Stop Talking About Restructuring. Build the Economy First!

Stop Talking About Restructuring.

Build the Economy First 

Nigeria’s real problem is not restructuring but poverty.
In this Molue MOnoLogUE, Don Kenobi argues in this 2018 Essay that economic development  must come before constitutional debates 

- that the country must first build industry,
 jobs, and dignity from Nigeria’s vast mineral wealth.

Germany’s Federal Structure

Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen states (German: Land, plural Länder; informally and very commonly Bundesland).

Berlin and Hamburg are frequently called Stadtstaaten (city-states), as is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.

The remaining thirteen states are called Flächenländer (literally: “area states”).

Source: Wikipedia.

A Question Worth Asking

Why is returning to their “federating units” or “restructuring” never discussed there?

Could it be because they have a great economy?

Or because their leaders got it right after the war?

Germany Was Rebuilt From Ruins

Modern Germany is only about fifteen years older than Nigeria.

It was practically rebuilt from the ground up after the Second World War.

Parts of its territory were ceded to the victorious allies.
Gdańsk in Poland used to be the German city of Danzig.

Then the nation itself was divided in two:
East Germany and West Germany.

Even the capital, Berlin, was divided.

German post-war leaders were not in any position to redesign the perfect federation.

They were defeated.
Humiliated.
Fragmented.

They gathered the crumbs of their national pride and simply got on with the work.

And they got on with it.

Less than fifty years later Germany had become the economic powerhouse of Europe.

By sheer economic weight it forced the reunification of its homeland, despite the concerns of German-skeptical leaders such as Margaret Thatcher.

Restructuring Is a Luxury of Prosperous Nations

If the federating units in Germany talk about restructuring today, it would be a luxury.

An ornament they can afford.

Germany once announced an objective of generating 100% of its energy consumption from renewables by around 2030.

That too is an ornament they can afford.

Imagine Nigeria making such an announcement.

With all the gas we produce, we still cannot generate reliable electricity.

Electricity Is Not a Mystery

Electricity remains the turning of a copper loop within an electromagnetic field.

Nothing on earth could be simpler than generating electricity in Nigeria.

Even if all 180 million of us took turns turning a giant spindle with copper loops inside an electromagnetic field, we could generate electricity.

The Real Prerequisite for Restructuring

To restructure, we must first get the economy right.

The map of solid minerals in this country will astonish you.

A water-logged oil-rich state, according to statistics, also has incredible limestone deposits.

Limestone means cement.

Imagine that state producing enough cement to:

• Pave all its roads

• Supply government construction projects

• Supply cement for oil-well drilling operations

Imagine Bayelsa State asking all international oil companies operating there to sign an MOU committing to buy hundreds of thousands of tons of cement for drilling campaigns worldwide as part of their license to operate.

Mineral resources abound across every state in Nigeria.

The Extractive Trap

Right now our economic sequence looks like this:

• Extract raw materials

• Sell or export raw materials

• Steal the proceeds

The effect is obvious:

• Fewer jobs

• Anemic economy

A Different Sequence

Now imagine a different sequence:

• Extract raw materials

• Refine raw materials

• Sell or export refined products

• Steal the proceeds

Even if corruption remained, the results would still be dramatically different.

There would be:

• More jobs

• Much more revenue (perhaps 300% more)

• A stronger economy

The impact of corruption would also be smaller relative to the size of the economy.

Wealth Changes Behavior

A wealthier population would mean:

• Greater self-respect

• More confident citizens

• Less tolerance for petty corruption

With greater self-respect:

• The judiciary becomes more fearless

• Law enforcement becomes more fearless

And fearless institutions become less corrupt.

People with dignity do not easily pay bribes.

They ask questions.

They refuse.

They go to court.

Everything Is Interlinked

Our real problem is poverty.

Not the 1960 constitution.

Not the military constitution.

Not the structure of the federation.

Separation Is Always Possible

At some point we could even have a velvet revolution like Czechoslovakia.

Shake hands and say goodbye.

It seems almost inevitable that one day we might face such a moment.

Looking at today’s political climate we see three groups:

• The Deaf — those satisfied by their natural endowments and unwilling to hear the desperate

• The Desperate — those ravaged by economic hardship

• The Dead — those who can no longer speak

If the deaf do not begin to listen, the country may one day come apart at the seams.

If separation ever happens, let it be like the Czechs and Slovaks.

