Winner's Excogitations

TL;DR

We cannot and must not blame colonial powers and/or economic powers for our failings. We (Africans) have brought our countries and populace low. If we do not own up to that responsibility, we would always need aid from other nations. We can be better than we are, but we need to start thinking differently.

Disclaimer

First off, since I am technically inclined, I understand the assumption that my content would be geared towards tech, but the purpose of this blog/site as is referenced in its name is to share "Winners Excogitations". To excogitate is to think out, therefore this platform is for me to share my thoughts, my ruminations and my experiences, so please bear through this well put together rant.

Second, there are a number of things which we can all as humans say are categorically evil. Chattel slavery and indeed slavery of any other sort was and still is evil. Corruption is evil. The holocaust was evil (even if you have doubts it happened, you can at least say it would be evil if it happened, right? right??? Cool). And I also think we can all agree that the treatment of indigenous peoples under colonial powers could also be categorized as evil. Now all caveats are on the table...

Introduction

I feel the need to explain why this treatise is necessary. As a black (are there any other types?) Nigerian, living in Nigeria and interacting with fellow Nigerians, a general underlying if not overt sentiment I have identified when we discuss the economic/social/political challenges we face is that the British colonial government is somewhat to blame for the challenge. I believe this sentiment is an excuse and a cop-out, it is a go-to when we do not want to introspect and ask ourselves hard questions. I would in the course of this article, outline some assertions borne out of the underlying sentiment earlier mentioned and point to the reason why the assertion is faulty or plain false.

Arguments

1. Western Europeans took our people as slaves: If we take a few minutes to perform a perfunctory search for the transatlantic slave trade_ it is immediately evident that a very large portion of the Africans sold into slavery were sold off by Kings, Chiefs and Warlords who were themselves Africans. While I cannot say what would have happened if our people chose not to sell their compatriots into slavery, one thing we have to understand is that as history stands, we were as complicit in the slave trade as any West European trader or American buyer.

2. Had it not been for colonialism, we would have been as advanced as western societies: As assertion like this is easy to prove or disprove. In Africa, there are two countries who have arguably never been colonized; Liberia and Ethiopia. If colonialism was the poison that destroyed our innovation and development, then Ethiopia and Liberia would be far ahead of the pack, yet that is not the case. The top 10 richest African countries by nominal GDP and the top 10 richest African countries by per capita GDP were all colonized by western European countries. This is not to say that being a former colonial state is an indicator of wealth as there are states that were colonised but are still poor. The point here is that there is no evidence we would have done better if we weren't colonized.

3. If countries were of the same language and/or religions, they'd do so much better: I'll admit that I not only believed this assertion in time past but also espoused it. It was only after reading Lee Kwam Yew's book "From Third World to First" that I saw the flaws in this assertion. To disprove this assertion, I would take Singapore as a case study, the country is made up of Ethnic Malayans, Ethnic Han Chinese and Ethnic Indians. The religious distribution across the population includes Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Hindus. While this is not as diverse as some African countries, I'd argue is diverse enough for an argument. Despite ethnic and divisions, the Singaporeans, with the oft-understated benefit of great, visionary leaders and for the survival of their nation, devised systems that fostered religious and ethnic tolerance and economic prosperity. I'd even go so far as to say that if a mythical African country with the same language, culture and religion was created, it would still do as poorly as most African countries currently do.

4. The westerners brought "their" religions as a tool to subjugate us: There are so many things wrong with this assertions. First, Westerners only brought Christianity to Africa, there are a very significant number of Muslims in Africa and they were not proselyted by Westerners. Second, Christianity and Islam are not Western in any way seeing as they originated in the Middle East. Finally, if religion was to put us down, then why are the countries who preached the religions to us doing quite well themselves? or were we taught an off-brand version of the religion?

5. Western countries steal our resources: As far as I know a lot of raw material exploration in Africa is carried out by foreign entities. That said, we live in a world of free enterprise, if there were indigenous companies that could explore with the same or better levels of professionalism at competitive prices, I don't see why they would not be given contracts. remember that our own people are in charge of awarding licenses and contracts so the fault still lies with us. Whatever resource is being "stolen", be it crude oil, coal, cobalt, gold or diamonds, remember we are complicit in their loss.

