Resilience in Misery and Despair

...also published in DAILY TRUST,  6, April 2012

Inasmuch as I believe in the potential of the method of popular election to bring about good governance that guarantees political stability and economic prosperity hence social harmony, I am skeptical about the suitability of its outright and unconditional adoption by all societies regardless of their peculiar challenges. After all, last year I argued in this column about this point under the title: “Not Yet Ripe for Democracy” (Daily Trust, Friday 26 August 2011).

Though in the absence of any realistic alternative to this method in Nigeria presently, one can’t reasonably argue in favor of any other method, however the question whether it is worth it or not (as far as the average Nigerian is concerned) is left to their living conditions to answer, because the answer is too obvious to require any written or verbal presentation, after all a Hausa proverb sums it up in “jiki magayi” which means physical suffering says it all.  

Likewise, it doesn’t require any calculation of indices to prove that the status-quo is dramatically and consistently getting worse, which (going by the natural rules of life, and unless checked) warns of severer circumstances that may eventually spell an overwhelming doom. 

Nevertheless, what is actually funny and indeed ironic is the apparent apathy of the vast majority of the very people who suffer it most i.e. the average people, which explains why the status-quo may never change. This is particularly obvious considering how they approach issues as strategic as leadership and administration. It is obvious that, the average Nigerians’ enthusiasm (if any) to change the status-quo does not match the severity of the hardship they have been subjected to over the decades. 

There are always researches, articles and comments addressing the instances of such apathetic attitudes, however not much if at all has been written about the philosophical explanation of such ironic indifference and indeed self-sabotage.

Interestingly, it is widely assumed that, the desperate survival hustling, which many Nigerians have been forced into, prove their resilience in the face of frustrating socio-economic conditions. In reality this explanation is not accurate because it simply confuses desperation with resilience. 

Incidentally, resilience is inspired by willingness and indeed insistence to overcome a challenge no matter how hard, by being hardworking, creative in devising appropriate strategies, guided by clear progress indices, and also being consistently focused towards the achievement of short, medium and long term objectives appropriately. 

While on the other hand, desperation implies lack of vision and focus in one’s effort to achieve his goals, which inevitably makes him sacrifice his strategic interests in order to achieve some less important and short-term goals.

Both resilient and desperate may seem hardworking and indeed workaholic, however while the former is wise and principled enough to resist temptation to be compromised, stands firm against prejudicial influence and works hard creatively to achieve his immediate goals without jeopardizing his strategic interests, the latter toils and hustles recklessly to “make it” through short-cuts, which explains why he facilitates election rigging and other corrupt practices, promotes and protects incompetent and corrupt officials on some irrelevant grounds e.g. ethnicity, region or indeed the peanuts he gets from them.  

Therefore, while ruling out resilience behind the average Nigerians’ apparent indifference towards their plight, the most probable explanation might be the addiction of misery.  In other words, they have addicted their largely miserable life styles because they have addicted the bitterness of misery hence perhaps don’t feel its bite anymore. 

 

Over the past few decades, the escalation of misery in the form of leadership inflicted grinding poverty, poor public services, insecurity etc, has been particularly dramatic. By all standards, the level of deprivation in the land is too alarming that if it were elsewhere people would have since revolted.

Incidentally, whenever I hear my friends and colleagues from other developing countries lamenting of “hardship” in their countries and giving instances of such hardship, I simply either keep quite or change the issue lest it leads to comparison with my country. This is even though I am aware that they already know that Nigerians are generally poor, yet I am sure they don’t realize the gravity of the poverty in which the people languish, especially in view of the oil wealth the country is said to have. 

 

Therefore, as I pointed out earlier, I either keep quite in such discussions or change the subject, because I notice that what they complain to be lacking and which they regard as basics are actually regarded as luxuries in Nigeria, and in the meantime, what they take for granted as average people in their countries are enjoyed only by the rich in Nigeria.

Moreover, one particular funny paradox I notice is that, though under normal circumstances, the cost of living in a particular country is –to a large extent- determined by the economic condition of its people; for instance, it tends to be higher in rich and developed countries generally given their relatively stronger purchasing power compared to their poor and underdeveloped counterparts. However, in Nigeria it seems the reverse is the case, because despite the abject poverty that ravages the country, the cost of living is generally much higher than what is obtained in countries where people enjoy high standards of living. 

In any case, it seems no matter how much it deteriorates, the average Nigerians are prepared to endure it anyway, because after all no matter how hard a particular situation is, people still suspect that the worst has not yet come, hence underestimate the severity of whatever misery they are going through. 

Anyway, another possible explanation of the average Nigerian’s indifference to his predicament is that, it could be out of sheer despair, having apparently given up any hope of positive change. This is particularly manifested during elections, when the same previously “elected” crooks and their likes take advantage of people’s despair to maintain their largely ill-gotten positions or maneuver themselves into any other positions of influence.

Worse still is how an increasing number of people are subscribing to some ridiculous official justifications or silly philosophical explanations of their plight, which cite demographic challenges, multiplicity of ethno-religious groups and even a divine destiny as explanations of their persistent predicament.  

The reality is that, only when average Nigerians decide to take their destiny into their hands that the status-quo will change. Nigerian thieving officials will never refrain from stealing, for they have actually addicted it, neither will they voluntarily relinquish their positions of influence to give way to competent and honest people. 

Therefore people have to take their destiny into their hands by being resilient as explained above and engage in democratic election process with a view to achieving the desired common objectives.