By SUNNY IKHIOYA

LAST week, the whole world woke up to the news of simultaneous pager and walkie-talkie attacks on officials of the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The manner of execution was breathtaking, mind-blowing, and surreal. Until today, it is still generating reactions from all over the world. While some have seen its surreal execution as another technological wonder, others have chosen the moral path to criticise the attack as a breach of international laws, another country’s sovereignty and abuse of power, which they would want the whole world to condemn. 

It is alright to criticise. But often the problems of this world have their root in when leaders do not take criticism in good faith. What is the lesson from the pager attacks? It means that for us to enjoy scientific and technological breakthroughs, we must begin to put all our eggheads to work, whether in Nigeria and those in diaspora. We must pursue the Y question: Why are things the way they are with us in Nigeria?

Why can’t we process our raw materials to finished products to give them more value for export? Why are our local manufacturing factories not working? Why can’t we practise clean and clear democracy? Why are religious places of worship replacing our factories and warehouses? Why are our leaders not bothered about the plight of the poor masses? Why can’t our intelligence agencies contain the various sabotages going on in the country? And so on and forth. 

We have the required professionals all over the world; acknowledge them, give them the necessary backup support, and throw these research questions to them for solutions. You must also be humble enough to accept and implement their suggestions. The money we are throwing around would have benefitted the country better if they are to be invested in research and development. We do not care what happens in our academia, and that is why nothing is coming out from there. 

The Hezbollah attack got me thinking and asking why all of our heavily invested projects have not yielded the expected dividends. The refineries, steel mills,  paper mills, aluminium smelting companies, and many more. I am beginning to believe that their collective failures are not coincidental. Agreed that we have had terrible leaders who put their personal and selfish interests first, but that is not enough to make us remain the way we are now, as we have greedy people represented in all nations on earth. Our institutions have also refused to work because, like the raw materials, they were programmed to be at perpetual conflicts, using the instruments of religion, ethnicity, and cronyism. With this kind of setup, it becomes easy for any enemy to infiltrate our ranks. 

When these foreign countries and organisations carry out sabotage on other less powerful nations, they forget one fact: no empire lasts forever. It is a cyclical thing. At many points in their history, Israel was at the receiving end of the type of treatment it is dishing out to the Palestinians today. They have said: “Never again!” But can this be achieved  in an atmosphere devoid of peace, equity, and justice? How long will the Israeli hegemony last? Time will surely tell. 

Because of their peculiar history, you will find a Jew in all the nations of the continent. Their major strength is in their diasporan population; no matter where they are stationed, all over the world, they are loyal to their roots. You can also assume this as one of the reasons why their MOSSAD intelligence agency has been so successful. The Indian and Chinese diasporans are also contributing greatly to their countries’ developments. We have a growing population of diasporans, professionals, and the best in their fields all over the world. Why are we not using them to our advantage? Are we jealous of them? Do we locals suffer from inferiority complex when we meet them? Why can’t we make them safe and comfortable when they come home? 

Why don’t we reach agreements with them for mutually beneficial relationships in all aspect of our endeavours? Why can’t we contract them as consultants to resolve all of our intractable challenges? It is possible with a leadership that is open and ready to learn. We are never put in the picture anytime new technologies are introduced into the world. Except for serious diseases that they have introduced through their failed researches like AIDS, Ebola, Mpox, COVID-19 and the rest. 

The lesson of the pager attack clearly tells us that we must look inwards for solutions to our problems and be more critical of things we import into this country. Projects to be implemented must go through due diligence, be critically assessed, and imported spare parts thoroughly scrutinised. We remember what happened with power: a contractor went abroad to build big equipment only to come and be telling us that our roads and bridges could not carry the weights of these equipment; so they were left idle to decay at our ports. 

We have seen where materials for critical turnaround maintenance are left at the ports to decay for the simple failure to pay customs duties. For all of this mismanagement, no one is held accountable, business goes on as usual, and the common man suffers. This is our way, a culture of waste from top to bottom, coupled with a set of greedy elites ready to sell the country for pecuniary gains. 

We have become the object of jokes by small countries who had once looked up to us for inspiration as the big brother. We do not seem to get our policy implementations right, even though they have been well enunciated in official documents, as could be seen between the Dangote Refinery and the NNPCL brouhaha on supply of crude oil and the prices of refined products. These are issues that must be settled before we can make progress in this country. If we have the much-touted human resources, we must be able to see it reflected on the ground. 

For some time now, promises have become meaningless to our leaders. They have become mere propaganda tools. When we do not perform according to our words, we lose the trust of the followership. Nigeria is a potentially great country, but a lot of interests are working round the clock to see that we do not attain this height and they include local and foreign saboteurs. 

Leadership must work at building the trust of the people to attract their trust and loyalty, including the diasporans, who will bring whatever they have to offer on the table for the shared prosperity of everybody. Further, we must build our intelligence services to the professional standard that will see them nipping these challenges in the bud.

*Ikhioya wrote from  http://www.southsouthecho.com