Shifting Culpability: The Simpleton’s Guide to ‘Dissonance Reduction’

Ipemndoh dan Iyan 

Information is not the same Thing as Knowledge. Knowledge emerges from Self-Instruction. Whatever the Definition of 'Knowledge' it is always conditioned on personal 'Experience' or 'Observation'. 'Information', on the other Hand, is the Depository of personal 'Experience' or 'Observation'. So, repeating 'Information'   already known or posturing extant Notions does not make One knowledgeable. Rather, One is simply a Regurgitator or an 'Information-Disseminator'© or an 'Information-Distributor'© The intelligent will know this is what One is. So, One should stop fooling Oneself that One is more than what One is© Ipemndoh dan Iyan

The Imbroglio that is Nigeria 

I have broadcast it many times in various Expressions; ‘Nigeria’ as a Country was not inevitable and is not indivisible. As to ‘Nigeria’ as a ‘Nation’, the Proposition is the worst kind of Idiocy that can be demonstrated. Further, the Notion that ‘Nigeria’ was colonized is one hefty Proof of intellectual Flatulence. A clear Case of the Incapability for original thinking. It is 'putting the Cart before the Horse'. It is Misinformation as Process but Disinformation in Effect. Neighbouring Nations – call them ‘Tribes' if you wish – were colonized by the ‘Royal Niger Company' as trading Posts under British royal Charter. These trading Posts were consolidated initially as the ‘Royal Niger Company's Territories’ and later renamed ‘Nigeria’. Normative Logic: different colonized Nations were subsequently grouped together and given the Identification – not Identity – of ‘Nigeria’. Ergo, 'Nigeria' was not colonized as a hermetic Unit. Disparate colonised Communities were homogenised into 'Nigeria'. A Territory called 'Nigeria' did not exist prior to this fusing. Capisci? In View of this Formulation of ‘Nigeria’, even an utter Imbecile would recognize the absolute Dishonesty in the Claim that “God created Nigeria” or that “Nigeria was created by God.” The Claim reeks of an unashamed severe Lack of Education. 

'Nigeria' as a 'Nation'

In insisting that ‘Nigeria’ is a “Nation,” such minded ‘Nigerians’ are stuck in the ancient Minds of European Thinkers who were exercised by the ‘Problematic’ of what was a ‘Nation’, and what was a Country. Most of them concluded implicitly or explicitly that the ‘Nation’ was also the Country. Underpinning their mistaken Understanding was the reading of the ‘Roman Empire’ as a ‘Nation’. In modern thinking, what should first strike the able Mind is the question of “which Roman Empire?” This is a loaded question in a number of ways. One, for most of ancient Roman history, there were two Roman Empires. Two, neither Eastern nor Western Roman Empire was a Country. Three, even the merged Roman Empire was not a Country. Four, at which Point in the Histories of the Roman Empires that either Empire, or collectively, could even retrospectively be considered a Country? Five, at no Time, as far as I know, did the Romans call their Empire or Empires, singularly or otherwise, “a Nation” or "a Country." The ‘Nation’ is not necessarily a Country unless all the Inhabitants of a Country share common cultural History and Genealogy. A Country can comprise more than one Nation. Multiple Nations can never be collapsed into a Nation. ‘Nigerians' must get these Distinctions clear in their Heads. ‘Nigeria’ is a Country and might remain indivisible for Eons to come – which I doubt – but it can never be a Nation. Why is this most simple Logic so hard to grasp?

The Nigerian Repudiation of the Common Good: Colonialism1 and Colonization2 are to blame

While watching Pastor Ituah Igbodalo in https://youtu.be/xPJBcYNXIKc I could not understand how the Man believed himself to be making any Sense. For him, Colonialism, and Colonization are the Reasons the Country of ‘Nigeria’ is in parlous Condition. Despite physical – territorial – decolonisation, the Mind remains colonized, he maintained. He then read out colonising Strategies prepared by Colonialists of the 19th Century for Colonization in the 19th Century. I was so stunned. Who recognizes the Cognition of this kind of Person? We are now in the 21st Century. The Documents Igbodalo read out were the Blueprints for conquering unknown and unchartered Territories in the 19th Century; the geographic – human and physical – Colonization. There was no Attempt by Igbodalo to illustrate the Pertinence of what he was reading out for Governance in Today's 'Nigeria'. Besides; the Fact that ‘Nigeria’ acquired Independence testified to the other Fact that those 19th Century Strategies did not work. Pastor Ituah Igbodalo is unable to recognize this Reality because he was simply regurgitating the History out there that we all know about but which, for Reasons known to him, he seemingly concludes as his original thinking. Arise from Slumber Ituah Igbodalo, Colonialism or Colonisation ain’t responsible for the Inability of the 'Nigerian' State to develop financially, morally, and physically.