A handshake.

A kiss goodbye.

And peace.

Stop Talking About Restructuring

If you believe in restructuring, start building the economy.

The easiest place to begin is simple:

Create industrial parks in every Local Government Area and begin building productive capacity.

Do Not Be Fooled by Political Cinema

Do not be deceived by politicians and their cynical cinema.

No one person is the solution.

No political party is the solution.

Crisscrossing alliances, breaking old coalitions, creating new parties, nPDP, rAPC, these are special effects.

When Spiderman flies through the air, that is special effects.

There is no Spiderman.

Gravity would make sure he does not fly.

So do not be fooled by the special effects.

Open your eyes.

There are no little men inside the radio.

The Real Issue

“It’s the economy, stupid.” Bill Clinton, 1992.

I rest my case

Don Kenobi

July 7th 2018

#BigAgendaAfrica 
#ReCultureNotReStructure 
#CultureNotStructure 

Conscience, the Interior Sinai By Fulton J. Sheen

Conscience, the Interior Sinai - Fulton J. Sheen

A powerful reflection by Fulton J. Sheen on conscience as the interior moral government that legislates, witnesses, and judges human actions.

Conscience is an interior government, exercising the same functions as all human government: legislative, executive, and judicial.

It has its Congress, its President, and its Supreme Court.

It makes its laws.

It witnesses our actions in relation to those laws.

And finally, it judges us.

1️⃣ Conscience Legislates

There is in each of us an interior Sinai, from which is promulgated, amid the thunder and lightning of daily life, a law telling us:

Do good. Avoid evil.

That interior voice fills us with a sense of responsibility.

It reminds us not that we must do certain things, but that we ought to do them.

And the difference between a machine and a person is precisely this:

The difference between “must” and “ought.”

Without even being consulted, conscience pronounces some actions evil and unjust, and others moral and good.

Hence, when citizens fail to see a relationship between a human law and the law of their own conscience, they feel free to disobey and their justifying cry is:

“My conscience tells me it is wrong.”

2️⃣ Conscience Executes

Conscience not only legislates.

It also witnesses the application of the law to our actions.

An imperfect analogy may be found in civil government.

Congress passes a law.

The president approves and applies it.

In the same way, conscience witnesses the fidelity of our actions to the law.

Aided by memory it tells us:

• the value of our actions

• the influence of passion and environment

• whether our consequences were foreseen or unforeseen

It shows us, as in a mirror, the footsteps of all our actions.

And it says:

“I was there.

I saw you do it.

You had such and such an intention.”

Human justice can summon only external witnesses.

But conscience summons the one witness who cannot escape the court:

Myself.

And whether I like it or not,

I cannot lie to what it witnesses against me.

3️⃣ Conscience Judges

Conscience not only legislates and witnesses.

It judges.

The breast of every person bears a silent court of justice.

There sits the judge.

And there is no appeal, because no one can appeal a judgment he brings against himself.

That is why around the bar of conscience gather the great emotions of the moral life:

• joy

• sorrow

• peace

• remorse

• self-approval

• fear

• praise

• blame

If I do wrong, conscience fills me with guilt from which there is no escape.

For when the sanctuary of my being is assaulted by this stern voice,

I am driven out of myself by myself.

And where then can I flee?

Nowhere but to myself,

with the sickening sense of guilt and disgrace which is

the very hell of the soul.

But if conscience approves my action,

then there settles upon me,

like the quiet of evening dew,

a joy unknown to the passing pleasures of the senses.

The world may call me guilty.

Its courts may judge me criminal.

Its irons may weigh down my flesh.

But my soul builds a paradise within, against the raging opposition without,

and fills it with a peace

that the world cannot give

and the insults of the world cannot take away.

The Hidden Guilt

Many people move through the day with apparent peace of mind.

Yet at night they feel a secret fear.

Because deep within them there remains an unrequited sense of guilt.

Just as a person may appear healthy while a disease grows silently in the body,

so a person may appear upright, generous, and noble,

yet be gradually eaten away from within by hidden guilt.

That is why the ancients prayed:

“Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord.”

The Remedy

How can we avoid these sufferings of hidden guilt?

The spiritual masters gave a simple answer:

Nightly examination of conscience.

