By: David Alfred-Dogwo / July 30, 2018
+234-(803)-(4768)-(404)
My brothers and sisters, it is good to write to you this on a few things that really “catch my heart.” It has been 1 to 2 or more months since I write about Bassa local government. But God has a reason for everything. Many things have happened in our land and in our lives since. But thank God we are still alive to reflect some thoughts on our common problems as a people. I am happy to be home, and I am happy to see all of you. I know that God has a purpose for each of us in this life; otherwise, we wouldn’t be here today. I believe God spared our lives so we can rebuild our homes, our families, our towns, our villages, and our schools. But it will not be easy. The challenge is great. But if our God was able to lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land from captivity in Egypt, He is able to unite all Bassa to rebuild their land and to live in peace as brothers and sisters.
God did not come down from heaven to lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land. Instead He counted on the children of Israel, the men, women, and children of the Hebrew people, led first by Moses, and then by Joshua, to follow His direction to the Promised Land. Today, in Bassa, we need good leaders such as Moses and Joshua to lead us on the path of unity, peace, and reconciliation so we can together rebuild our land. We ought to be tired of being slaves in our own land. It is time that we think long and hard about the kind of life we want for our children and ourselves tomorrow. We have to be firm in our desire to see total peace and stability in Bassa, otherwise we will continue to guess about the kind of life we want to live if we do not work together and choose the best leaders for us.
In the task of choosing our leaders, we must be mindful in the description of who we choose. That is to say, what kind of leader we really want? I know we all want good leaders, but who do we consider good leaders? What characteristics of a good leader do we want? Well, you know for the children of Israel, not only did they produce their own leader, BUT THEIR LEADERS WHERE THEIR SERVANTS AND NOT THEIR MASTERS. Even when God referred to Moses as a servant of the people, Moses became humbled and said, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant …” (Ex. 4:10).
You will note that Moses considered himself as God’s servant, not God’s leader of the Hebrews. It is stated that more than thirty times throughout the Bible, Moses is referenced as God’s servant, or “the servant of the Lord.” What is important in this description is that all great biblical leaders have this title from the Almighty God: Joshua, Samuel, David, Caleb, Job, and even Israel is called as such. This is also one of the names and titles given to the coming Messiah in which Jesus describes Himself as a servant of the people (Mt. 12:18; cf. Isa. 42:1)
Brothers and sisters, in our modern society, the word servant is not a very pleasing word to the ears. Many of us hold the word or title of servant generally in very low esteem. We think if you are servant of the people then you don’t worth a salt. But that is not what the word “servant” means before God. It means you are your brother’s keeper. It means you will not give your brother or sister something that you wouldn’t use yourself. It means you are willing to sacrifice your own happiness for the happiness of your friends and relatives, and the good of the country. If you are such a person, you are not only a good servant of the people, but also a good leader of the people.
Today in Bassa, there is a general misunderstanding about being servants of the Bassa people. Every person in authority in Bassa thinks he or she is master and not servant of the people. But every leader is a servant of the people because without the people one cannot be a leader. A leader is chosen by the people so he or she could serve their best interest and not to work against their interest. Bassa local government is undergoing very troubling times and we need a servant of the people to lead us in rebuilding our lives and our country.
Like the Hebrews, we in Bassa local government must know that we are blessed. Our land is blessed with the earth’s finest climate and fertile soil for agricultural enterprise, for growing yam, guinea-corn, maize, millet, bananas, rice, cassava, Malaguatta pepper, mushroom, coffee, kola, mango, okra, palm oil, papaya, sugarcane, and much more. Iron ore tops the list of Bassa’s mineral wealth, making Bassa local government one of the leading iron owner (untapped) in the world of Barite, cyanite, diamonds, gold, graphite, and manganese. These are key avenues and opportunities for wealth generation in Bassa local government area which could be used to the benefits of all.
