“Oh God! Power outage again?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with PHCN these days, we have not been having power between 6 and 11pm for over a 2 months now.?”
“I don’t know why everything is going backwards in this country, even when I was growing up in the 80s, power supply wasn’t bad like this.”
“Daddy! Habba! That was like 30 years ago. Hope you’re not exaggerating?”
“Me? Exaggerating? Just give me 5 minutes, let me remove my shirt. Wait! Where’s your laptop?”
“At the dining sir?”
“Charged?”
“Yes.”
“Your sister?”
“At the backyard, plaiting her hair.”
“What of your mum?”
“Church.”
“Your mum and Church. Which of the Churches?”
“ The one at Airport road”
“It’s okay.”
“Back to your question over exaggeration. To be honest with you, power supply was better in the 80s than now. One of the yardstick I can use is soap opera like “Behind the clouds” and others. We used to watch it every Sunday and we rarely missed a single episode in a quarter. As I am sitting now, I am trying to imagine the number of houses on the street I grew up. I can imagine 20 houses on both sides, making 40. Out of the houses, only two had generators”
“Two out of forty?”
“Yes, two out of more than 40 houses. Apart from that, we used to have power when it rains, but if it is too heavy, power outage might set in. Unlike now that PHCN will take it off immediately breeze is building up and will not restore power hours after the rain. Can you imagine that? No serious improvement in a space of three decades.”
“I pray this country will experience great transformation during my time, I can’t imagine if the country is still like this in the next 20 years or more.”
“Never, it won’t be like this. Though, despite the fact that this is 2019, most African countries have not attain the level of organisation Britain had in the 50s and 60s. Instead of moulding fantastic future for all and sundry , It is sad and our politicians are not helping situation.”
“But, what can be done to solve all these problems created by politicians?”
“For now, I don’t think there is a solution in view because the politicians are products of our environment. They represent the way we are, as a group of people, our culture and the selfish materialistic lifestyles we build around us.”
“I believe my generation will find a solution to Nigerian problems, we will build a new Nigeria, especially, if Nigerians abroad can come home and most of them can take care of political positions. There will be a change somehow, that’s what I believe.”
“I had such line of thoughts when I was growing up too. You might be right but we’ve had technocrats and professionals that were brought from developed countries to come and contribute and restructure the country with their expertise but they still failed.”
“Why?”
“Because the structure they want to build cannot stand on a corrupt or materialistic foundation. Just like when the foundation is sandy, there is no way you can put a structure on it.”
“Is our foundation that bad?”
“Honestly, to be frank with you. It is very bad. No matter how you tried, corrupt people and politicians will frustrate anybody that want to take funds from them in order to create a better society because bad society is what they thrive on.”
“And you think there is no solution?”
“Hmmmm, I delivered a lecture in the office recently. I talked about the future during our knowledge sharing session and I can easily convince myself that technology will chase corruption with ease, your generation or your children will enjoy this world to a great extent but not mine.”
“Why?”
“I am in mid 40s, so, how many years do I have left? Maybe 20 or 30.”
“Why not extra 40 or 50?”
“Son, you can claim it if you want, but for me, I am not a big fan of long life.”
“Okay Dad, let’s come back to technology. How will it chase corruption?”
“Hmmmm, technology and corruption? Let me start this way, I remember I told my colleagues that technology will change the way we live our lives in the next few decades, … and take note, there is nothing we can do to stop how our lifestyles would be changed, the only thing we can do is to prepare for it?”
“How?”
“For example, most of us will loose our jobs, computers, robots and many industrial machines will take away jobs from humans.”
“That’s bad news, how will people take care of their families without jobs?”
“Well, people will still take care of their family without jobs , even without money. Though, third world countries will experience crisis for some years because we lack preparation and the fact that the egocentric political class and some rich individuals would find it hard to accept the fact that money is no more relevant and all they worked for or got from the masses would come to nought. Nevertheless, it won’t be long, we will get it right and be on almost same pedestrial with the first world countries.”
“How?.”
“Okay, it will get to a stage that most jobs in this world would vanish, the world will go back to a kind of primitive lifestyle or let me call it humanitarian age. The world will experience the downfall of money and when the root of all evil disappeared, human race will focus on our mission in life again.”
“Downfall of money? I still don’t get it.”
