#BIGVision #MoghaluSeries
VISION #2: THE WORLDVIEW STATE
To make real, sustainable progress, our country needs to be driven by a worldview, defined by Oxford Dictionary as “a particular philosophy or conception of the world”. This philosophy, consistently applied, helps
VISION #2: THE WORLDVIEW STATE
To make real, sustainable progress, our country needs to be driven by a worldview, defined by Oxford Dictionary as “a particular philosophy or conception of the world”. This philosophy, consistently applied, helps
individuals or countries organize for success. Just as an individual without a worldview is one without a road map to navigate life, so is a country without a worldview aimless in the world. Nigeria today appears rudderless, with no particular direction. We have no clear destiny.
Nigerians increasingly are unsure of what being a Nigerian means. This is a fundamental challenge that we must overcome: a country without a clear worldview can’t become a prosperous or powerful one.
There are several reasons why Nigeria needs to become a “worldview state” One, we are not truly a united country. When a country is not organized or motivated by a worldview, small views reign. Ethnicity. Religion. Intolerance. Corruption. We are losing all sense of Nigerian-ness
and identities such as Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, or Tiv, for example, have become the most important identifiers for us. We retreat into our primordial cocoons of nativity as opposed to identifying with modern statehood. Kenyans have prominent ethnic groups like the
Kikuyu, Luo or Kalenjin. Ghanaians have Ga, Fante or Ashanti. But when they travel abroad they present themselves and are addressed as Kenyans or Ghanaians. When Nigerians go abroad they are often asked: “Are you Ibo, Hausa or Yoruba?” Why is our ethnic sociology so pronounced?
It’s because Nigerian political leaders have failed to create a worldview that unites us around some national vision, destiny or ambition. Because there’s no loyalty to any value higher than ourselves, tribes, and religions, corruption, instability and low-level conflicts reign.
This is why creating, promoting and internalizing a national philosophical worldview is the BEST way to solve the problems of ethnic and religious bigotry and defeat disunity. But first, leaders must emerge who understand this. Only the deep can call to the deep.
Secondly, we need a Nigerian national worldview to help us achieve our potential. Yes, we have potential, but so did Haiti two centuries ago when it became independent. Potential isn’t strategy. It’s time we moved from potential greatness while poverty abounds, to actual
greatness which makes our poverty history. Thirdly, having a worldview matters for Nigeria because it will help us assess and compare ourselves with other more successful nations. This is the performance gap. We must assess it from the point of view of (a) values, (b) technology
and (c) economic productivity. At independence in 1960, we were economically better off than Siuth Korea, Thailand, Malaysia. Today we can’t even see their flashing tail-lights. So far beyond us have they progressed. Why? With leaders with worldviews, they sought to be like Japan
