Elite is a negative, bad reference in Nigeria, at first mention, due to factsin national history. It reminds victims of the Nigerian state and its attendant
economic struggles under different forms of leadership, of the reasons they arethe way they are. They do so as much as they are still tied up by the veryreference; and freedom in crying out loud is still as limited as they cannotget to the depth of the meaning of a concept.Elite is a select group in society that is superior in quality and ability thanthe rest. Thatquality and ability are socioeconomic indicators that measure one’s socioeconomicstatus that defines wider influences, earns respect and even glorifies a personinto public figuration. But then elite is not all negative. It is not just theattainment of social status. If you know what to do and what to do for othersbelow your status, with it, it is as beautiful as anything. .
Anyone can beelite, depending on the intervening variables of life – education, job,success, goodwill and the kind of human heart– which will all define what kindof elite one will be. But that definition also rests on the widersocioeconomic, political and political behaviour and leadership action in agiven system of a nation, and the relations that nation has with the wider internationalsystem.
As much as theabove factors count, there is also privilege, also defined by a given systemand accrues on the chosen, the special and the favoured. But the popular way toelitism is hardwork, open opportunity and open places for businesses. Those areprovided by the good fabrics f society and good leadership of country where oneis raised and trained.
Many havebecome elite through their evolution through business, and with governmentincentives to businesses in good political economic systems, without anyreference to, and link of, their origins, forefathers or godfathers, to theirsuccesses. A number of determined persons have broken through to genuine,commendable financial empires built by the sweat of their suffering andhardwork and are serving humanity in many returns.
In Nigeria,the elite has been dragged into the valley of negativism as that hallowed hallof illwish and cruelty where the wicked rich and the heartless wealthy belongand together conspire against those outside the club so the latter remain atbay in order to continue to service their egos, statui, property and to payunearned courtesies and respects to their families.
Howeverattained, elitism goes with responsibility – responsibility to self, to familyand to human. God says any wealth given to you is a trust from Him and you are bothaccountable and liable to how you dispense it in life; how you behave with it;how you use it; or how you dispense it. The successful wealthy in that definesresponsibility is the wealthiest of all the rich.
In Nigeria,the negative connotation of elitism over the years was earned by members’irresponsibility to that divine wish and gross disrespect to God’s wish, whichgoes with the twin behaviour of insensibilities to the plight of those outsidethe hall of haves. It is neither thewealthy’s idea nor the have not’swish to be in the different categories of life.
First is theclosed politico-economic system over the years in Nigeria. There was, there hasbeen, and there is, still, only the public sector of the economy as the onlydominant hub of wealth creation, and access to it has been exclusive to onlywielders of high privilege, because the sector has been a reserve of the eliteit created over the years, and was ensured to remain so by successive managersof the economy, so that opportunities are kept to members of the exclusive clubor their appointed custodians.
In Nigeria, accessto opportunities has been both expensive and difficult to the rest – theunprivileged. The cost is both social and spiritual. There are social andspiritual conditions to meet in order for the outsider to get access to the windowsof opportunities available. And those social and spiritual costs can be asexpensive and dangerous as anything.
The socialconditions put one through a rigorous process of servitude to a principal, totheir families and dedication to their properties. There are many otherdimensions of that process that can never be told, including meagre, irregularand, sometimes, denied pay due to overriding needs of employee, just todispirit them further.
The spiritualconditions make you go through a process which first stage is to first renouncethe founding principles of believe in whatever God you serve. The condition ofungodliness is to make no reference to any superior being except the master incharge of the affairs of the employee and should be seen as the lord of theirlife. This is grave condition of polytheism for anyone, with consequences thatcan only worsen bad condition of lives the needy want to improve.
Those are thevery conditions that disheartened majority of youth in Nigeria into the stateof unemployment, waywardness, idleness and ‘uselessness’. In much of the debateabout this, the historical conditions of dialectical materialism that made allof that possible is either ignored or underwritten, in order to mislead eventhe youth themselves from the truth of the road that brought them to point.
That was whyPMB’s last comment in France about the youth as lazy last year was treated likethat and the mass media in Nigeria, now the social media have joined too, havebecome the means of the mental productions that negate or misrepresent thetruth of history and those involved and responsible. Sad. In all of this, noone knows exactly who – individual or group – are responsible for this elitebad influence on both the mass media and the society.
Now, manyother young persons who broke out of the cycle of dominance and servitude haveventured into meaningful private business to decide their future. Inspite ofthe years of hard conditions against private initiatives because of thementality on public resources as gifts from father Christmas, some determinedfew have made it into great success of their own business empires.
Some of themwere raised and inspired by stolen public money injected into private business,but it does not matter if the goal is to create more jobs and empower many otheridles and to spread shared human kindness, help and assists. A number of youngentrepreneurs are doing good jobs all over doing great things in their villagesand other communities.
They hunt forevery opportunity to bring home to raise their young and to empower their ideasin creating jobs for themselves. They are the hope for the future. The presentFGN has tried over the past five years to expand capacities and widen horizonsof young minds to start initiatives in private sector opportunities. There hasbeen landmark record of success, all across.
But then ashadow of sadness looms again, thanks to the elite successors. The youngemployed and empowered – the new generation of pseudo-elite class of ambitiousyoung persons are showing traits that are more dangerous than the problems ofthe earlier set of elite painted earlier. This new breed of digital elite iscrueller, heartlessened and recklessened in orientations and behaviour.
That is whathappens when change of status without the accompanying right change oforientation and the necessary selfdiscipline can leader to graver consequencesnot just for the person involved but to the whole. Many lacked one of each, andthat is the reason our men and women have been so much exposed to shame theycannot feel anything about. When the heart dies, ….
We have seenthe beginning of the consequences of that in the relationship between suchbreeds and politics as few negotiate their ways into the public industry offree delve into the free purse that politics guarantees for the few. But I cansee that soon, public office will be something many will run from. If some ofus are appointed to live, their reasons of life will make it possible. And itwill soon be, by God.
With theirgrowing number and influence and the growing cases of child abuse, neglect andbad family upbringing and out of school, the danger of elite manipulations,cruel manipulation and disheartening of the youth can only fold many times ahead.And with the impugn politicians eager to get to 2023 so parties can restart;only God can save the future. Afterall, He made many impossibles possible onlyrecently.
God gives us more elite out of the many good young persons all over. And may the goodness of the many good persons of goodwill among our elite also outdo and override the evil heart of the wicked elite. Be elite, have all the money in the world but think different.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)abuna2406@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
