Day I met Bill Clinton

Sometimes, I wonder why Nigerians no longer trust aन्योने As Nigerians, foreigners don’t trust us and we don’t even trust ourselves! More often than not, we are sceptical when dealing with colleagues in our offices, homes and beyond. Hence, I don’t know why we should complain whenever we travel abroad and people look at us with suspicion.

I could recall the statement of Nigeria’s immediate past president, Olusegun Obasanjo “The image of our country has been battered at home and abroad; more by our own mishandling and mismanagement than by anything else,” he once said at the launching of the “Nigerian Image Project” at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

So much has been said and written about the bad image of Nigeria abroad। It is true that some people have argued that much of the country’s progress and achievements have been beclouded and damaged by sheer weight of bad publicity and erroneous impression by the acts and actions of few individuals, corporate organisations and public officers whose activities have wrecked havoc on our reputation as the largest black nation in the world.

The launching of Nigerian Image Project by the Obasanjo regime raised many questions: what does the country intend to achieve? How will it be accomplished? What are the parameters for the execution and how credible are those involved in its implementation? But what we have failed to ask ourselves as a people is, how do we perceive one and another?

Sometimes last month, I was at a book launch, three books written by Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim. As expected, the who-is-who in the Nigerian political scene were gathered at the event and the hall was packed full of friends and admirers of the state governor. As also expected, it was a time for speech making.

After a few people had spoken, it was the turn of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was represented by Ojo Maduekwe, minister of foreign affairs, to give his speech। Maduekwe began by extolling the virtues of the writer, praising him on the ongoing developments in Imo State while comparing it with people’s perception of the Yar’ Adua’s administration.

And of course, our dear minister like the Honourable Minister in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People while delivering the president’s speech, tried to indirectly boast of his personal accomplishment in the course of carrying out his duties, yet he never failed to drive home his message.
“The other day I was in Washington,” he began, “I met Mr। Bill Clinton who said favourable things about Nigeria. He talked about...” Before he could end his statement, the whole hall said: “uhmnnnnnnnn...!” A sign that they did not believe his story.

At that point, I was deeply hurt and I reflected on how much Nigerians lack faith in our leaders। It’s amazing that story of the honourable minister of foreign affairs could be termed incredible by Nigerians. Given Maduekwe’s status, his story is not out of the ordinary. His office gives him the opportunity to mingle with and meet powerful people in the world. It’s possible that Bill Clinton could have walked up to him to express his feelings about Nigeria.

For this reason, the problem of image building of a country like Nigeria, just like any other African nation, is a very arduous task if it is only intended to attract the attention of foreign media। The process of re-branding starts with us. We have to believe in ourselves.

It is true what makes news about Africa, including Nigeria in foreign media, is gory tales of war, hunger, disease, communal clashes and endemic corruption, but we must learn to trust out leaders to an extent, even if they had betrayed the trust we put in them in the past. Many Nigerians do not understand why their trusted leaders often end up in unacceptable behaviours; perhaps this sparked the kind of reaction that greeted the minister’s claim from the audience.
The effects of such embarrassment have left too many souls with no answer।

Efforts by the government to reinvent our image and correct the very grave misrepresentation of our country and people by western media may become fruitful only if they can serve us faithfully. We believe that in terms of reforms, there is a lot going on in the country.
We have a very rich culture, the warmest people on earth and we have a land that if we are to develop to our full potential, could become a major tourist destination in the world। Unfortunately, Nigeria has acquired criminal connotations over time, on account, perhaps, of the activities of an insignificant number of our compatriots.

There is no country on earth that does not have this group of people; they are just everywhere. I believe as a people with one destiny, we must work hard on our interpersonal relationship in this vibrant country that holds so much promise. However, I hope Nigerians would believe Maduekwe this time, if he says he has met Hillary Clinton, after all, he had a special meeting with her the last time she visited Nigeria!

Not yet Utopia

As a young girl, I grew up reading the works of some renowned philosophers like Sir Thomas More, who talked about an ideal society free of troubles - an Utopia, a name for an ideal community or society, according to More.

In one of his books written in 1516, More describes a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system.
Utopia, a term that has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society and fictional societies portrayed in literature. Utopia is now sometimes used pejoratively, in reference to an unrealistic ideal that is impossible to achieve. Social planners, dreamers and religious leaders through the centuries have been haunted by memories of paradise lost and have tried to re-create these lands of earthly peace and contentment, at least on paper. The search for Utopia has created ongoing debates regarding the nature of humans and the best social milieu for a peaceful populace.

The journey to Utopia begins with Plato, a Greek philosopher and disciple of Socrates. When Plato wrote “The Republic” Athens was in decline. The philosopher complained that his fellow citizens had become too individualistic and suggested that they lacked discipline. To achieve a rational society, Plato believed that the common person needed benevolent direction from philosopher-rulers who could be depended on, to do what was best for the Republic.
Plato foreshadows George Orwell’s world of revisionist history and doubletalk when he admits that – in the name of Utopia -- “Our rulers will probably have to make considerable use of lies and deceit for the good of their subjects.”

Plato’s perfect society is composed of three classes of people: the wise, ruling philosophers; the courageous guardian soldiers and officials, and the obedient and temperate workers. The groups are united by their belief in justice and the good of the State. Private property is abolished, jobs are assigned and art is censored to ensure proper morals and attitudes.

The massive, all-seeing government was championed by Plato, who maintained that in a well-functioning society, the State must be supreme. To achieve uniformity, the nuclear family must be dissolved and replaced with communal living. In an early programme of eugenics, the State determines who may have children. Infants deemed healthy are raised in communal nurseries, while those considered defective are abandoned outside the city to die.

However, in the reality of the modern day society, Utopia is beyond our reach. I
believe that the concept of Utopian or an Utopian world does not exist in this
world.

This is because, if I look at the meaning of the word, it possesses something that is related to perfection. That means, if the world is being credited as Utopian, it must hold the hundred percent of peace, hundred percent of happiness, and hundred percent of everything. This would mean that the world is perfect.
Whoever is meant to live in that world will have the opportunity to grab a very perfect life. But that is not the case in our dear country where electricity power is unstable, the roads are in bad shape, there are still many people who cannot afford three square meals; you know, the list is endless.

Hence, I could not help but think the idea of Utopian in this world can only exist in fairy tales or in fictional world. This is because, in a fictional world, man has the right to create the perfection in the settings and characters of a certain fictional work. As a literature student, I have come across this concept in many literary works.

In which case, I came to believe the fictional world was the only place where the ideals of an Utopian can really happen. For example, in the fairy tales ‘Cinderella,’ the main character Cinderella is tailored to marry to her prince charming, and live happily ever after.

Nevertheless, some religious philosophers think an Utopia world only exist beyond here, a world being created by God. They believe the Utopian world only exists in the heavens, created by the Almighty as a reward for His obedience creatures. For them, it is only God who has the power to create the something perfect as the Omnipotent creator of the universe. Hence, the concept of Utopian is actually beyond the human thought.

While the Utopian philosophers disagree on the specifics of paradise, they do tend to hold a similar view of humanity. Generally, they believe that individuals are shaped by their environments and that crime and brutality can be eliminated through social engineering.

For the Utopians therefore, the goal of life is peace and contentment. To create a society without want or fear, these philosophers maintain, the happiness of the individual must be assured. In such an enlightened world, even the rulers would be content and would not be tempted to abuse power to their own gains.
The Utopians are above all optimists, believing that mankind is inching towards paradise. Nigeria as a nation may be far from becoming an Utopian state as we are not inching towards any paradise, the future may be dark as the present if we collectively fail to do anything!