is it that this age bracket is today so docile? Why is this age bracket today incapable of feeding itself? Why is it that this age bracket is today barred from even aspiring to certain political offices? Why is it that this age bracket is today incapacitated, unwilling, unable and incapable of asking questions?”
One may not be able to do justice to these questions by merely comparing the two periods of time without raising more questions, such as, was it normal for the destiny of a nation to fall into the hands of youths in their 20s and 30s? Has that ever happened anywhere in the world? Did they perform creditably well or would it have been better if there was no vacuum of history? What created the vacuum that the older citizens in their 40s to 60s who should have more wisdom, were completely bypassed?
We only need to examine the age long calamities and injustice in history to establish the fact that the destiny of a nation was thrown in the laps of some young men in their 20s then, and that the same age bracket now are docile dependants, are all descending consequences that will continue to depreciate in standard until there is a conscious reawakening about what went wrong and who we are.
By the way, what should be the limit of history? What use is history if it is abridged, fragmented or distorted? If you enter a room when a man was giving his wife a dirty slap but missed the Act 1 when the wife first hit him on the head with the curve end of a fry pan, you may leave the scene with the wrong impression about who was the aggressor.
Where did we go wrong? Does the history you have capture the scene where we went wrong? Are you aware that Egypt in Africa was the most civilized country in the world throughout antiquity, and the dream place to be between 7,000 and 2,000 years ago?
Let me open you up with a little bit of history from, ‘White Invasion of Africa Started In 1450 BCE’, an adaption from Naiwu Osahon’s book: The End of Knowledge.
It narrated that large scale migrations of primitive white-skin tribes called ‘Sea People’ by Africans, into the prosperous southern Mediterranean region, particularly Egypt, happened by 1350 BCE during the reign of Pharaoh Akhnaton, who adopted very liberal attitude to the emerging phenomena. The movements of ‘Sea People’ reached alarming proportions within 100 years and began upsetting the ethnic balance of the region. As the movements continued in the 700 years that followed, absorbed immigrants became ambitious and rebellious, taking advantage of their hosts’ generous and accommodating disposition, to set themselves up as Lords and Chiefs in territories they settled in.
White ascent in the world began taking shape after Whites had imbibed African education, industry, religion, social engineering and civilization.
Greeks who studied in Egypt and put their names to African ideas and philosophies stolen from the Egyptian Mystery System, to become world famous, included Thales of Miletus (c624-c565 BCE), Pythagoras (c582-c500 BCE), Democritus (c470-c400 BCE), Socrates (470-399 BC), Plato (427-347 BCE), Aristotle (384-322 BCE), and all the other world famous ancient Greek philosophers Greece entered world history when she conquered Egypt in 332 BCE and White scholars think that is enough for them to usurp more than 15,000 years of African origination, nurturing and systematic evolution of modern civilization. Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), was educated by Aristotle who himself graduated from Egypt.
The Greeks ride on their stolen secret ancient intellectual properties of the Africans to dazzle an essentially backward and gullible world as their cradle of philosophical thoughts and civilization. It was easy for the Greeks to do this because the African Mystery System was, of course, secretive. It prohibited publication of its teachings. The original materials were there to steal and cannibalize after they conquered Egypt. As the Greeks did that, they injured and grievously scared an entire race of people, the original race of man. To cover up their dishonesty and permanently destroy all evidence of African glorious past, they caricatured African culture in their illustrations and literature. By their disgraceful act of subversion, they assassinated the true history of mankind, and unnecessarily and seriously disabled universal scholarship for over two thousand years.
In a more recent episode during the “Scramble for Africa” was the invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. In 1870, only 10 percent of Africa was under European control; by 1914 it had increased to 90 percent of the continent, with only Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia still being independent. The only colony the United States had claim to was Liberia which was established by the American Colonization Society on January 7, 1822.
As established above, “the movements of white people into Africa continued in 700 years with absorbed immigrants becoming ambitious and rebellious, taking advantage of their hosts’ generous and accommodating disposition, to set themselves up as Lords and Chiefs in territories they settled in.”
