Aeschylus was an ancient Greek master of tragedy and Athens’s first great classical dramatist. He is credited with the quote, “In war, truth is the first casualty.” Sadly, the world is now mired in low, medium and high-level conflicts. Alongside eroding civil liberties fear is the new currency. From country to country, the truth has been flogged like a slave and driven away. As a result, populations have been rendered destitute and wretched.

Unless the elites rise from their ‘fat-surpluses’ and the intelligentsia is awaken from slumber, a critical mass may come to view a very different picture too late. In the end, historians will find etched in various media formats: evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from global realities. A few have acquired ill-gotten wealth beyond comprehension or imagination. They are comfortable and have become complacent: with built-in allergies to universal truths. Whilst the elaborate structures of merchants, networks, pundits, and the purveyors of death remain unshaken, expressing with candour the insidious ploys being perpetrated against many, is a duty that must remain sacrosanct.

In 1999, a film called “The Matrix” was produced and assigned to the genre science-fiction. The main character is offered the choice between a red or a blue pill. The red pill represents an uncertain future: not only can it free a person from the enslaving control of the machine-generated dream world, it can also enable escape into the real world. However, living the “truth of reality” can be unforgiving. Conversely, the blue pill represents a beautiful prison that leads a person back to ignorance. It is characterised by a life of bliss within a simulated reality of the Matrix. Thus, with a blue pill the story ends and one wakes up believing whatever he or she chooses. With the red pill, one remains in Wonderland and discovers how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

So, how deep is the rabbit-hole? Laced with intricate and underlying crosscurrents, the answers pose a challenge indeed, some particularly so. Luckily, there are documentaries like ‘Journey of an African Colony, The Making of Nigeria,’ produced and narrated by Mr. Olasupo Shasore: a historian and writer, retired Attorney General, and former Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State. Whilst revealing hard truths and offering hope, his 7-episode documentary delves into the untold stories and unsung heroes that paved Nigeria's road to independence.

Lucian Msamati is an African, raised in Zimbabwe by his Tanzanian parents. In his brilliant rendition of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, Mr. Msamati uttered the following. “It is already too late, said Obierika sadly. Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion, and they help to uphold his government. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umofia, we should find it easy, there are only two of them. But what of our own people who are following their way and have been given power? They would go to Umuru and bring the soldiers, and we would be like Abame. He paused for a long time and then said: I told you on my last visit to Mbanta how they hanged Aneto. What has happened to that piece of land in dispute, asked Okonkwo. The white man’s court decided it should belong to Nnama’s family who had given much money to the white man’s messengers, and interpreter. Does the white man understand our custom about land? How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad, and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came peaceably and quietly with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’

Mallence Bart-Williams is another African: a Sierra Leonean writer, film maker and fashion designer. During and following a local TEDx event (produced independently of the TED Conferences), Mallence’s truths resonated deeply with people across the globe. She said, ‘One thing that keeps me puzzled is despite having studied finance and economics at the world’s best universities, the following question remains unanswered. Why is 5,000 units of our currency worth one unit of theirs when we are the ones with the actual gold reserves. It’s quite evident that aid is in fact not coming from the West to Africa, but from Africa to the West.

The Western World depends on Africa because alternative resources are scarce in the West. So, how does the West ensure that the purported free Aid keeps coming? By systematically destabilising the wealthiest African nations and their systems. This is achieved through huge PR campaigns leaving the world under the impression that Africa is poor and dying, and merely surviving on the mercy of the West. Well done Oxfam, UNICEF, Red Cross, Life Aid, and all the other organisations that continuously run multi-million dollar campaigns depicting charity pouring to sustain that image of Africa. Campaigns paid for by unsuspecting people under the impression to help with their donations.

When one hand gives under the flashing lights of cameras, in the shadows the other hand takes. We all know the dollar is worthless, while the euro is merely charged with German intellect and technology, and maybe some Italian pasta. How can one expect donations from nations that have so little? It is super sweet of you to come with your coloured paper in exchange for our gold and diamonds. But instead, you should come empty-handed, filled with integrity and honour. We want to share with you our wealth and invite you to share with us.