Why should I care that ‘Nigeria’ inherited the Practice of Corruption from its Colonialist Master, the UK? That Corruption is the Legacy of British Colonialism, and Colonization is true in itself, I admit. However, it is simply insane that Igbodalo is analogizing, i.e., that association with "a Man of 'God' or a Woman of 'God'" - Charlatans, really - would make One such or that by One’s Parent being a medical Practitioner or a Thief or whatever, and so on, and so forth, One would necessarily be one too. Pastor Ituah Igbodalo probably did not realize he was making Comparisons. Overall, listening carefully to Ituah Igbodalo's Speech, I found it disjointed in Mediocrity, and outdated.

How does Colonialism or Colonisation make individual Nigerians divert 'Nigeria's' Public Funds in Millions – at times, Billions – of Pounds to their personal Bank Accounts instead of letting these Monies go where they should in the Development of the Nigerian Republic? ‘Nigeria's' natural Resources and the financial Accruements thereof are for ‘Public Goods’ Provision of the ‘Common Good’ of ‘Nigeria’ and ‘Nigerians’. They are not for the enrichment of Individuals. Did Colonialism or Colonisation teach otherwise to Pastor Ituah Igbodalo? This Man needs an Awareness of the Histories, and Geographies of Europe, and America3 before Europeans and Americans ventured into African Slavery cum Colonialism, and the Colonization of African Lands. The Majority 'white' Populations of Europe, and America were in Squalor; uneducated, and impoverished. If the Colonialists/Colonizers diverted the Funds they stole from Africa – now ‘Public Funds’ to European, and American Treasuries – Europe, and 'white' America would never have developed into the “first World.” Nobody retrieves - 'rehashes' would be generous, and I am in no Mood - old Narratives and sees herself/himself, or wishes to be accepted, as an Intellectual. That would be just delusional.    

Intellectuals appraise Narratives in Context, i.e., we compare for the essential Purpose of identifying any Contrast before coming to Conclusions. The Story of the Underdevelopment of ‘Nigeria’ is a Narrative, but one that neither Colonialism nor Colonization has anything to do with. Not Colonialism or Colonisation is responsible for the economic Insecurity of or social Insecurity in 'Nigeria' today or the high Rate of Unemployment even for University Graduates or the poor Health Service. I know that full Army General Olusegun Obasanjo was responsible for the Breakdown of the Public Health Service. His Military Regime prohibited Nigerian Public Sector Medical Practitioners - on abysmal Pay - from private Practice while the Regime was busy raiding Public Funds. Name anyone in the Obasanjo Regime who is not a Millionaire - perhaps Multimillionaire - in Western Currency. How much were Military Generals paid? The highest of them were on Level 17, the utmost Civil Service Level. I knew how much these Levels were. I make it my Business to pursue Facts. My last Level in the Nigerian Civil Service was Level 5. 

Notwithstanding Obasanjo's Madness, did 'the People' of 'Nigeria' not vote him in as a two-term Civilian President, and you tell me 'Nigeria' is not wretched? So what if he was imprisoned by his previous Subordinate, General Sani Abacha? "Eni to je gbi lo un ku gbi" as the Yoruba would say. General Murtala Mohammed before Obasanjo was pure evil with his indiscriminate mass "retrenchment" of Civil Servants.4 'The People' of 'Nigeria' are responsible for the Ills of, and, in 'Nigeria'. First, in allowing the Imposition of Military Governments which were anti 'the People', and second, in voting into Government Persons not interested in delivering the 'Common Good' but fixated with enriching themselves by stealing Public Funds.