Conclusion

There is so much more I want to say, I didn't even get to the story of Botswana but I'll leave off with this. It is way way easier to blame someone or something for the state of our nations rather than telling ourselves the truth that we have failed. If we are to make progress for ourselves and for our posterity, if we are to change the perception of Africa as a continent of poor countries and people that consistently need help, if we are to prove to the world and to ourselves that we are more that we have demonstrated thus far then we cannot continue to absolve ourselves of guilt and place the blame of our failures on colonial powers, on imperialist powers and any other thing we can point to. WE and we alone are responsible for failing to provide electricity and other infrastructure for our people, for failing to properly educate our populace, for failing to create enabling environments for business development, for failing to stem corruption. We have terribly laid this bed, but nothing is stopping us from relaying it.

Epilogue

If there are any other assertions that you feel I should address, let me know in the comments and I would create a sequel or update this one.

When the word football is spoken in most parts of the world, what comes to mind is the football we are used to that involves running around and kicking a ball. To the residents of the United States of America though, that word means something much different. I got fascinated with the game when I got an opportunity to play flag football with some colleagues of mine and realized that the game was actually quite interesting contrary to my initial conclusion on seeing the game for the first time.

After asking a bazillion questions, I got a basic understanding of how the game was played and some of the rules involved. I decided to watch a few BYU (Brigham Young University) football games since that was the alma-mater for quite a few of my colleagues and I liked the school's ethos. After watching a few football games, the ever-seeing eyes of Google had started suggesting American-football related videos for me to watch. One of them was a series by NFL films called "A football life" in which they would detail a retired (and sometimes current) NFL football players life; from childhood to the NFL and even afterwards, they show their triumphs and their lowest points.

I watched quite a number of the documentaries as the stories of people fascinate me most especially successful people at whatever craft. As I kept watching, I began to notice patterns, patterns that almost guaranteed that a player would do well on and off the field and would do well after playing the game and patterns that almost guaranteed that the player would not have ideal latter years. I have codified these patterns and would detail them below. The purpose of this write up is to see how these lessons can help in our not-very-sporty lives.

• Completing their college degree programme: If a player knows that even though they love football and it could be a professional career for them, it cannot last for very long ( as the human body can only take so much) and having a college degree puts them in good stead after their playing days are over.

• A set desire entering into the NFL: An old saying goes thus "If you fail to plan, you have planned to fail". Most successful players had a desire and a plan for what they wanted to accomplish and the heights they wanted to reach personally, in and with their team and in their leagues.

• A dedication to self-improvement: "talent alone never made anyone successful". if a player was to be successful, they could not have rested on their talent alone. They put in extra work, out-thought their opponents and out-prepared their opponents.

• Show character while playing: A perfect example of showing character and class while playing was a former Detroit Lions running back extraordinaire. He exemplified humility in his playing days. He was a team layer on the field as well as off it. The players that did well worked hard but were respectful of their fellow players, their coaches, all the support staff around them and the media. It cost them nothing but it paid dividends in spades.

• Stay true to their religion/values: It is easy to stay with God when things are not going right but when there is money, success, fame, it is infinitely more difficult. those that stay true to their God and the values they grew up being thought and believing are those who make something of their football lives.

• Marry right and do right by your family: To have a successful football life, you must not do the celebrity marriage or the trophy marriage. You marry the person whom you have known, who shares your spiritual and other values and who knew and watched you before the stardom. Do not let fame cause you to cheat or neglect your family. Take time to be with them as a father and husband, I have seen that gives longer-term satisfaction for players than the playing time in the long run.

• Be fiscally responsible: When the big bucks start rolling in, do not think it would last forever. Live well below your means, save and get a trusted financial planner (not a family member or friend) to invest your resources. No flashy cars or lavish homes. Those can come later when your investments are paying dividends to cover luxuries.

• Retire on your own terms: Be the determiner of your path or as William Ernest Henly would put it, be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. Do not wait to be pushed out of the team, and don't outstay your usefulness to the team. Know when it is time to leave, leave and don't look back. Something that helps is having a good idea what you want to do after the football career ends and this is the perfect segway to my next point.

• Do something productive: Those who do well are those who had a plan for their lives outside of football. Those who built careers, businesses or complete livelihoods after football. This is where having a college degree comes in handy. Go into a business or career where you are knowledgeable and comfortable so as not to lose your resources.

• Have a can't-be-put-down attitude: As a public figure, any and every mistake you make would be a news item and you have to expect that. Those who made it big did not let negative press get them down. They made mistakes, dusted themselves off, learnt from that mistake and moved on. With time those people, could share their stores and help others not to make the mistake or to get out of the mistake if they have made it already.

I thought about all of these and wriote them doiwn because I feel that as a non-celebrity I have an opportunity to look at those with public lives, see what made them successful (for those that became popular as a result of success), and learn lessons I can apply to my life. I hope this helps someone out there as well.