The 17 Laws of the Jungle Republic: Why Nations Fail Quietly

The 17 Laws of the Jungle Republic: Why Nations Fail Quietly

---

Why Do Nations Normalize Corruption and Failure?" The Oldman said out loud, "The Laws of the Jungle Republic attempt to explain this. Laws 1 to 12 deal with the mechanics of the Jungle Republic. Laws 13 to 17, the physics of civilization.”

Looking around the Molue, he said, “Let’s go.”

“Let’s go,” we repeated.

“Here they are,” he began. “The 17 Laws of the Jungle Republic.”

Law I — The Law of Normalization

When wrongdoing is repeated long enough, it stops being shocking.
When it stops being shocking, it stops being resisted.
And when it stops being resisted, it becomes the system.
This is how decay becomes normal life.

---

Law II — The Law of Diffused Responsibility

In the Jungle Republic, responsibility never arrives anywhere.
Everyone is involved.
Therefore, no one is responsible.
Blame travels in circles until it disappears.

---

Law III — The Law of Extraction

In a healthy nation, wealth is created.
In the Jungle Republic, wealth is extracted.
The country becomes a farm.
The citizens become the soil.

---

Law IV — The Law of Motion Without Arrival

Activity is constant.
Committees meet.
Budgets pass.
Announcements are made.
Projects begin.
Yet nothing arrives at completion.
Movement exists.
Arrival does not.

---

Law V — The Law of Burden Transfer

When institutions fail, they do not collapse.
They transfer their burdens to the citizen.
Electricity becomes generators.
Water becomes jerrycans.
Security becomes private guards.
The system survives by making the people carry it.

---

Law VI — The Law of Elite Escape

The elite harvest the republic.
Then they escape it.
They build wealth locally.
They live comfortably elsewhere.
The Jungle Republic becomes an ATM.

---

Law VII — The Law of Institutional Theatre

Institutions still exist.
Parliaments sit.
Elections occur.
Panels investigate.
Reports are written.
But the purpose of these institutions is not correction.
It is performance.

---

Law VIII — The Law of Moral Fatigue

A scandal shocks the nation once.
The tenth scandal produces irritation.
The twentieth produces jokes.
Eventually the citizens adjust.
This is when the system wins.

---

Law IX — The Law of Impunity

When wrongdoing produces no consequence, it produces imitation.
Impunity multiplies faster than reform.

---

Law X — The Law of Cultural Gravity

Structures do not save a nation.
Culture does.
If the culture rewards disorder, every structure eventually bends toward disorder.

---

Law XI — The Law of Civic Abdication

The Jungle Republic survives because citizens withdraw.
They complain.
They adapt.
They endure.
But they refuse to confront disorder directly.
And disorder grows.

---

Law XII — The Law of the Republic’s Last Defense

A republic survives only when enough citizens refuse to cooperate with decay.
They insist on standards.
They resist normalization.
They refuse to do nothing.
When this happens, reform becomes possible.
When it does not, decline becomes inevitable.

---

Part II — The Physics of Civilization (Laws XIII–XVII)

Law XIII — The Law of Social Entropy

Disorder is the natural direction of systems.
Left unattended, institutions decay.
Standards erode.
Corruption spreads.
Just as entropy pushes the universe toward disorder, society drifts toward decay unless energy is constantly applied.
Civilization requires maintenance.

---

Law XIV — The Law of Civilizational Maintenance

Civilization is not achieved once.
It is maintained.
Daily.
By citizens who refuse to surrender their standards.
The moment vigilance disappears, decay begins its work.

---

Law XV — The Law of Cultural Energy

Order does not sustain itself.
It requires intelligence.
Discipline.
And culture.
These are the forces that push societies upward against the pull of disorder.
When they weaken, entropy wins.

---

Law XVI — The Law of Standards

The health of a republic is determined by what its citizens refuse to tolerate.
When citizens accept disorder, corruption becomes normal life.
When citizens enforce standards, institutions recover.

---

Law XVII — The Law of Civic Courage

The Jungle Republic survives only while citizens cooperate with decay.
The moment enough people refuse, the system begins to change.
Civilization returns wherever courage replaces resignation.

---

Closing Meditation

Civilization is not the natural state of society.
Order is not the default condition of human affairs.

Just as entropy pushes the physical universe toward disorder, societies drift toward decay unless citizens continually rebuild civilization.

Civilization, therefore, must be maintained.
Daily.

By whom?
By citizens who refuse to surrender their standards.

