What strikes me most here isn’t just the critique of leadership, it’s the mirror held up to the people themselves. Nations don’t just inherit dysfunction; they reproduce it through habit, superstition, and comfort with mediocrity. Mr. Possible’s words sting because they force accountability where we least like to place it: on culture and mindset.
You can’t reform a nation that refuses to reform its values. And you can’t build intelligent systems on unintelligent incentives.
The tragedy he describes isn’t unique to Nigeria, it’s a universal cautionary tale. The question is: when a society’s most capable minds decide to leave, who is left to fix what’s broken?
Very resonant commentary and a cogent question as well. The question terminating your commentary is one of the reasons why I believe the problem is likely to persist for many more years if not decades. The incentives, both external and internal, are powerfully stacked against any sound, high, and agile mind staying in the country.
I feel like it'll take some kind of full-blown global xenophobic crisis or militant nationalistic agitation across the nations of the world for the bright and brightest of Nigerians to return home. But even this doesn't solve a quarter of our problems which are indeed much deeper than externalities such as migrational movement. I've tackled these deeper problems in another essay titled "The Global IQ debate...". I hope you can take a look.
What strikes me most here isn’t just the critique of leadership, it’s the mirror held up to the people themselves. Nations don’t just inherit dysfunction; they reproduce it through habit, superstition, and comfort with mediocrity. Mr. Possible’s words sting because they force accountability where we least like to place it: on culture and mindset.
You can’t reform a nation that refuses to reform its values. And you can’t build intelligent systems on unintelligent incentives.
The tragedy he describes isn’t unique to Nigeria, it’s a universal cautionary tale. The question is: when a society’s most capable minds decide to leave, who is left to fix what’s broken?
Very resonant commentary and a cogent question as well. The question terminating your commentary is one of the reasons why I believe the problem is likely to persist for many more years if not decades. The incentives, both external and internal, are powerfully stacked against any sound, high, and agile mind staying in the country.
I feel like it'll take some kind of full-blown global xenophobic crisis or militant nationalistic agitation across the nations of the world for the bright and brightest of Nigerians to return home. But even this doesn't solve a quarter of our problems which are indeed much deeper than externalities such as migrational movement. I've tackled these deeper problems in another essay titled "The Global IQ debate...". I hope you can take a look.
Thanks for your incisive comments.