Bassa is also endowed with abundant natural resources, with forests covering nearly 2 million acres, including 9 species of useable timber such as Mahogany, Walnut, and Makere; while wildlife such as land buffalo, leopards, chimpanzees, and eagles are plentiful in Bassa-east. But none of these natural resources has the value of a grain of sand, because of our greed and our collective failure in developing our human capital, and our dependency on external theories. Had our leadership promoted our heritage and instituted good governance, as opposed to power being wielded by a few and knowledge confined to a few, our land would have had the best and the brain behind it to make great inroads in the socio-economic developments of our communities. But here we are rich but poor at the same time.
Unlike the Hebrews who relied on their customs and traditions to develop the Promised Land, the westernization of Bassa local government swept our feet from beneath us only to have our achievements deliberately trivialized. Day-in and day-out many Bassa and their external friends deliver our natural resources to 'outsider' to meet their development aspirations while we die from hunger, malnutrition, and other calamities.
In essence, the finest climate means nothing; the fattest soil has no value; the richest mines of Bassa mountains are worthless; the safety and cleanest harbor that border our land are of no value when we are ignorant of our own origins and capabilities. As we have seen, Bassa, with an area of 1,925 km² and a population of 139,993 of good soil naturally blessed by the tropical sun, with millions of beautiful people, is without the resources to feed her people, clothe her people, provide protection, and send in experts to run her government and write books on her history.
Bassa local government area is like a big balloon that moves with every touch and every breeze. We hold our debates next door in places we are rejected as a “step child,” just to let “godfatherism” know we are children on our best behavior. We crawl our knees to “big mom & bid daddy” so she can select our biblical Adam for us. We just don’t seem to know who we are. We are never confident in who we are and what we are doing unless people from the outside tell us what is good or what is not good for us. We are like that stepchild always seeking attention.
In the book of Genesis 1:1-2, we a see a compelling story again that can help us with the concept of self-consciousness. For some unknown events the earth became formless as darkness covered its surface after God’s first attempt at creation. For some strange events, the earth became dark and formless which surprised God but He was not discouraged. He made His second attempt at creation for six to seven days and saw that everything was good. However, God had another problem at hand. He wanted someone to name these things He had created. Therefore, God decided to make an Adam to name all of the animals, trees, rivers, birds, reptiles, and creatures that fly, crawl, swim and run.
Therefore, God decided to make an Adam to name all of the animals, trees, rivers, birds, reptiles, and creatures that fly, crawl, swim, and run. So God created Adam and he began to name God’s creatures. “This is a fish, this is a snake, this is a bitter ball, this is a bird” and so forth. But we are not Adam and we are not in the Garden of Eden. We live in Bassa and we are Bassa. We cannot create a Bassa-Adam, and we do not need a Bassa-Adam. We need a good leader: A leader who will respect us and work hard to improve our living conditions.
In other words, in the forthcoming Elections 2018/9, we need to elect the person who like Adam, can name those things that are dearest to our hearts and our land. We need to select a leader who will take our homes back from the hands of those people who can’t stop behaving like children. To steal our money, they destroy our land, and then they laugh at us. To confuse us, they totally devoid the education of indigenous culture. We barely read about any tribal hero, folktales and legends of our culture. Beowulf and Hercules were our heroes and stories about the Trojan War saturated our thinking. Children learned more about the Presidents of United States, capital cities, social studies and languages of Western countries than their own homeland. These western stories though compelling but are irrelevant to the Bassa culture and society. And it seems to me that our present predicament lies in the fact that we have proven to be totally unprepared to accept and implement a leadership system based on our own design. We have failed in so many respects to reclaim our status as a people, to worship the God of our forefathers, to revere our ancestors, and to educate our leaders so as to assure their greatness. We have miserably failed our people and ourselves because we are still confusing "grape vines with thorn bushes, or figs with thistles."
As Bassa, we must try to take our rightful place in the community of the world. In time, the God of our forefathers and foremothers would reveal the true “Bassa-Nehemiah” to build our wall in 52 days. But we must be accountable just as God was when God chose Nehemiah among the millions of the Jews. We hurt ourselves if we have a mute acceptance of the way things are. We need to do what Barnabas did when he heard that Jesus was passing by. He shouted to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, son of David. I am blind!”
