In Nigeria Project: The Foundation Question, Prof. Bidmos tackles corruption, commercialisation of religion

Professor Muritala Aderemi Bidmos is the author of Nigeria Project: The Foundation Question. The book identifies the perennial delay of sustainable development in the country as the real problem facing Nigeria. In this interview with OPEYEMI BABALOLA, he talks about how the problem of pen robbery, padding of budget, commercialisation of religion and other vices can be tackled.

What informed the title of this book?
Critical factors informed the titles. The first one is that, the development of Nigeria has been delayed, so far. In places where we have development in the country, it is selective; it is not comprehensive and global. I then looked at it that why is it that our development is always selective? We just take some areas and that thinking also informed my writing of the book. The third reason is that I discovered that development itself as an agenda or as a programme, maybe it has not been a substantive issue before the stakeholders. When we are talking about stakeholders, we are talking about the first generation politicians. The likes of Awolowo, Sardauna, Azikwe, Akintola, Balewa and so on. At the pre-independence era, you will discover that these people were struggling to send the colonial masters away and then, their focus was who took over or who will take over from the colonial masters after they are gone before the resource control. Those are the issues that were critical to them. So, that is what informed the writing of this book. That these issues that were very crucial to the vitals of independence, certainly development did not feature in their struggle.

Couldn’t there be a kind of contradiction when you say that development has not been factored in into our struggle right from the pre-independence era?
Well, that is exactly what the book is trying to address. The fact that when the people are struggling for restructuring, restructuring for what? If you restructure now, you either go back to the pre-independence system or you want to break the states and who is going to be in control? The people who are going to be in control of the restructuring are the same people now in operation. So, we are not going to have any difference even if we break into countries, nations and so on, it is not going to give you us any results because the mindset is the key issue.
 
Is it the mindset of the people in control now who cannot give us any development, will control us when we break into units? So it is a question of the mindset because if these people who are in charge now cannot give us the development, by the time the restructuring metamorphoses into nations and countries, we are going to have the same story.
 
How do we know solve the national question of development?
The national question of development has to do with the restructuring of our education. If we are really serious about development, then we now think about what is responsible for our slow development or agitation for restructuring. What is responsible for it is the mindset. The greed, the love of being in control, are the most critical issues to the mindset and that is the mindset we should struggle to polish and recondition. How do we recondition our mindset? It is very simple; education is the catalyst anywhere in the world. In the West, China and anywhere in the world, it is through education that they are where they are. But our own education in Nigeria cannot fly and fix it.

Our education in Nigeria is education of spoken English and being smart. It is not education about research and development. Education in China, India and the whole of western region is all about development. Have we not been marveled by the construction of underground in Britain? When you see the people traveling in underground, they are 10 times those who travelling on the surface of the earth. How do they build that underground? It is education. Our problem in Nigeria is our education system that cannot fly and fix it. The education should be restructured in such a way that it will recondition our mindset. If education is restructured and our mindset is reconditioned, we will get there.

Bidmos

The whole attention is paid to democracy development. Now, in that case, that is a misplaced priority because we have placed undue emphasis on development of democracy and not development of Nigeria. Let me give an example: The people who are called Americans today left Europe in 1620 when they settled in the promiseland they started development, laying foundation, education, hospital and so on. It was in 1788 they ratified the constitution and George Washington was elected as the first president in 1789. Between 1620 and 1789, that is 196 years. The Americans spent 196 years for foundation and development before they now start talking about democracy in 1789. So development first, because when you develop, you can now talk about other things. So, by the time they started democracy in 1789, they have created a state of self-sufficiency for the citizens. Nobody will like to go to politics in order to go and make money and fail because, without politics, his bread is buttered. But in our own situation, by 1960, we started talking about democracy, democratisation, constitutionalism and so on and that is what we are doing up till now. So that is our problem. It is a misplaced priority.

Are you now saying even the forthcoming 2023 election is equally an exercise in futility?
Well, whatever you placed on a wrong footing, it cannot be right. I am saying that the footing is wrong and the foundation is not there. If you do election in 2023 and you keep doing it on this foundation that is not solid, you are just buying the time. All the noise about review of the constitution, going back to the 1960 system and call for restructuring, none of them is a solution to our problem because the two things that are responsible for the way we behave is our mindset and education. The mindset that our education has created is if you will leave the university; get a job, car, accommodation and so on. Not research and critical thinking.

Professor Wole Soyinka recommended that the way to go about redesigning our education system is to close all the universities at least for a year. What is your own template to come about this solution?
My template is just that we should try to identify our problem and face it instead of shading shadows. We have to face our education and like what Soyinka suggested that we have to close the universities for a year or more, is worth it because that is the root cause of our problem and once you know your problem you should able to tackle it frontally. Our problem is our education system that has created the mindset that cannot work. Our mindset cannot perform. If somebody wants to embezzle 50 million dollars or one trillion naira, that man is not a thief, he is sick. You don’t call such a man a thief. So the education must be restructured to create a different mindset, otherwise, there’s no solution to our problem. 
 
One interesting chapters in this book is subtitled ‘The best community’, how can we get there especially in Nigeria? 
The best community has a religious connotation. Muslims in the Quran are referred to as the best community because they know the right things to do; they have been taught the right things to do. If they do that right thing, others will copy them and they can influence others. But the problem now is that the Muslims in Nigeria have not claimed that title (The best community). The best community are the people who know why they are here on this planet and who sent them. They know what they are sent here to come and do and also know who sent them. Muslims have not behaved like they know what they are sent here to do. Therefore, to be the best community, is to know what you have come here to do and who sent you and you are doing it. Let me give an example, God says in the Quran, ‘this land we have created it beautifully, don’t spoil it, go and improve on it.’ In other words, the earth has been created by God beautifully and when he finish the creation, he said ‘bravo! For God who is the best fantastic creator’. So the infrastructure that God has created is beautiful and he now challenged us to go and continue to improve on it. So beautification and development of the land is to prove that you are the best creation but Muslims have not done that. Let me give another example, in the 60s, there was a mode of dressing, once you are an educated woman and to prove that you are truly educated, your buba and iro will be short popularly called (Bonfo), but the Muslims women now said, they cannot expose their thigh, so the Muslim women now attend party with buba and iro that is long. Within a short time, the non-Muslims copied it. So that is example of being the best community. In order words, if Muslims do something that is right, the non-Muslims will copy it. So in no time, non-Muslims copied that Muslims style of dressing, calling it ‘Alhaja Kowobobe’ . So that is to tell you that if Muslims can live as a best community, and doing it right, others will copy.