The Royal Slave

AMBASSADOR EZEWELE ABIONANOJIE CYRIL

There is a way the historical glory of a people energizes their unity, confidence, focus, vision, determination and efficiency for greater productivity. The belief in the fact that their ancestors had done great things in the past will automatically drive them to do same again. According to Marcus Garvey, “A People without the knowledge of their history is like a tree without root” while Carter G. Woodson reveals, “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history”.

Africa is wrestling below her weight because she has lost the knowledge of her past glory in the arena of racial struggles, for we have lost the critical process involved in discovery and becoming our true selves, which in turn has made us to start living the life of royal slaves. According to the story of a royal prince, who was born into a royal family, at age five, his father the king took him along on a journey to a far country. Their ship struck a reef during the journey and the entire crew and passengers were thrown into the sea. The little prince was rescued by a native from a nearby island unaware to the king. The prince became a member of the village and grew up unaware of his royal heritage. In his poverty and simple life, he learned to think like the native and accepted their lifestyle as his own. He knew nothing about his high status that he was heir to the royal kingdom of his father. In effect, he became a slave to the culture and standard of the community in which he found himself. Though, he was born a royal Prince but his lack of the knowledge placed him under impoverished conditions. He did not know what he was capable of, his rightful claim to be king. He lived his life vastly below his inherent rights. The same thing applies to a People without the knowledge of their history. His potentials and thoughts solely depended on what he was told about him. In the same vein, this method is what the colonial masters used to blindfold us against the originality of our past glory; how we once ruled the world, invented civilization, thought the world how to read and write with signs, built pyramids and great cities while they were living in caves. They will not tell you about the great Nubian city of Kemet (meaning the land of the black) that was later named Egypt as Muslims invaded the city and start selling us as slaves. Your ignorance of this fact is their greatest power. They won’t tell you of Mansa Musa of the 14^th century, the richest man ever in the whole of human history.

As a wise man once said “Stinking thinking is stinking living”. Therefore, we need to set ourselves free from the negative effects of other people’s opinion, for we cannot act beyond our thoughts and convictions. It is what you know that regulates, directs and transforms your attitude. Not until you know, you can never know! Knowing the fact that the collective glory of a people is better than the selfish desire of an individual person will change the heart of a wasteful and corrupt leader to embrace focus and uprightness in serving his people. When you discover the truth concerning your historical strength, you will stop bending your back for others to ride on. Dr. Myles Munroe, who happened to be one of my teachers, asserts, “People’s concept of their origin often influence their ideas about their leadership potential”. No truth is truer than the truth; the source of your attitude is rooted in the colour of your thoughts concerning yourself, which in turn begets your character while your character midwifes your destiny. Your thought is the foundation that determines the height of the edifice of your destiny. You cannot separate your actual future from your mental picture. They are intertwined to forever dwell together. The colonial masters are so informed about the power of one’s thought that they cunningly crafted ways to vitiate the colour of our thoughts concerning our originality. We were made to believe that we are sub human and are children of a lesser god. We believed them and continued to act accordingly till date, considering ourselves least on the social strata. They gave us fake version about ourselves designed to create self hate, self doubt and division in order to make us feel inferior and stupid before them. They provided a system of government that we knew nothing about known as DEMOCRACY. The further we go, the worse we become. It has demonized our leadership system. Imagine, under democracy, billions of Naira is spent on elections in Nigeria buying votes. Yet, people will celebrate their victory. Who knows the amount of money that will be spent on the forthcoming presidential general election?  And the people are hungry. No good hospitals, no good roads, no adequate electricity power supply, no good schools. Nigeria is indebted to China to the tune of 4.8 billion dollars today. Every government that comes in is in the business of wasting public funds on elections instead of using same for the benefit of the public. We have lost a lot of money to power struggles. There are questions we need to ask ourselves. How much is the annual salaries of the President, Senator, Governor, etc, that will make them spend huge amount of money on elections? Where such huge amount of money is coming from? From where will they recover the money? Are our public funds safe in their hands? Are they the type that will lead us to the exciting unknown? These are the questions we must ask ourselves in order not to keep experiencing a step forward and two steps backward. We must stand against the corrupt system that has kept us in the dusty region of anthropological library. We must devise a method of leadership that will best fit our system of operations and understanding for the benefit of our people and call it AFROCRACY, and also work towards the using of one currency in the whole of Africa and call it AFRO. These are the kinds of moves that will liberate us from the tricks of neocolonialism. We must also speak out against the crimes that are making the rounds in other Africa nations, for our survival is tied to their survival. President Paul Biya of Cameroon should be told to give up power for his dancing is no longer interesting (that is if it was ever interesting). He has over stayed his welcome.

Please note this: No nation in Africa can make it alone unless they work together, monitor each other, reason together, plan together and defend each other, embracing the fact that we are no children of a lesser god. We must learn to selflessly invest and pursue long term visions. Not that those who plant the trees will eat the fruits thereof. One generation will do the planting, another generation will water the trees, and another generation will dress the trees for the subsequent generations to keep eating the fruits thereof. This mindset will give rise to a great Nation that shall be called the United States of Africa.