But is it a crime to be generous and accommodating?
When Africans were subdued and conquered then, it was a catastrophic loss for the generations after up till today being born to unconsciously live with the belief that they are weaker and inferior. Was the conscious or unconscious acceptance of the defeat as a failure not more devastating than the loss itself? Wasn’t that really ‘where we got it wrong?’
The world order was made for Africa to live with without its input. It has no control over what to plant, eat, sell, govern, speak, teach, think and even how to raise its children. Things are getting worse day by day and the only aspiration left for Africans is to be like the whites. Now foreign food tastes better, their dresses look better, their names, music sound better and recently, their accents are more acceptable. If a successful African wants to give his family a treat, the logical thing to do is to take them on vacation to a foreign land. From the early age, the young ones are programmed to see foreign land and everything there as better than home, and they are initiated into the rat race to become what they are not. The root of the corruption we so much debated came from the same source with the added greed to the unquenchable appetite to buy houses abroad, keep looted funds abroad to sustain exotic comfort.
If an African professor wants to do a research and discovers that something similar had been done by someone from abroad, he would most likely feel defeated that there is no point wasting time doing it again since someone from such advanced environment had done it. It has been universally accepted that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. But was this not imposed so that Africans will not ask questions? Were Africans there when the wheel was invented? What if the wheel was wrongly invented in the first place? Why must Africans accept everything they are told? Who says car must always be driven on the road? Can’t it fly? Who says the fastest means of transport must be by air? Can’t we just disappear? If the whites had first made it to the moon while aiming Mars, while can’t Africa aim at the star?
Education, the advancement of knowledge is at the initiative and the pace of foreigners on what African must learn and believe. Native dialects have become secondary languages which the African child has to learn through the foreign languages. The best of African can only be in an imposed curriculum with the success being judged and approved through the prism of foreign standards. The history of Africa being thought in African schools is the limit of the version the foreigners want the Africans to know and believe about themselves. In Nigeria, the history being thought in the schools was specially package for the country to remain disunited. It’s about the late 1950s and early 1960s when Amadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikwe and Obafemi Awolowo were scheming to rule the country. When this history is taught, the children can only be made angry, with the Ibos justifying their marginalisation claims, blaming the north for that and the west for scuttling their chance to rule, while the Yorubas will feel frustrated by a union that has limited its advancement. But the history was deliberately cut short as people that wrote it failed to open it further for children to see that even the actors of the first republic were victims and consequences of the past defeat. If an Ibo man should set up a business today, he will most likely feel comfortable having people from the east to work for him, so also if a northerner is elevated to a high political position, he will bring people mostly from his region to work with him. In Africa now, the Muslims are more comfortable with fellow Muslims while some Christians cannot even allow their children to marry Muslims. But if history is opened further and everyone is made to see that all Africans came from the same parents, would they still behave the same way? If a corrupt politician that stole so much to provide comfort for his family can be made to see in history that the remaining populace that are left to suffer are actually his brothers and sisters, will he not think twice?
The most dangerous trend now is that most Africans don’t even know that something is wrong, while those that have the feeling that something is missing have given up, believing that it could be a case of mental sickness, retardation, generation curse and hopeless situation. If something is not wrong, why are Africans playing second fiddle in all human endeavors such as in sports, entertainment, art, governance, science and technology and all others? Why is it that African leaders will loot the commonwealth and keep it in foreign banks while million are suffering at home. The fact now is that the descendants of those that were taken on slavery centuries ago are far better than the offspring of those left behind.
When I thought about this great tragedy, the two possible solutions that came to my mind were that, first, if it is possible to have a government in any African country, where the leader will be conscious of the full history, so that he can live it, preach it for Africans to start seeing that they are perfectly made without any subjugation to others; unlimitedly endowed to attain any goal they set their minds on. Only few Africans, such as Fela that had seen the full history ended up being radical and revolutionary in nature. In the entire African countries, they can be counted from our finger tips.
