Sometimes a lot of people wonder why I am very confident about the potential and possibilities of Nigeria and by extension the African continent. As I write this, two incidents in my life come to mind. One just happened a few days ago which is where I will dwell on a lot during this piece and the second was between 2008 & 2009 while I was studying for my Masters degree in the United Kingdom. I remember vividly at that time that one of the Professors had put up a map of the world and in it, the African continent was completely dark. As you would expect, the Africans in the room, myself included felt we were being denigrated. After all our hullabaloo, he looked at all of us and said; ‘In this darkness, lies the future of the world’. What I do know is if we do not believe this, it will never come to pass.
Now to my main story. If you ever had a little bit of belief in Nigeria as it should be, I will ask that you join me on this journey as I take you through a particular part of our history and maybe it will help rekindle that spirit of oneness and a collective sincerity of purpose.
We have just wrapped up our 2021 Management retreat which took place in Nigeria’s Jewel of the Savannah, Gombe State. At the end of the retreat, we decided to head to Bauchi State; specifically, the Yankari Game Reserve. The plan was to visit other historical sites in Bauchi before heading back to our base. I must confess initially, I did not want to join the team on that trip for a number of reasons but when I think of it now, I am indeed glad I did.
I have always wanted to visit the Yankari Game Reserve from my days in primary and secondary school and it came to pass more than 25 years after. When I say this should be one of Nigeria’s ‘GO TO’ places I mean it from the depths of my heart. As we drove into the reserve with security escorts (unbelievable isn’t it?) who I must say is so important considering the times we live in today; I kept asking myself what is actually wrong with Nigeria? Why have we created walls between ourselves and why have we created man-made problems that have consistently hindered our social, economic & human growth.
The Yankari Game Reserve for a moment is an amazing delight to the eyes but when you look deeper, it reminds you of the plethora of challenges we have in our nation. My first impression as we drove in was WOW! What a beautiful place to come with the family. It also reminded me of a place my wife and I visited in Zanzibar during our honeymoon. You know, I will never get tired of saying that this continent called Africa is specially blessed by the creator and Nigeria is definitely included.
The expanse of land and the history behind this is so remarkable. Did you know that Yankari once hosted the largest number of Elephants in the country? I understand that due to poor management, there is possibly no Elephant anymore in the reserve. I am sure if there was, we would have seen when we went on the Safari into the reserve.
The Safari experience will linger in my mind for a long time to come. In addition to driving deep into the forest where due to the time of the day(we started around 5 pm), we caught site of just a few animals. We also visited the Marshall Cave (described previously as one storey and two-storey buildings) where we understand a lot of people hid during the slave trade. I must say the reserve has been fairly kept and has the possibility of being explored to raise the awareness around the place that should bring us more together instead of take us far away from each other. It should not be a place visited and managed by only northerners and a few Southern & Eastern Nigerians who can only go there if they are in the midst of northerners or in the midst of security operatives.
I was moved by the depth of knowledge and great sense of humanity of our Tour Guides. Gentlemen who in the midst of ‘nothing’ could share with us the history behind the Reserve with such passion and energy that you most times hardly see even in the corporate world. Like we say in our offices; ‘these guys know their stuff’.
One of the reasons why cities like Dubai are what they are today is because someone saw the vision backed by the right leadership hence could transform such places into world class tourist attractions. The same can happen for the Yankari Game Reserve. It will not be a state or national thing; it will be a collective conviction by a group of people determined to provide the right leadership that could help transform such a place. To drive this home further, did you also know that there is an airstrip at the reserve? So, planes can actually land directly on the reserve once its fully activated. There is huge potential here and I truly hope we can within the shortest time, tap into this.
I thought the Yankari Game Reserve will be the climax of our tour of Bauchi State. I was wrong. I was so wrong. For me, the height, was our visit to the Museum dedicated to Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. You know, that visit will remain so green in my mind for a very long time for two reasons; first it was an opportunity to in ‘close contact’ truly discover the life and times of Sir. Tafawa Balewa; understanding the things he stood for and the intentions behind them. Yes, from his name, he is from the north but in truth, principles and practice he was more Nigerian & African.
Secondly, this visit further strengthens once knowledge of the history of the Nigerian state especially prior to the first Military coup in 1966. Going through the life and times of Sir Tafawa Balewa, strengthens for me Chinua Achebe’s convictions in his book that indeed, “There was a Country”, in which our founding fathers and some of those who lived during that time thought together, fought together and worked together around a common purpose irrespective of whether one spoke Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba, Tiv or Kanuri. That was completely irrelevant. What mattered, what really mattered; was that we are all Nigerians and the beauty of that mindset, led us to Independence from the British.
Some of the things I kept hearing from the lips of those who work there and from some of my colleagues around the room while we toured this museum dedicated to Nigeria’s first Prime Minister were how selfless he was; how such a remarkable speaker he was, haven spoken eloquently on behalf of Nigeria locally and internationally. A lot of people also said things began to get worse in Nigeria with the coming of the military into power. Let us accept this is true just for a moment. This is 2021. It’s been 22 years of consistent democratically or undemocratically elected government whichever part of the divide you belong. Are we getting better in our mindset as Nigerians or are we drifting further apart in the level of sectionalism and division at local, state & national levels. A certain sense of meritocracy which drive development and growth once existed in Nigeria but is currently difficult to find around us. A number of people even speculate that there might be no ‘Nigeria’ in a couple of years to come.
I believe strongly that no matter what our recent past has been, we are better together. What will make us great is not because we speak the same language or belong to the same religion or look a certain way. Our greatness lies in the differences around us. We just have to remember history and visit more places like the Sir Tafawa Balewa Museum and other historic places in Nigeria so that we can truly understand how great we can be when we can look at others not as belonging to a part of the nation, or not even as Nigerians or Africans but as Human beings just as Sir Balewa states during a conference of African Heads of State;
“Mr. President I always tell people I do not believe in African personality, but in human personality. The African is a human being and therefore…I think any talk of African personality is based on inferiority complex. I do not regard any human being- red, white, brown, yellow or green as superior to me. I regard myself as equal to anybody. I am a human being.”
Sadly, in the last 22 years, we have created walls along party and geographic lines instead of building bridges of unity and oneness of purpose. People’s inability to stand for something has turned them into chameleons and individuals that have normalized shamelessness at its very peak. We must remember that there were indeed some good old days; ones like my dad alluded to a few years ago when we celebrated his 80th birthday. His words were, ‘when I look at all of you, I feel for you all because life wasn’t this bad during our time’.
Call me crazy or unrealistic but I strongly believe we can get things right again because in a lot of ways, it was before. True, people have changed and circumstances too have changed but the decision between us making things right and not making things right lies in each of us. So, our attempt at reaching across the aisle, across our tongues and regions to listen to each other with an open mind is still possible once we believe we can.
So in the perceived darkness of the African continent, lies some pockets of light waiting to come together to illuminate the entire nation and continent by extension. Just one light won’t do it, that’s why we need all ‘our unique lights’ to come together because that’s what our founding Fathers like Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe etc, would expect from us. Will we let them down? Will we let ourselves down too? It’s up to us!
Chidi Okpala is the first Reach certified Personal Brand Strategist out of Sub Saharan Africa and a Brand Communications Specialist. He continues to help organisations and Professionals build impactful & fulfilling brands that last. He is passionate about helping leaders in private & public organisations re-invent themselves towards creating a more purposeful world.