It is evident that the Embodiment of Colonialist Acculturation is the Ideal for the intellectually wayward African. This is not the same Thing as the incredibly ridiculous Premise that the African Mind was ever colonized or that it is still colonized. The African wearing a Tie, i.e., - something I have been writing about for a long Time - is 'Acculturated Ideal'© not Colonization of the Mind.5 If the African Mind was ever colonized in the Sense or Generality that Pastor Ituah Igbodalo and Co presuppose, there would never have been Struggles by Africans in situ, and in (the) Diaspora for the decolonisation of Africa. The Continent would today remain Patches of different European Powers. The African idolising 'white' Folks makes a personal Decision as the Human Beings we are routinely deciding to behave as we do. The Decision each Person takes might be deliberative or instinctual. By 'deliberative', I mean that Decisions are measured in Reason(s) advantageous6 to the Person making them. I concede that the Advantage might not be contrived; a Paradox, eh? Deliberative or instinctual, either Decision making Process would have been consciously preferred. Igbodalo should read George Kelly7 on Human Decision making instead of banging his Chest with Pride – ‘Chest-thumping’ – that he had read Harold Smith who had been soundly discredited as a ‘Flight of Fancy Person’© (my Euphemism for a Liar). He lived in alternate Reality. Read for Instance http://saharareporters.com/2013/12/10/debunked-harold-smith-nigeria-census-lies 

I suppose Ituah Igbodalo is not One for confirming the Veracity of what he reads or the Integrity of the Person who has written what he reads. Igbodalo reminds me of my Superior - a Police Senior Officer - at the Metropolitan Police, London, who graduated in Criminology and was eager to share with me the exciting Work of Cesare Lombroso because of my post graduate Qualification(s) in Crime Studies. I dampened his Enthusiasm by reminding him that Lombrosso was a quack Criminologist who falsified his Experiments to define Africans as natural Criminals, and was academically discredited when found out. That Superordinate of mine was stupid anyway; a 'white' Man wishing to discuss in Glory the Work of a dishonest 'white' Idiot who had to manipulate the Skulls of Africans to further his little Brain's derogatory Claim about Africans. Did my Superior not think that Cesare Lombroso would be persona non grata to me; an African? That my Oga should have read Herodotus, whom I had read at least a Decade before I started Work at the Metropolitan Police. 

The Truth about the developmental Incapacity of ‘Nigeria’ is not even a Matter of Dearth of financial Wherewithal. In the ordinary Absence of Funds, the Natural Resources in the Country would serve as Collaterals. ‘Nigeria’s’ Catastrophe as a ‘Territorial State’ resides in the Attitude that the Country’s Resources belong to those who are in Control of those Resources rather than the Populace of the Country. So, Individuals like Pastor Ituah Igbodalo who readily point the Finger of Culpability at Colonialism and/or Colonization for the Inability of their Countries to progress into the Modern World should find more intelligent Ways of reducing their Dissonance. Blaming ‘white’ Folks for the ‘Nigerian’ Abyss, Scores of Years after Independence is the Simpleton’s Escapism.

Endnote

1Colonialism does not require the physical Presence of the Colonialist. See (i) Penrose, E.F., The Revolution in International Relations, London: Frank Cass & Co, 1965 and (ii) dan Iyan, I. P., The New World Order 1986 to 1999: The Behaviour of the United States Within United Nations Security Council Responses to Global Conflicts, Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, Google Books, 2002.

2Colonisation necessitates the physical Presence of Colonizers. 

3The United States of America is not the totality of the American Continent although it appropriates the Description "American." It is a delusional Identity. All in 'the Americas are 'American). My Son, when about 10 Years old led me to this thinking. He is past 40 now. Bless, my Darling.

4I was a Civil Servant then with 'Posts and Telecommunications' - have I recalled the Name of the Ministry correctly? - but I was not retired. I was young and newly joined. None of my Relatives, as far as I knew, was compulsorily retired. However, the Obasanjo Regime did one good Thing for Civil Servants, but I do not know if it was limited. It gave us subsidized Meals at the newly constructed Ikoyi Premises (or was it on Victoria Island?) Been so long. Some of those reading this were not even born then. 

5See dan Iyan, I,P., Dulling the Imaginative – Nigeria as an Example of the Acculturation of the Colonised: The Subservience of Non-Western Minds, Amazon, 2013.

6‘Advantageous' here does not necessarily mean ‘selfish’. A selfless Act is of Benefit to the Actor inasmuch as it raises the Stock (Status) of that Actor in Society.

7Kelly, G. A. (1955). The Psychology of Personal Constructs: Vol 1 and 2, New York: WW Norton. (A theory of Personality: Vol. 1 & Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy: Vol. 2)

Note: my interchanging between British and US spellings of certain Words is deliberate to catch as much Audience as possible. 

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18 May