I am choosing this title to write about today for many reasons. I was doing my Advanced Levels in 1975, when I first came across this deep, sweet flowing prose by John Milton. The Poem is essentially the story of creation, the building of a beautiful garden for the enjoyment of Adam and Eve, and their willful rejection of a beautiful thing for Eldorado—-a utopia—whereas, they already lived in one.
In writing this article, several issues are burning on my mind. I think of the California fires and how mansions turned into ashes in a matter of days. I think about America and the war it’s waging against a world that has always loved her and accorded her respect. I think of what China has done for its country and what they are doing to other countries; I think of what Hamas has done to its people, and what Israel has done to Gaza; I think of the needless war that Russia is waging against a once beautiful and industrialized Ukraine, but most of all, my heart bleeds for what Northern Nigeria is doing to Nigeria and what she has done to her own people. This last part is the saddest of all the things that make me sad today.
Bertram Lance, director of the office of Budget management in the Jimmy Carter administration said the following words: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
What was wrong with the American economy as of January 19th, 2025, one day before inauguration? What was broken really? Did America need the radical, and frequent somersaults that have come to color domestic and foreign policy in the last 100 days? Did America need to start a fight with Canada and Mexico? Did America need to antagonize its traditional allies?
Thankfully, the presidency has a life span of four years, but who knows? With the way the guardrails of the system are beginning to capitulate one after the other; with the way the Justice Department has made itself into a tool of the executive; with the way immigration is carrying on and defying federal judges, one may begin to wonder whether we are not being presumptuous in thinking that the system will endure as espoused by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address——— “that government of the people, by the people, and for the people may endure for ever——“
Only time will tell.
Can the mid-term elections bring about a correction in the system? Are the democrats ready with an agenda that speaks to the real issues that people care about? Will the people who voted for the MAGA agenda suffer enough inflation from tariffs to think differently? Will 2028 be a repeat of January 6th?
It’s all foggy right now.
China in Nigeria.
I heard it many times from Black Americans who have gone to work or do business in China. They say the Chinese are more racist towards us than the Whites are. Who can really blame them? If a country like Nigeria continues to throw up leaders who have no eyes to see the future, who should we blame? The Chinese can treat us the way they want because we let them. The latest piece of information about their activities call for concern by the monetary authorities. It has to do with loans that are denied to Nigerian companies but readily given to Chinese “investors.” One’s definition of an investor has always been —-someone who brings his or her own money to do business with another entity.
The operational word here is that the investor must bring his own money. However, several of our banks have fallen victim to giving these “investors” money only on the strength of a “Bank guarantee” from China. It will be interesting to note that many of these “investors” have disappeared back to China without having laid a single block. The question is—how many Mr. Changs are there? Which one of them will you be litigating your case against when you take your matter to China? Does their system allow you to litigate a matter that happened outside their country?
Furthermore, one wonders why we would let the Chinese bring laborers along with them. Don’t we have enough people in the labor pool to do those tasks for which Chinese companies import Chinese laborers?
Are Nigerian officials deliberately turning a blind eye to these violations?
The North and Nigeria.
Every time one opens Nigerian newspapers, one reads about Northern governors meeting over one matter or the other, predominantly, religious and political matters. Meanwhile, one has never heard that they were meeting to stave off a danger that they have created through over 60 years of refusing to educate their people. In essence, while it may be impolitic to say the truth about Northern Nigeria, the truth may need to be said—loudly and clearly.
The North has destroyed Northern Nigeria and it is on the brink of destroying the rest of Nigeria.
Who will stop them?
Who will help them?
Many Southerners will not like this, but I believe it is in our enlightened self interest to advocate for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on education in the North. We do not need to destroy anything they have done already. Let’s use what they have to create an educational future for them. The Almajiri system is an existing infrastructure. Let’s use it through negotiation.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
While we do not advocate for the destruction of the Almajiri system because it has its bright side of the inculcation of religious education, we can infuse money into the system such that the children in the system can access Western education side by side their Koranic education.
How can that hurt?
We must save the North before the North destroys the rest of Nigeria.
The people of the Middle Belt have been displaced, largely, already. Many of them have moved down South to salvage whatever is left of their lives. They are the new iron benders, cooks and cleaners. Many of these young people were traditionally farmers. Their lands have been taken over by armed groups by whatever names they go.
Nigerians eagerly await the bill on State police. We do not need it to be perfect before rolling it out. Let’s get it started already, and we can refine it along the way. After all, do 12 Northern Sharia States not already operate Sharia police?
Anyhow you slice it—the trouble with the North must come back to the lack of emphasis on education. A system that throws up young men and women who do not have the skills to survive the rigors of the age in which we all must co-exist should not be allowed to stand.
Need I say more?
Can Paradise be regained?
Will a Messiah arise in the land to help the North to help itself that the rest of Nigeria may not go down with her?
Mr. President, it’s been two years since you mounted the saddle. Will you be our Messiah?
Last week, I got a long note from the widow of my childhood friend. We lost him to kidnappers in 2019. No day passes that I do not call out his name. We, all of us, have become victims to this scourge of the North on Nigerians. I was at a meeting recently where I asked if anyone present knew anyone who had been kidnapped. Every hand was raised.
Will Edo State step up?
Now, to my beautiful State. If Nigeria refuses to step up to its responsibilities to secure us and bring us prosperity, can our State begin to see itself as a country within a country that can do wonders with the resources with which it has been endowed? I have said it many times, and I will continue to say it. Edo State by its land area and population is bigger than 64 countries. Let’s seize the advantage of 2 million hectares of arable land that we have and let us begin to build a State that will be to Nigeria, in the words of President Ronald Reagan, “A shining City upon a hill.”
That’s on the optimistic side.
The real challenge remains. What can the governor do to rid our arable land of murderous herdsmen in order to make our land accessible for the prosperity of our people? Can we build without land?
Please indulge me to conclude this article with a famous line from “Paradise Lost,” as we pray for “the courage never to submit or yield,” to the evil scourge of herdsmen in the land.
O’meekey O. Ovienmhada.
