By Obi Asika. October 1, 2010 12:51AM
One had dreamt that perhaps three years back, the Federal Government would have constituted a group (not another committee) of the great and the good, from our topmost creative minds - playwrights, poets, novelists, historians, architects,filmmakers, event producers, sportsmen, musicians, actors and so many other groups - to ask them to theme, plan, create and deliver a national celebration worthy of this nation and all that we have done.
Who will tell the stories of our founding fathers? Who will celebrate the many moments when Nigeria stood up in modern history for Africa, for the Blackman, for the greater good? Who will remind our children and our people that Good People, Great Nation is way more than a tagline but comes from the essence of who we are and what we are? However our present actions only serve to propagate the idea that we do not know who we are, where we are coming from or where we are going. I weep for the likes of my late father and Fela Kuti, for Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa, for Awolowo and Sardauna - for so many great men and women who make up the fabric of this country past, present and future but who, through no fault of theirs, have been let down by a somnambulant and kleptocratic elite. I have often argued that not everything needs to be a contract, that we do not need to spend money to celebrate who we are, but we do need to spend money on important legacy projects.
Government failures
It is amazing to think that there have been over 20 biopics of Nelson Mandela but here we have nothing on any of our founding fathers.
If you do not tell your story, who will tell it for you? Nigerians always complain about being given a bad ride by the Western Press, well here was the big opportunity, and the question is: what have we done with it? To my mind, we have already failed. You cannot find any Nigerian who can tell you what the federal government is doing to mark the 50th anniversary; you cannot find anything to celebrate, when we should have spent the last few months reinforcing our common beliefs and history as a people. The government always talks about the image (specifically about laundering our image, a phrase I hate, as it brings to mind dirty money); well let me be one of those to tell them that “you just failed big time.”
The 50th anniversary of Nigeria should be celebrated by all black people everywhere. But only if they know our story; if they know the role we play and have played in the Diaspora; if they know how many African nations we led to independence; if they know how much we have invested in Africa in materials, men, money and time.
However, they do not know and we have not told them. The South Africans do not remember that we invested for years in their struggle, that we chaired the Anti Apartheid Movement from inception until our President, Obasanjo negotiated the release of Mandela. They do not know that the Nigerian taxpayer for years paid a percentage of his income tax to the ANC, that over 250 thousand South Africans including President Mbeki went to Secondary School and University here through scholarships provided by Nigeria. This is just one small example of what I am talking about.
Big Brother Nigeria
A few years back I was privileged to be one of the executive producers of Big Brother Nigeria. Our editorial philosophy was ‘Celebrate Nigeria’, driven by our music, fashion, culture, Nollywood, cuisine. As we were able to re-awaken all of those elements,
Nigerians began to fall in love with Nigeria all over again. However, when you Google Big Brother Nigeria, you do not get the TV show. What you get is page after page of African Heads of State thanking Nigeria, their big brother, for various interventions over the past 50 years.
Obi Asika is Chief Executive Officer of Storm 360, an entertainment consortium.
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