WHILST writing and publishing my 5 part article on “Election or Selection”, I received a wonderful review from a regular reader of my column and he argued that my essays have been a medicine after death. First that the article came 3 decades late because the leaders of today are too young to understand the journeys that we have made and do not want to have a conversation about those journeys. Secondly, that most of them do not read anymore because of the fact everything is being done to discard our history. The reader came short of asking me to stop wasting my time. He made a lot of sense even though I disagreed with some of the points he made because I started travelling the world before and after our independence in 1960 and was always humbled by the love most nations of the world had for Nigeria. They saw a nation that had everything that was needed to become a major player in the world and was about to emerge, so most nations wanted to participate in that development.
Even the British that gave us independence, some of their nationals that worked for the colonial government wanted to stay back. Some Europeans; East and West came, the Americans came, and some Indians, Pakistanis, and Lebanese also came with banks, industries and oil sector businesses. But in a few decades, they all went away because of our well-publicized Coups, Wars, Insurgencies, Resource control issues, the Sharia law matters, Separatist movement in the West for Oduduwa State, Separatist movement in the East for Biafra State and most recently and still with us; Boko Haram meaning “Western Education is Forbidden”, for that reason, I would want to submit myself for trial to the group for writing this article in English from Western Education.
My good friend for over 50 years, reached the age of 90 a few months ago. He is three and a half years older than me and I was part of the coordinating team for the celebration in Lagos, Rabat in Morocco and in London. We encountered a group during the ceremonies and the many discussions that Prof. Wole Soyinka and I faced was, “What is happening to Nigeria”? Because it was a country that many other African countries depended on for leadership.
I have made many journeys all over Nigeria and across the globe, some of the journeys have been very educative but some very deadly and in all my writings, I have shared as much as I can reaching out to those Nigerians and Africans that are in search of the TRUTH about us as a people and about the very backward journeys that we have made and still making. Some of those journeys have given us military intervention, Biafra, Wars, Oduduwa, Boko Haram etc. So we must reflect and start returning from that journey and must be ready to tell ourselves the truth no matter the consequences.
My own journey started before and after our independence that have taken us dangerously to anarchy. I was a student in the early 60s when I listened to the radio to a statement that was made by Kwame Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana whilst attending the AU conference in Lagos and he said, “Africa will remain in darkness until the Sahara Desert is breached”. I was in my middle 20s and a student in London but was touched by the statement and that was how my preliminary curiosity started about the Sahara. I started making inquiries about what it would take not only to cross the Sahara but to have it tamed. My inquiries revealed that the Sahara is the biggest desert in the world and active, encroaching into sixteen countries in the continent, responsible for drought, farming, food security and migration.
I was also to find out a number of attempts were made by the Europeans particularly the French attempt to cross and tame the desert but ended up in failure and at the same time, the rest of the desert around the world was being tamed, the Gobi Desert in China, the next biggest desert to the Sahara, the Negev desert in Israel, the Nevada Arizona desert in America and the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.
In my curiosity and research in the last 40 years, I have visited all the other deserts in the world. Sometimes help from the US for the visitation of the Nevada Arizona desert, Gobi Desert with support from Chinese Academy of Science and the Negev desert with support from the Ben Gurion University through their embassies in Nigeria. Following all these, I have made publications, representations and participated in so many conferences but the Sahara desert as was mentioned by Kwame Nkrumah in 1964 remains untamed and active. Despite all the participation and engagement and also considering the amount of money shuffled into the election without yielding any positive result or impact, the money would have been enough to build a number of Dubais in Nigeria as a tourist attraction if we can tell ourselves the truth.
Dubai started before my very eyes under 60 years ago and right in the middle of the desert and today, it has become one of the best tourist countries in the world. Dubai’s remarkable transformation did indeed begin with harnessing the desert, but it went far beyond just adapting to its desert landscape. Dubai’s journey from a barren desert town to a global tourism and business hub is a result of visionary leadership, strategic investment, and the ability to turn challenges into opportunities.
A big part of harnessing the desert was creating usable, attractive spaces where there were once only sand and heat. Projects like the Dubai Creek extension and the establishment of artificial islands, such as Palm Jumeirah, turned Dubai into a marvel of engineering and environmental design. These projects showed that even a desert landscape could be transformed into a luxurious tourist destination with high-end hotels, entertainment hubs, and beach resorts.
Beyond just physical transformation, Dubai harnessed its desert location to promote itself as a transit hub between the East and the West. Establishing itself as a strategic layover for international travel brought a diverse influx of tourists and investors, which in turn helped diversify the economy. From turning sand dunes into architectural wonders to investing in sustainable water and cooling solutions, Dubai’s journey shows how a desert landscape, when met with a forward-thinking approach, can become a world-class destination.
Take Las Vegas, for example. Originally established as a modest stopover town in the Nevada desert, Las Vegas was developed as a strategic response to the vast, empty desert around it. By building an entertainment and hospitality industry that took advantage of its remoteness and unique appeal, Las Vegas became a global entertainment hub. It now draws millions of visitors annually and has turned its desert landscape into a bustling, iconic cityscape full of life, luxury, and opportunity.
Similarly, Israel’s Ben Gurion University was built right in the middle of the Negev desert and today what is today’s modern Israel was claimed from the Negev desert. Through pioneering research in irrigation, desalination, and sustainable farming, Israel transformed arid land into fertile ground, reclaiming parts of the Negev desert for agriculture. And lastly, the Gobi desert in China has been turned into an agricultural haven, roads and railways have been built across a number of cities thriving and have become part of Chinese ability to take 40% of the nation out of poverty and also the food serving as the food basket of the nation.
Nigeria often finds itself investing resources into electoral processes that unfortunately lack transparency and fail to yield the desired leadership outcomes. Year after year, funds are funnelled into elections that many citizens view as selections rather than true reflections of the people’s will, leading to a lack of faith in the political process. If a fraction of these resources and attention were instead directed toward developing the country’s abundant natural beauty and cultural heritage, Nigeria could establish itself as a top tourist destination in Africa. If we keep investing in flawed elections over transformative development, we risk missing the progress other nations achieve through vision and responsible leadership. We must tell ourselves the truth.
