The Esau In Us Versus The Man Of Vision

By Okey Emmanuel

One group of people that have been grossly abused and humiliated in Nigeria are the so-called masses. Also referred to as the man at the grassroot – and recently as the poorest of the poor – the Nigerian masses have been pitiably dehumanized, even below domestic animals.

Though they constitute the critical mass of the population and thus should ideally determine who rules in a democracy, the politicians have ingloriously explored some psychological weaknesses in them – the tendency to, like the Esau in the Bible, prefer a plate of porridge to their birthrights – turning them to hewers of wood and bakers of bread.

Writing in The Guardian Newspaper (Britain) WHY PEOPLE KEEP ELECTING IDIOTS, Dean Burnett accused the poor masses of being responsible, saying, “an intelligent person has to feign stupidity to achieve political success by using the masses”. True, the masses will embrace the man with ephemeral values rather than following the one that has the capacity to transform their lives. It has therefore become an unfortunate political gimmick in Nigeria to warm up into the hearts of the masses by sharing to them worthless values in the name of philantropy and afterwards be crowned as the Man of the Masses.

It really beats my imagination the degree of mind impoverishment of Nigerian masses, to the point that the humanity in them has been grossly deranged. When I see them roll out drums to celebrate their slave masters for giving them debris of alms that are not good enough for their masters’ dogs, I understand why Nigerian politicians use them to ascend political power and dump them afterwards.

It reminds one of the Mullies in George Orlwell’s Animal Farm, who would derive joy in celebrating the ribbon of humiliation hung through her nose by the slave master. Mullie would carry abroad the testimony of the Master’s benevolence – for giving her a pint of milk out of drums extracted from her poor breast!

The masses truly need mind revival. They need to discover the true need of their life – that the Saviour they need is one who would give them a push out of the domain of poverty – away from their comfort zone – rather than cluttering around the ones that feed fat on their ignorance and their future.

Talking of the real need of the poor in a Philantropy Round Table organised by Impact Giving Magazine, Mauricio Miller said, “Most of what people believe about giving for Poverty Alleviation is wrong. People involved in anti-poverty work today regularly do more harm than good. In fact they end up deepening poverty in the life of the poor.” According to Miller, the best way to lift people out of poverty is to set up a leverage system which would steadily support them and improve their endeavours.

From the foregoing, it’s simple to deduce that the so-called political man of the masses is the one responsible for the poverty in the land. We have seen in  this country politicians who issue out shoe shining tools, wheel barrows, free petrol to OKADA riders, etc in the name of poverty alleviation. Isn’t the so called political man of the people simply saying: take this and die in your poverty! Indeed, the real Masses Man should rather be the one who could set up a system that the OKADA man and thousands of other artisans will leverage to improve in their endeavours, say from OKADA riding to  “Keke”, then to bus driver. Indeed, true governance is aIl about building enduring systems and not sharing alms.

The beauty of governance by systems engineering is that it serves all persons – not just sycophants, friends and relatives, or party loyalists. For example, when Prof. Soludo engineered the system that empowered Nigerian banks, it led to banks spreading to every nook and cranny of the the country. Today, after about fourteen years of Soludo’s exit, you can send money to your mother in the village and she will, without qualms, go to the village branch and cash her money. The system thus works for everyone – including someone that may not like Soludo’s face!

As Anambra 2021 approaches, it’s time for us to make up our minds who to choose to govern us. The choice is basically between two candidates – the so-called Man of the Masses and the Man with a Vision. But like Joshua – the Commander of the Lords Army in the Bible – my family and I will stand for the man with a vision – to make Anambra AFRICAN DUBAI-TAIWAN.

*Okey Emmanuel is a Public Affairs Analyst based in Lagos.