The second option was what made me to form Segun Adeleye Foundation for Good Leadership in Africa (SAFFGLIA). Far from seeking cheap popularity or personal enrichment, it was not even conceived to have my name, but after over a dozen names with ‘leadership’, ‘governance’ all rejected by registration authority, I had to accept the suggestion to add my name before it sailed through.
The foundation will lead the crusade for good leadership in Africa by making Africans to rediscover who they are. Imagine if the veil can be removed from the faces of about 10 people in every university in every African country every year from now on?
The foundation will carry out activities and projects that will encourage governments across Africa to embrace good governance in order to uplift the standard of living of the people. In doing this, it will employ all possible means including legal actions.
* It will draw attention to activities of governments from local to national levels and encourage/compel them to do things in the best interest of the people
* It will engage in leadership training programmes that will raise new generation of positive leaders who will champion the spirit of development of their societies in Nigeria and Africa.
* It will provide scholarships in higher institution level to youths with leadership qualities in Nigeria and other African countries.
* It will promote research into good leadership in Africa.
* It will engage in research into alternative policies to government policies that are not working.
* It will provide counselling, support and care for people that are unjustifiably victimised by bad governments in Africa.
* It will organise Annual SAFFGLIA African Leadership Lecture, seminars, briefings, workshops and interventional programmes on issues of good leadership.
* It will engage in opinion moulding, empowerment, and building confidence of people on how to make their governments accountable.
* It will develop SAFFGLIA Good Leadership Africa Index (SGLAI) as a barometer for measuring performances of leaders across Africa.
* It will encourage/recognise leaders that are doing well through The African Man Award.
* It will establish the African Hall of Fame for distinguished leaders both in the public and private sectors.
I am particularly happy over how it turned out that Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture will deliver the first Annual SAFFGLIA African Leadership Lecture in view of the message the foundation intends to take to every corner of the continent. With the complete derailment of Africans, the ministry of Information and Culture stands out as the most important in any African country, even more important than petroleum, as government can be projected through the true value of who we are. The ministry can make the mission easier by first ensuring the reintroduction of our full history to the schools. Anything short of the full history will not restore our past glory.
The choice of this beautiful academic setting for the lecture is for the students to get involved, so that their eyes can be opened to know who they are. The time is still on their side to join the crusade for the enlightenment of other Africans. The task ahead of the youth is enormous if Africa will ever have any relevance and saying in the world’s affairs in years to come. Make no mistake to think that our being docile, gentle, obedient, careless, being too much religious with endless vigils and prayers will one day reverse the monumental injustice of the past. The world was not built on justice. The aggressors will not go to sleep. We heard that sinners will not go unpunished, but when, nobody knows. In fact, the wicked and the sinners of yesterday are the first in line to receive the mercy of God. The only time when there will be justice in this world will be at the end of time when we would have all died. If you doubt this, go and read the stories of Cain and Abel; Esau and Jacob; Israel and Egypt. It has always been as in the Kingdom of God that suffers violence and the violent takes it by force.
As you hear this message, the idea is not to be angry and start rejecting everything made by foreigners, after all, in the full history we know that human beings came from the same source, with the whites being our long distance adventurous cousins that left only to return and dominate. The message is for Africans to rise up, stop being copycats, stop taking whatever is thrown at them while being what they are not, but to recognise their identity, essence and proudly bring their values and aspiration to the table as contribution to international relations. Africa needs its voice and identity to focus and realise its entire God given potentials. The glory of Africa has been covered for centuries with generation after generation being born into mental slavery. If we don’t do anything now, of course, the world will not come to an end, but our children will continue to be slaves to their counterparts in other land. But if we start something now with our collective awareness, we can change our destiny and our children will be proud that at certain time in history, we woke up to take our rightful place in the world. Africa must rise again. Thank you all for coming.
God bless Nigeria, God bless Africa.
*A speech by Mr Segun Adeleye, Founder, Segun Adeleye Foundation For Good Leadership In Africa (SFFGLIA) at the Inaugural Lecture of the foundation/Launch of his book ‘So Long Too Long Nigeria’ at the Afe Babalola Auditorium, University of Lagos, Nigeria, on March 10, 2016. [myad]
