The
year was 1945. And it was the end of World War 2. Most of Europe lay in ruins.
The war had either exhausted or eliminated the pre-war ‘’ Great Powers’’. But
two superpowers emerged, with conflicting ideologies, signalling the end of one
war and the beginning of a new one: The Cold War.
1945
heralded a bi-polar world dominated by the US and the Soviet Union. These two
nations, allies in the war, raced to spread their ideologies across the globe.
One thing they had in common was military might. But that was where the
similarities ended. Who was going to win the cold war? History gradually
revealed. In October 1917, the Soviet Union became the first nation to ever attempt
Marx-Engel's Utopian communist dream.
Communism was won by Lenin and furthered
by Stalin. After the Second World War, Russia annexed much of Eastern Europe
with puppet governments in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
East Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, part of eastern Finland and northern
Romania and the red army maintained a military presence in most of these
countries. These states collectively became the United Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR). No nation in the world could boast of as much natural resources
as Soviet Union could. The nation was richer in oil, uranium, gold, and forest
than any other in the world. But its communist government decreed that its
power depended on exploiting natural resources. People became instruments to be
used and controlled. The great scientists, engineers, and mathematicians worked
on secret projects. The government alone decided the allotment of paper for the
printing of histories. Intellectuals found it hard to travel, communicate and
apply what they knew. To photocopy an article or start a new business was
illegal.
The
Americans promoted democracy and freedom. Intellectual property laws protected
inventors; and entrepreneurs were given the room to thrive. Creativity soared
and citizens were given the right incentives to be productive. America was a
melting point of ideas and culture as immigrants from other nations flocked to
take advantage of the opportunities the American free society presented. The
press was uninhibited and the people had the right to hold the government
accountable.
In
a world that increasingly valued entrepreneurship, communication and freedom,
the Soviet Union got increasingly irrelevant, got poorer and poorer until it
eventually broke apart. Today, the nation Soviet Union no longer exists- totally
‘’extinct’’. Meanwhile, today, despite their
huge foreign financial aid commitment, the United States of America
remains the world’s leading nation, while what is left of the soviet union,
Russia is referred to as an emerging economy. What an ironical tale of two
cities...
Taking
a cue from this, it will be realised that development and freedom are not
mutually exclusive. They are sine-qua-non! Freedom simply leads to development.
In the case of Africa, it however becomes imperative that for a guaranteed way
of attaining scientific and technological prowess, all and sundry Africans must become truly free. And freedom that berth development is not limited to
the one guaranteed by instrument of state alone, essentially freedom is a state
of mind, it is openness in behaviour, it is the power of self-determination
attributed to the will; the quality of being independent to think, initiate and develop.
Someone
might say self-determination breeds individualism but quickly I must cautioned
that absolute individualism is an anti-thesis to growth but collective
individualism is infact development in itself. Collective individualism is such that man must be individualistic in thinking but collective socially: for instance, it is the
individual mind that brainstorm the know-how that brought about GSM but it was
collective reasoning and fine-tuning that created the perfect phone we use
today. America didn't emerged greater because of state freedom alone but because every American was made to become conscious of how it takes individual thinking, initiatives and personal contribution to excel in the society: this was tagged ''The American Dream''. And this American spirit of stand amidst the world and achieve greatness is still the driving force of America Super-Greatness: remember, facebook, twitter, instagram, whatsapp and host of other technological advancement originates from individual American mind. Let there exist in Africa, freedom of mind and that of association. Self-determining
(individualistic) society breeds giant, innovative minds not because it can’t
be dis-innovative but because every member of such society knows that her
success is tied to her personal contribution (a survival of the fittest
syndrome on one hand). Yet collective individualism encourage brotherliness and
humanity- it says ‘’live and let live’’, ‘’let those who have surplus, give
those who don’t’’. In essence, collective Individualism (by ramification,
absolute freedom) builds an innovative society, at the same time builds our
humanity- what a better concept to adopt.
Beyond
state freedom which must be guaranteed however, individuals also have to make their mind abundantly
free. Only then can Africa gets innovative and develop in all standards.
By
Joshua Ademuwagun and Azeez Olawumi Ibrahim
No comments:
Post a Comment