For where standards collapse, the Jungle Republic appears.
And it disappears wherever citizens recover the courage to enforce them.

I rest my case.

Don Kenobi | #BigAgendaAfrica 

#PoliticalPhilosophy #ReCultureNotReStructure 
#JungleRepublic #CultureNotStructure

#DecayIsEasy #CivilizationIsHard

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"50 Meditations for a Republic"

"50 Meditations for a Republic"

Excerpts from:

"BigAgendaAfrica:

Why Nigeria Fails, and What Must Come First"

by Don Kenobi

I

A nation does not decay because of its enemies.

It decays because its citizens become comfortable with decay.

II

You complain about corruption.

But corruption survives not because it is powerful,

but because it is tolerated.

III

A man who cheats the public today

will call himself a patriot tomorrow.

Be careful whom you applaud.

IV

When a society stops being ashamed,

laws become decoration.

V

The jungle is not merely a place.

It is a condition of the mind.

VI

A corrupt system survives on two kinds of people:

those who benefit

and those who say nothing.

VII

Never assume that noise is progress.

Broken machines also make noise.

VIII

The tragedy of many nations is not poverty.

It is misdirected intelligence.

IX

If you want to understand a country,

do not read its speeches.

Read its budgets.

X

Every society eventually becomes

the average of what its citizens tolerate.

XI

When the citizen says

“This is Nigeria,”

he has already surrendered.

XII

A republic survives only when ordinary people

refuse to become ordinary cowards.

XIII

It is not necessary that every citizen be brave.

But it is necessary that enough citizens are not afraid.

XIV

A people who expect miracles

will never build institutions.

XV

There is no corruption that survives

without small collaborators.

XVI

A nation is not destroyed by thieves.

It is destroyed by citizens

who adjust to thieves.

XVII

Civilization is fragile.

It survives only where discipline becomes habit.

XVIII

When a country rewards shortcuts,

it slowly forgets the road.

XIX

Bad systems are rarely reformed by speeches.

They are reformed by standards.

XX

A society that excuses small wrongdoing

will soon normalize great wrongdoing.

XXI

The greatest lie in politics is this:

“Everyone is responsible.”

This is how responsibility disappears.

XXII

A functioning nation is simply one

where rules are taken seriously.

XXIII

The distance between civilization and chaos

is surprisingly small.

It is measured in standards.

XXIV

When citizens stop expecting excellence,

mediocrity becomes law.

XXV

A republic does not need perfect citizens.

It needs citizens who refuse to surrender to disorder.

XXVI

If a man cheats the nation in small ways,

he will cheat it in large ways when given power.

XXVII

Corruption rarely begins with greed.

It begins with permission.

XXVIII

The greatest enemy of reform

is the sentence:

“It cannot work here.”

XXIX

A nation that laughs at its scandals

has already accepted them.

XXX

If dishonesty is rewarded long enough,

honesty begins to look foolish.

XXXI

Do not ask why leaders behave badly.

Ask why citizens allow it.

XXXII

A government that does not serve

does not deserve loyalty.

XXXIII

Institutions do not fail suddenly.

They decay quietly.

XXXIV

When systems fail repeatedly,

it is no longer failure.

It is design.

XXXV

A nation that tolerates incompetence

will eventually be governed by it.

XXXVI

Civilization is not built by brilliance.

It is built by consistency.

XXXVII

The difference between functioning societies

and failing ones

is not intelligence.

It is discipline.

XXXVIII

A republic is strongest

when its citizens respect rules

even when no one is watching.

XXXIX

Where impunity becomes normal,

justice becomes theatre.

XL

The decay of a nation begins

when wrongdoing becomes routine.

XLI

A society that refuses to confront reality

will eventually be ruled by illusion.

XLII

The enemy of progress is not poverty.

It is excuses.

XLIII

When corruption becomes culture,

laws become fiction.

XLIV

No nation can be saved by leaders alone.

Citizens must decide

what they will tolerate.

XLV

A republic lives or dies

by the moral courage

of ordinary people.

XLVI

If citizens do not guard their republic,

someone else will harvest it.

XLVII

Every generation must choose:

discipline

or decline.

XLVIII

A nation is not measured by its resources.

It is measured by how it behaves with them.

XLIX

The moment a people accept disorder

as normal life,

decline becomes inevitable.

L

The republic is not saved by speeches.

It is saved by citizens

who refuse to do nothing.