Re: Nigerian writers and scholars biko ronu

By Darlington Agomuo
Much as I agree with your advice to C. Don Adinuba on your piece of 8/8/2013, I also discovered that there is a philosophical disconnect somewhere in the article. Every man has his destiny and talent. When you fail to discover both and dabble into unfamiliar terrain, no matter your wizardry, you will fail
Again, time, chance and environment play important role in the affairs of man. The world has moved on since Plato, Socrates and company. They laid the foundation for knowledge, but modern man and technology has developed it to suit the times. Today, microchips and sensors are doing the thinking in hi-tech industrial West. The Greeks who gave the world democracy are behind and begging for bailout, because they refused to be proactive.
Have you ever heard of a poor wise man trying to proffer solution in a gathering of money bags? They will ask him to keep his ideas to himself or use it to meet them at the top. Adinuba is being realistic and pragmatic.
The society we live in is different from the ones you referred to and the personnel involved. As great as Chinua Achebe was, he would have died unsung if he did not seek succor outside Nigeria or if the government in power in Abuja and Anambra are not favorable to him. I don’t think he left enough cash for the international burial he got.
Again, the founders of knowledge are not your everyday people. They are like meteors, chosen by the gods. The illuminati and other esoteric groups, who claim to be the enlightened ones and can see the future, are also knowledge seekers. In the ethereal world science and technology are light years ahead. It is only the deep that can seek out these wonders of nature and bring it to the knowledge and pleasure of man. The UFO is still a mystery to man. So comparing ordinary man like Adinuba with these icons, whose transcendental knowledge is beyond us, is the limit of modesty. These men are free from extended family system of Africa, nay Nigeria.
God created the elemental beings as master builders. They are to serve man’s need. It is your ability to reach out to them in the right way that will determine how far you go in life. John Keats and Wordsworth were more educated than Shakespeare. That was their quarrel as contemporaries, but Shakespeare took the shine out of them all.
There are billionaire authors and writers, consultants, motivational speakers, farmers, lawyers, doctors etc. If you are not making an impact where you are, then rediscover yourself, before frustration sets. Perhaps, that is what Adinuba is doing, after observing the life of Okoro George. I ask you, why did Alex/Macebuh make it, but George Okoro couldn’t, (at least, by Adinuba’s standard measurement)? Capitalism is rules the world.
Just like Ojukwu, the background and resources of these philosophers of old helped in their mission. They needed a platform to ventilate their passion. It is not by accident that a Wole Soyinka served military dictators (whom you call armed political robbers). Machiavelli Nicolo was thinking ahead when he said “the end justifies the means”. In the days of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates or Jesus Christ, what was the population of the world? What was the level of civilisation then? Do you think those men would have survived in our world today? How come no other like them since then?
Jimanze, accept the fact that things have changed for our philosophers, intellectuals and scholars. Where do you groom and nurture intellectuals and scholars? Is it not the university and IVY leagues? Apart from a few Western countries, mention any other country in the developed, developing and third world countries that have not rattled the university system and therefore, knowledge. Knowledge of any sort is now being outsourced and contracted by progressive government and corporate giants. So they don’t need any body playing smart with them.
Those who invented most of the gadgets and technology mankind is using today are enjoying the royalties through their families. Even the Bible said it that failure is when a man cannot provide for his family. A man is entitled to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
Since you said in your closing remarks that “for us learning is to push career and to profit a kobo any kobo”, why then do you criticize C. Don Adinuba for doing same. He wants to profit from the knowledge he has gained from journalism.
Your criticism would have been right on point, if he had left the pen job entirely, to follow Dangote or Bill Gates.