Introduction In Nigeria today, it has become painfully evident that education no longer pays. The irony is loud and clear: a person who has laboured through the grueling academic ladder – first degree, Master’s, and PhD – often finds themselves poorer than someone who sweeps office floors in other African countries. Across Africa and beyond, janitors and cleaners are treated with greater financial dignity than Nigerian scholars. This is not to smear the reputation of the janitors, or ridicule the honest cleaners; rather, it is to highlight the shameful undervaluing of academic excellence in Nigeria. When a PhD holder lives in debt, and a cleaner in South Africa, Kenya, or Ghana lives in dignity, something is tragically wrong with our system. It reveals, in the very depth, the misplacement of priorities in the country, and the endemic corruption that continues to perforate the socio-economic fabric of the Nigerian state. Table 1 and 2 below reveal frighteningly the dispar...
"I
know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something
tremendous." – Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
Behold,
humanity—the apex predator of history, the cosmic artisan, the harbinger of
both creation and annihilation. We are not the passive recipients of divine
decrees, but the architects of fate itself. Homo sapiens—the species that tamed
fire, split the atom and, now, plays God in laboratories of genetic engineering
and artificial
intelligence.
The
ancient sages whispered of mankind’s dominion over the earth, but even they
could not fathom the scale of our conquest. We have rewritten the script of
nature, bending the elements to our will, transforming deserts into
metropolises, and summoning lightning at the flick of a switch. What were once
the whispers of gods in myth are now the commands of mortals in computer code.
From Bare Hands to Boundless Power
For
millennia, power was measured in sinew and steel. We carved homes from the
wilderness, raised monoliths to touch the heavens, and waged wars that reshaped
borders and destinies. Yet even in those primitive days, the seeds of dominion
had been sown. The first domesticated beast, the first ploughed field—these
were not mere conveniences; they were declarations of defiance against nature
itself.
Then
came the scientific
revolution, and with it, the awakening of a force unlike any before: the
mastery of the unseen. We did not merely observe gravity,
we harnessed it to launch ourselves into the void of space.
We did not merely fear disease—we dissected it, conquered it, and rewrote our
biological limitations through modern medicine.
Man ceased to be the plaything of fate and became its author.
The
industrial age saw us command fire and metal, birthing machines that roared
like titans and reshaped civilization in their image. And then, the ultimate
triumph—the unlocking of the atom, a revelation both awe-inspiring and
horrifying. With the power to reduce cities to cinders or illuminate continents
with boundless energy, we had become the very gods we once worshipped.
The Paradox of Power: Creator and Destroyer
"What
is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end." – Friedrich Nietzsche
But
power is a double-edged sword, and the mightiest of hands tremble under its
weight. For every disease eradicated, a new one is born in secret laboratories.
For every technology that connects us, another isolates us further. The same
hands that cure the sick manufacture weapons
of unthinkable destruction.
We stand
at the precipice of an age unlike any before. Climate change, the spectre of artificial
intelligence surpassing its makers, the looming shadow of nuclear annihilation: these are not the trials
of nature, but the consequences of our own ambition. We have climbed Olympus,
only to find ourselves unsure of what to do with the thunderbolt in our grasp.
It is, indeed, power to do and undo! For Nigerian leaders, it is power to build almost nothing but to destroy all; power to make laws and violate them; power to rise to power and make the electorates the slaves of democracy; power to choose democracy, destroy it and return to military rule, and power to walk one metre forward and then walk a thousand kilometres backward! And this raises a whole lot of questions about democratic sanity, as depicted in THE AKPOTI THORN IN THE AKPABIO FLESH, THE PRICE OF FREE SPEECH IN THE TINUBU GOVERNMENT, BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDERLINING OF THE EMERGENCY DECLARATION IN RIVERS STATE, A BATTLE OF POWER, PRIDE, AND POLITICAL BETRAYAL, NIGERIA'S REPUTATION ON THE EDGE OF A GLOBAL PRECIPICE, and THE DECLARATION OF EMERGENCY IN RIVERS STATE AND ITS FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS.
Ecce Homo: What Comes Next?
"Man
is something that shall be overcome." – Friedrich Nietzsche
The
question before us is not whether we have power, but whether we deserve it. The
destiny of our species is not written in the stars but forged in the crucible
of our choices. Do we wield our dominion with wisdom, or do we become victims
of our own hubris?
We are
Homo sapiens, the masters of destiny. But the gods we have become must now
decide: shall we be benevolent creators, or architects of our own ruin? The
answer will echo through the halls of history long after our monuments have
crumbled.
Ecce Homo. Behold the man. And now, let him choose!
OKOM, Emmanuel Njor (PhD)
Comments
Post a Comment