The perception is a healthy and striving Africa would not disperse its resources as freely and cheaply. Rather, it would sell at World Market prices. In turn, this would destabilise and weaken Western economies established on the post-colonial free meal system. Last year the IMF reported that six out of ten of the world’s fastest growing economies are in Africa, measured by their GDP growth. France for example receives from Africa about $US 500 billion each year. In an interview, former French president Jacques Chirac said a huge sum of the money in French banks come from exploitation of the African continent. In 2008 he stated that without Africa, France will slide down the rank to a third world power. This is what happens in the human world, a world we have created. Have you ever wondered how things work in nature? One would assume that in evolution the fittest survives. But in nature, any species that over-hunts, or over-exploits the resources they depend on for nourishment, sooner or later natural-selection would take the Predator out because it upsets the balance.’

Initially, agriculture was Nigeria’s main source of revenue generation. Following the discovery of oil, agriculture began to suffer from neglect as the decades rolled on. In a Deutsche Welle (DW) report, President of the African Development Bank Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said ‘agriculture is not a way of life. Agriculture is a business, a wealth creating sector. If you take a look at Africa today, in total Africa spends $US35 billion a year importing food that it should be producing. If we do nothing about that, by 2025 Africa will be spending another $US110 billion importing food. So our view of agriculture needs to change. We must regard agriculture as a business that can create wealth and revive our rural communities. Moreover, for all the things that Africa produces: maize, rice, cassava, coffee, cocoa, tea or cotton, Africa has to absolutely add value to everything. It makes no sense today that Africa accounts for 75% of the global production of cocoa, but Africa gets only 2% of a $US100 million market for c

ocolate. The price of cocoa will fall, as it has just fallen. Again, Ivory Coast is losing $US1 billion as a result of that, but the price of chocolate never goes down. The price of cotton will fall, but the price of textiles and apparels will never go down. Also, the price of coffee beans will fall, but never the price of brewed coffee, that people are making money smiling all the way to the bank. So we have to ensure that agriculture value chain allows Africa to add value to everything it produces.’

On 11 March 2003, in his keynote address to Botswana’s National Assembly in Gaborone, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said, ‘Africa is faced with the challenge of creating efficient and viable institutions to ensure peace, human rights, prosperity and social cohesion. Our continent and peoples have in many instances been portrayed as half developed humans whose empty heads must be filled with the good ideas from elsewhere. Africa should not allow its image to be distorted. As part of our renewal, we need to own the institutions of critical thought so that none other than ourselves can represent who and what we are, and that we ourselves should determine what we have to do to create a better world for our peoples’.

Kevin Carter was an iconic South African photojournalist. Known for documenting conflicts in Africa, there are claims he had good intentions while capturing his subjects. Although some of the images are deemed too graphic, his work is believed to have spread awareness of the chaos and unrest in Africa, to the western world. One of his photographs depicts a frail famine-stricken Sudanese boy – initially believed to be a girl – who had collapsed: in the background a vulture waits patiently. Whilst the child survived, reports show that four months after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, Kevin Carter committed suicide.

Incidentally, Media is a Fourth Estate of the Realm. Although not officially part of a political system, but given its far-reaching ability to facilitate the flow of information, media wields enormous social influence. By shunning mediocrity and sensationalism, media is uniquely placed to create informative and empowering narratives, generate impetus for the development agenda, and assist with recalibrating national orientation. The Agenda Setting Theory makes lucid the emphasis media places on issues, and the importance media attaches to those issues. In the words of Bernard Cohen, “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”. Although media in Nigeria is successfully using the agenda setting theory to address a long list of issues in the land, greater progress is needed.

In spite of claims by domestic and foreign detractors, Nigeria is a special country endowed with abundant natural resources and human capital. To whom much is given, much is expected. Henceforth, including all and sundry, the legacy of the country’s young and vibrant population, as well as that of future generations needs to be secured and guaranteed. God bless Nigeria.

•Inuen is of the International Network of Engineers & Scientist for Global Responsibility (INES)

PHOTO: Kevin Carter's Pulitzer prize winning photograph of a starving Sudanese child. Source: en.wikipedia.org

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