A people\u2019s wisdom holds viable solutions to their problems. Unfortunately, cultural hypocrisy or self-deception prevents some from reaping full advantage. How do Nigerians and their leaders overtake solutions to their problems in their desperate search for solutions?<\/p>\n
I begin this article by narrating an experience I encountered years back. In one of our evening discussions, my hostel mate, a master\u2019s student of Veterinary Medicine, requested to know my project\u2019s topic. \u2018Tropes of Folklore in \u2026 Facebook Articles,\u2019 I told him. Then he asked sarcastically, \u2018And how does that improve Nigeria\u2019s economy?\u2019 I responded the way I could and got that done with. Months after, he was doing some washing outside while I was studying in the living room. Then I overheard his telephone conversation with someone in Yoru\u0300ba\u0301. He said, \u2018B\u1eb9\u0300r\u1eb9\u0300 p\u1eb9\u0300l\u00fa \u201cEti\u0301 kan o\u0300 ye\u2019r\u00ed, ba\u0300ta\u0300 kan o\u0300 ye\u2019s\u1eb9\u0300\u201d\u2019 (Begin with \u2018one ear disfigures the head just like a single leg of a pair of foot-wears does not fit the legs\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n The above expression is obviously is a line from the Yoru\u0300ba\u0301 folklore. Consumed by curiosity, I went out and asked if he was chanting an incantation on a Sunday morning. <\/span><\/p>\n He responded, \u2018No, a friend forgot a particular odu\u0300-Ifa\u0301, and I was trying to put him through.\u2019 \u2018I see!\u2019 Suspecting the undertone of my reply, he quickly added, \u2018This is purely an academic exercise o, so don\u2019t think there is something diabolical about it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Two things struck my mind about the engagement. First, my friend could ever resort to folklore in solving a problem. Second, he could also do \u2018pure academics\u2019 with folklore. Some people feel reluctant to identify with cultural resources to which they resort at important moments and corners, because of their hatred for culture. That comes with a price! Constantly, they find themselves webbed in glaring self-contradictions such as the above. Man cannot sever himself from culture.<\/span><\/p>\n Ben Elugbe, a now retired Professor of the University of Ibadan, observed a similar attitude to the Nigerian Pidgin from some <\/span>elitist <\/span>Nigerians. Elugbe laments, \u2019Naijiria Pijin be laik pikin we no get papa bot evribodi de sen am mesej\u2019 (Nigerian Pidgin is like a child who has no father but everybody sends him on errands) (Elugbe, 1995:284) in Bamgbose (1995). Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) represents another instance of self-contradiction that readily comes to mind. He had warned his son to avoid using proverbs because \u201c\u2026 <\/span>they are vulgar and language of low company\u201d <\/span>(Wolfgang, 2000:25)<\/span>.<\/span> But his series of letters written to educate that same son between 1741 and 1749 deployed proverbs.<\/span><\/p>\n Nigeria is writhing! The country is helplessly groaning under the weight of terrible artificial afflictions occasioned by some interests. It is plagued with countless woes: corruption, wanton destruction, impunity, banditry, disrespect for human life, etc. It is immaterial whether some of these are caused within or without, within but supported from without, without but supported from within, within or reinforced from without, etc. Nigerians can save their country if they are ready to. Formal institutions such as the judiciary system, EFCC, ICPC, among others, have been designed to address these problems. The level of success achieved so far by these various structures is left for dear readers to assess.<\/span><\/p>\n What very few Nigerians will doubt however, is that the problems persist. Why? Are the structures not potent enough? They are! Their failure consists in the sad reality that some Nigerians cannot connect the country\u2019s many problems with its citizens\u2019 perceptions and their culture\u2019s potency to salvage this. <\/span><\/p>\n