The Cauldron Will Explode:
A Case for Enlightened Self-Interest
A powerful campus lecture-style reflection on enlightened self-interest, corruption, youth despair, governance failure, poverty, and why Nigeria keeps boiling toward crisis despite immense wealth.

He tapped the microphone to make sure everyone could hear him, then said:

“Let me read you something from this sheet of paper.”

And he read:

Man 1: Troubling fact or wild exaggeration — Africans can’t rule themselves.
Man 2: You want a true or false?
Man 1: Yes.
Man 2: Absolutely. One hundred percent true. Africans cannot rule themselves.
Man 1: I disagree.
Man 2: Prove me wrong.

The False Argument That Still Sounds True

He walked up to the blackboard and wrote:

“As we moved further away from the date the last British government left Nigeria — that is, Independence — things have only become progressively, nay, exponentially worse.”

Pointing to what he had just written, he asked:

“Is this correct?”

“Yes,” we all answered.

“I agree with you,” he said.
“Still — the argument that Africans cannot rule themselves is false.

“Yes, we have not, in the scheme of things today, demonstrated a capacity to manage the affairs of our nations creditably.
But the real question is this:

What is the problem with getting our act together?”

The Class That Was Never About Thermodynamics

Like I said in an earlier post, this was an Engineering Thermodynamics class — and only 32 students were officially registered.

Yet, Professor Sanmi was assigned the amphitheatre just behind Oduduwa Hall, because more than 300 studentsregularly gathered to hear what they fondly called:

“The Exegesis Before the Heat Analysis.”

It was easily the most popular class on campus.

The authorities eventually had to limit attendance to about 300, and entry was by invitation only.

One more thing: if it was a rainy day, students came in their raincoats and umbrellas — because they knew he would be there.
He would deliver the lecture to an empty theatre even if not a single student showed up.

The reason, he explained, was to teach us — and this was his favorite dictum:

“Long obedience in the same direction — that is the most essential thing in heaven and on earth.”

The Question Everyone Knew Not to Answer

“What is the problem with getting our act together?” he asked softly.

Then, in a loud voice, he said:

“Have African people shown a capacity for ruling themselves?
No. No, we have not.
So what, then, is the problem?
Why can’t we get our act together?”

We knew better than to answer.
No one who raised a hand when he asked these rhetorical questions was ever called upon.

Enlightened Self-Interest, Defined

“I’ll answer,” he said finally.
“They simply have not yet learned the dynamics of enlightened self-interest.”

He glanced around, eyes a-glint.

“And what is this — enlightened self-interest? Did someone ask?”

No one had asked.
Still, he waited… sighed… then, smiling faintly, said:

“Since no one wants to know… let me explain it to myself.”

We chuckled.
We knew the routine.

Clearing his throat, he said:

“Enlightened self-interest means pursuing your own greed wisely.
It requires understanding that your welfare depends on others’ welfare.”

It is the opposite of short-sighted greed.

Whereas the enlightened, self-serving politician might say:

“If I want to prosper, the society around me must also prosper,”

the primitive accumulator is incapable of such thought.

Pausing for effect, he asked:

“Have you ever seen maggots on a decaying corpse?”

The enlightened politician thus serves the public good — not out of charity, but out of self-interest.
He knows that honesty, justice, and shared progress ultimately protect his own peace, wealth, and security.

He paused, then asked quietly:

“Write this down.
What is enlightened self-interest?”

Timotheus Breaks the Rules

Timotheus, attending for the first time and unaware of the rules, spoke up:

“It is self-interest guided by conscience and foresight — intelligent selfishness.”

The professor laughed softly.

“Self-interest made intelligent… I like that.”

Then his tone darkened.

The Cauldron We Are Boiling In

“What do we have here instead?” he asked.

“We have a society where primitive accumulators focus solely on their own interests — bending the destiny of the country to their will.

“Creating monstrosities out of our youth.

“Turning the country into a tightly sealed cauldron — one that boils the hopes and dreams of our children, ourselves, our fathers, and our grandfathers to death.”

Dreams that were never extravagant to begin with — modest hopes, easily fulfilled, posing no threat at all to the paradise they have built on a culture of death.

A paradise that thrives at the expense of the well-being of tens of millions of the rest of us.

The cauldron will explode.

Even with the best of intentions, steam boilers in the early industrial age — and long thereafter — still exploded.

Only after the invention of the safety relief valve were additional layers of protection introduced, so that when one layer failed, another would engage.

But with the worst of intentions, this cauldron — where the simple dreams of the weakest among us are forced in to die — leaves them, and us, with no protection at all.

No welfare payments.
No free healthcare.
No vocational training.
No shelter.
No soup kitchens.

One day, that cauldron will burst apart — with catastrophic consequences.

Government as the Problem

He shifted, as if weighed down by what he was about to say.

“Just this morning,” he began,
“I saw a video of two young murderers confessing to kidnapping people off the streets — and killing them.”

Why?

To harvest their kidneys.
Sold to a collector.

He shook his head slowly.

“It’s probably the most distasteful thing I’ve ever seen on social media.
I deleted it immediately.”

The kid had a tyre draped around his neck — and he couldn’t bear to watch what was coming next.

His voice trembled slightly.

“I grieve for the victims — whose only crime was being born in a country where their lives mean nothing.

“But I also grieve for the killers.”

They too are victims of a wicked state.

A state which has no record of their birth.
None.

He paused, letting the silence deepen.

“Nor does it have any solution to the problem that spawns hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — like them.

“It has no solution because any real solution would curtail their excesses.
Their luxuries.
Their lavish lives.”

He leaned forward, voice steady now:

“It has no solution because government itself is the problem.”

Two Good Presidents in Sixty-Four Years

“With the exception of the First Republic, Nigeria has experienced several presidents.

“The First Republic was essentially a continuation of British rule in all but name.

“However, there has been only one truly good president in all its 64 years.”

He smiled faintly.

“I won’t mention his name, lest supporters of this or that president take offense.”

Then, almost apologetically:

“But my conscience whispers,
‘What about Yakubu Gowon, you dope!’”

“And since I never argue with my conscience, I’ll revise that:

In 64 years — aside from the First Republic — we’ve had just two good presidents.”

The Numbers That Should Terrify Us

He paused one last time, drew a long, shuddering breath, and said:

“According to Nigeria’s own National Bureau of Statistics,

40.1% of Nigerians were poor by the national monetary poverty line in 2018/19, and
about 63% were considered multidimensionally poor — lacking multiple basic services and capabilities.”

Looking up, he added softly:

“What a pity… what a pity.
Such a rich nation…”

Then louder:

“More recent estimates suggest that poverty has worsened.”

Suddenly, he shouted:

“Did you hear that?!”

“Yessir!” we shouted back — with roughly the same fervour as Chinese soldiers responding to a command.

He continued:

“More recent estimates suggest that poverty has worsened —
and that more than half the population now fall below the national poverty line.”

Then, slowly:

“And wait for this…
Nigeria is said to have the
largest.
Absolute.
Number.
Of people.
Living in extreme poverty.
Worldwide.”

He clapped his hands once.

“Okay — that is the end of The Exegesis Before the Heat Analysis.
Non-Engineering students, you may leave.”

Don Kenobi

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Friday, December 26, 2025