Yes, many people may want to silence you, but Bassa local government is in a condition where we need to shout louder and louder in order to be heard.
We all should vote for Leaders in the forthcoming elections who loves Bassa and believes in its cultural heritage, including : history, mythology, legend, folklore, literature, practices, and spiritual beliefs. Regardless of ethnicity (wards), the person selected as the new leader of Bassa must demonstrate the ability to enhance the image of Bassa at home and at the state level and to unite all the people of Bassa under one roof as it ought to be. This senseless division amongst our people has greatly undermined the development aspirations and progress of Bassa people, and it is now time that the new Bassa leader be a unifier not a divider.
We need peace in Bassa, we need brotherhood in Bassa, and we need opportunities in Bassa so we can rebuild our lives.
My brothers and sisters, this is my message to you. We need to unite and rebuild our homeland. We need to elect the best-qualified groups of Group for local leadership. The family of the persons we choose for leadership shouldn’t matter as long as they are qualified in the sense of their ability to value our culture and unite all Bassas around a common goal of development. If a village chief is a good leader, elect him. If a city-based person is found to be a good leader, elect him or her.
Remember, the key qualifications are leadership and the ability to mobilize the Bassa people into collective action to rebuild our land.
In the past, some Bassa indegeneous writers have asked: what are we looking for as a people if we do not want an Igala, Bassa-nge and Ebira to be Chairman? For me, I don’t really care about the tribe or education of the person who wants to be leader. I care about the person’s leadership ability and philosophy. We need to look at why this person wants to be a leader before uprightly rejecting him or her.
We first need to ask ourselves does this person want to be our leader only to advance himself or herself, or to serve our best interests? We need to know the platform of what the person will do if he or she becomes a leader. And if the person cannot give us any concrete plans on how he or she will unify Bassa and rebuild the land, that person would not be qualified, regardless of origin. If that person cannot clearly define our needs, do not vote for that person even if he or she is your blood brother or sister, old classmate, son-in-law or partner in crime.
Bassa is in ruins and we need to act fast before it gets too late. We need to close the ugly chapters in our history 36 years, and move on. We have gone through our first republic as a nation and people, and so we need to correct all our past mistakes in the upcoming republic. Bassa local government area made a mistake from the beginning and any attempt to hold it together as a unified nation is doomed to certain failure without the right leader and a proper understanding of the Bassa ways of life. We need to respect and protect our cultural values if we want other people in the world to take us seriously.
If we forget the past and forgets the present, we should be prepared for the future. Are we ready to tell ourselves the truth? If we cannot describe our homeland, our own image in the community of nations, will we not be able to get other people to help us, and we will not be able to select the correct person to lead us. As Bassa, we must be proud of our history, and we must teach our children and ourselves about our history and our culture.
The knowledge of Bassa local government history, culture and natural resources can be a powerful force in the unity and rebuilding of a new-Bassa.
At this point, my dear friends, our message here will be incomplete if we do not talk about matters of the land for which I am writing today. I guess you have wondered many times why we have the civil crisis and fighting among ourselves, insulting our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters thereby plunging our communities into years of civil crisis. If you didn't know then, let me share with you one of the reasons: It is lack of knowledge about ourselves as a people. I mean the lack on institutions to teach us and indoctrinate us to be our brothers and sisters’ keepers. But how can we solve this problem?
The corridor of history continues to remind us that civilisation is the jewel of life for all people and that the human “mind is a terrible thing to waste.” As an invaluable component of society, associations at our localities should consist of the promotion of patriotism and the effective and efficient use of wealth (human and materials) by members. In this regard, the people has the moral and ethical responsibility to join in the effort to educate Bassa leaders and all Bassa in national history, leadership, and networking, in order to unlock the creative talents of its indegenes to become better people. If good associations is to have a true meaning and a democracy that befits our culture is to take root and flow like a majestic waterfall, no mind of Bassa should be wasted or cut off from the authentic history in post-conflict. In retrospect, the primary goal of the Bassa curriculum is to provide the people with knowledge on Bassa ethnic groups, their histories, cultures, mores, and educate future leaders and other civil servants to solve our problems as community of nations continue to tell us to solve our own political quagmires. In the past, our political institutions have not adequately addressed the deep differences among us.
