Few Nigerians today are original...moi included. You know what makes an original in a national context? Culture, lifestyle and values that are completely and unequivocally ours.
This is something few Nigerians today know little about, though they claim to know it all. When Europeans came to this land of ours, they met with a culture clash. We were different. We were distinct civilisations, with different evolutionary paths. Not anymore.
Today, our ancestors of just the last generation will recognise little of what we say, or wear, or do. They will not recognise us as their offspring. The things they left behind, the awesome wealth of language, and dressing, and ethics of living and decorum have all gone away. Little of it remains.
What will Nigeria look like a hundred years from now? Will someone look at it and be able to see the imprints of the great men and women that spawned us? Will the Sangos, and Ojadilis and Ikengas, the black soil and sweat of the warriors of old remain alive in us, modernised, of course, and harmonised with a global culture...or will there be no trace of our rich history left. Will we have completed the transition we are making now, into outposts of Western civilisation, adopting the culture of materialism, and shallow living, and megacity traipsing individuals? Will there be a difference between Lagos of the future, and Boston of the future? Or will we all b the same?
Bcos what we call globalisation, as in the mix of global cultures and narrowing of world reaches, is really westernisation...the spread of western secular civilisation across all the nations of the world. It is the new form of imperialism. And it is leaving in its wake thousands of broken values, fractured societies and lost civilisations. So question is...where will Nigeria be then..when this chain is complete? History will ask us...did we guard our heritage..or will it join the thousands washed away by western seas?
The answer is ours. It lies in our hands. And our minds. If we will take the time to find it.
Happy 50th to Nig.
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