Many years ago, I remember being at a World Economic Forum meeting and looking at Nigerian billionaires hustling like they were just coming out of NYSC. There was no calm or contentment. And I thought:
these were the people I wanted to be like, and they themselves are not settled. I needed better role models.
Where are the billionaires here who go beyond hustling to a contentment that participates in the real creation of life?
We’ve had some like that—people like MKO Abiola, Ken Saro-Wiwa. But they are too few. Where are the people in our society that are trying to recreate this society? Who are not just trying to collect money to buy forex to put in banks. Where are the people that are looking at their alma maters and villages and thinking beyond just building a mansion in the village where people are homeless, waterless, and destitute?
I agree with Seun Kuti completely. We have a cowardly and lazy elite. All they want is more money. Nothing is wrong with money. It’s not about money being bad. It’s about the people who have a vision for our society and want to recreate it in their own image, even if you disagree with them.
And I worry because elites replicate themselves. So we are what we see, and we become what we see.
Seun Kuti fired up my imagination. We have enough of people who just want to make money in this country. We have enough people who don’t see anything beyond money. We need people who have grand visions for our society, for our business, our music, our sport, fashion, roads, villages, alma maters, and communities.
Nigeria di egwu.
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