Therefore, the proposed curriculum should be intercollegiate, interdisciplinary and multicultural in nature to meet its objectives.
The proposed curriculum also stands the chance of bringing together Bassa’s best brains from the various disciplines, not only to promote interdisciplinary exchange, but also to reinforce critical interventions, interactions, discourses and constructive engagement with the learning process about our “total identities.” I believe that familiarity with Bassa intellectual thoughts and the activists' traditions that flow from such thought will contribute to our generation and future generation to enter into dialogue and join in projects with other ethnic groups for a nourishing functioning homeland.
The Bassa people were (are) a proud and self-respected people. And this is the history we must tell our children.
This is the history for which we must take responsibility to let others know. Some of the information can also be found in my Works; The Egyptian Origin of The Bassa of Nigeria: -History, Migration and Government of the Bassa. I have donated copies of my works to the University students for their reading and research works or to be one of the books for the proposed Studies.
They would function as sources of our producers, transmitters of ideas and practices, mediators, and legitimators. To make the program attractive to incoming students, I proposed to the Ministry of Education via a meeting with the then Registrar, Kogi State University Ayingba (now late) Mr. Daniel Zhizhi so that, interested students had access to the books in the university and state libraries respectively.
In my capacity as the Aurthur of Bassa History Educational Development, Inc. (BaHeDe), to sustain the program, I have contacted Bassa scholars to develop instructional materials (curricula), and write textbooks specifically for Bassa. Other Bassa authors are encouraged to donate one or more copies of their books to the Bassa studies program.
If the proposal is acceptable, I will arrange in consultation with other individuals to teach these courses at their homes, a series of three-week compact courses.
This is the best way I think we can get the program off the ground until a legitimate government is elected. I believe our sisters and brothers outside would come to our aid.
Let us go forth and inspire on a daily basis at least one child or adult to believe in themselves, learning our history and to work hard for the peace, unity, and development of Bassa. We should never forget to unite and work hard because our collective action can define and resolve Bassa needs. As adults, we must not be ashamed to tell our children that we are the generation of the Bassa on whose watch Bassa died because we had the chance to give her CPR and failed. Such a message will be a very hard lesson, but it will be a lesson well learned for the good of society.
I thank you all.
DAVID ALFRED-DOGWO
ABOUT THE WRITER:
ALFRED-DOGWO hail from Wussa in Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi State where his placenta was surrendered to the worms in the early morning of December 25, 1974 in Uzhibu Kure 1. He is a prolific writer and a frontier adventurist in Grammar; in 2015 he emerged 3rd position among 13 Nigerian members of World Revolutionary Writers (WRW) in addicted prints & pixel and has since become registered Research Assistant www.academia.edu.usa. He served as Principal Private Secretary/PA to His Excellency Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (Rtd) OFR in the State House Abuja and later became Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Communications Strategy to former Executive Governor of Kogi State His Excellency Capt. Idris Ichalla Wada Government House, Lokoja from where he pinched his tent as Media Consultant to former Executive Governor Abia State His Excellency Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, MON.
Alfred-Dogwo have been at the forefront of the Defence of Human Rights in Bassa, since and has pioneered critical research on the State of the Bassa nation. He has published extensively in the fields of Comparative Study of Citizenship Legislation in Nigeria.
Currently, he started a new role as Associate Acquisition Editor & Freelance Investigative Journalist for Scandinavian citizens where he writes three articles per monthly and get paid. He has many mentors to thank for their generous guidance and support along all the twists and turns of the own career path.
He can be reached at:
email: <davidalfreddogwo@rocketmail.com>
+2348034768404
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