“Dont worry, let me land. You see, you need to know that in the beginning, there was no money, money was created by humans as a means of exchange, but over a period of time, human race eventually got it wrong by embracing the egocentric part of life and money opened different channels for vices. We will come to that later if necessary, what I just want to bring out here is that, anything that has beginning will surely have an end. So, if you’ve never heard it before, tell your friends and anyone who cares that the world will experience the downfall or extinction money.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s new to you now because you don’t read. I forwarded an article to you and all the 300 and something contacts I have on whatsapp six months ago but only four contacts read and care to discuss it with me. That’s to tell you that most people only watch videos on their phones, they don’t usually have time to read.”
“Honestly, I didn’t see it.”
“Okay, let me agree that you did not see it. It was written by …., oh No, I can’t even remember the name again. Let’s put that aside. Now listen, let me break it down for you. 90% of what we call jobs or professions will disappear, we won’t need doctors, lawyers, engineers, retail or small businesses, financial institutions, politicians and so on. Even, western education will disappear or change to a more humanitarian institution to build morals.”
“Like you’re scaring me, I want to be a doctor. How will it affect doctors?”
“A device will flood the market in the next few years, it is called tricoder. This can do a lot of personal check ups for you domestically, from blood pressure, state of the heart, liver, kidney and a lot of test, all the doctor need is to use the analysis on your tricoder to give you treatment, prescribe drugs and surgery if necessary. There would be sophisticated robots too that can help surgeons to carry our operations in a more accurate and safer ways than human. According to Prof. Michio Kaku, , you can get a Robo-Doc on line and explain how you feel, Robo-Doc can talk to you in any language you understand and give you accurate information on what what you need to do. You can print out RoboDoc’s summary and visit your doctor or pharmacist. Also, I believe technology will still reach a stage whereby tricoder can give you a code after analysing body conditions, one can then send the code to a pharmacist or put it on any relevant search engine that fits that time and it will prescribe drugs to use. The pharmacist can send it to you via drone or other terrestrial devices that will move straight from the store to your house. By that time, there would be bicycles, carts, drones, and other innovative devices with grps that won’t miss location or destinations.”
“That means there would be pharmacist?”
“Wait, don’t misquote me, I said 90% of what we call jobs or professions will disappear. And let me stress this, the future pharmacist I am imagining under this context is not there because he is being paid, he or she is just doing it on humanitarian grounds and to help himself or herself because one can die easily if you’re not active in that generation. So, people will naturally encourage themselves to do something in order to stay alive. In addition to this, life span would be increased because many parts of the body can be created, surgeons will not need to stress themselves over kidney, liver and some parts of the body. Whenever there is a problem, just remove defected part and get another one, probably, a part that is made or grown from patient’s body. This will take care of any anomaly after surgery because the newly introduced body part was made from patient’s body.”
“That body parts story is unbelievable, nevertheless, it is a good concept, I pray scientists will get it right to help humanity. Another question. What will happen to lawyers?”
“The reason why we have lawyers is to resolve conflicts that arises because someone is greedy and want to cheat the other, besides that are other crimes like rape, murder and others that are paranormal, psychological and not connected with money. The root of most conflicts is money and it would have gone but before that time, Robo-Lawyer can help to do a lot. It can give you detailed information that you need from a lawyer, it can answer and analyse any question to defend you. I don’t have good understanding of this aspect of our discussion but all I know is that few lawyers would be needed for special cases. In the light of this, since the frequency of special are very low, it is possible that most lawyers might be on the farm or other constructive projects to keep fit and contribute their quota to others welfare. In short, everyone is a volunteer. I will forward a videos to you on this and other discoveries.”
“Noted. What of Engineers?”
“Stop bothering yourself about professions, computers or robots will take care of a lot things, surely few engineers will still be around to repair, replace or put structures in order. For example, 10 engineers might be needed to run a car factory that can produce thousands of cars in a day. Right now, many countries are experiencing improved economy with massive job loss. It is even good you ask this question, I hope my answer will shed more light into the future. I want to use cars as example, but note that, this is how it is going to happen to other products like phones, electronics, wears etc. Wait, it’s like someone’s is knocking at the gate.”
“Nobody, it’s our neighbour’s gate.”
“Okay, when will your mummy be back?.”
“Maybe in the next one hour.”
“All right, back to our discussion. Imagine a big car factory with fantastic and computerised infrastructures that’s producing cars for a population where jobs are going into extinction at a tremendous rate and food is almost free. I am talking about a time when food production is increasing at a rate humans never imagined.”
“Free food? How?.”
“Oh, I am digressing. I don’t want you to take me away from the focus. Anyway, let me explain briefly. Believe it or not, apart from the loamy or humus soil we have around, that desert from Northern Nigeria to North Africa will bring out food in abundance, check the internet for more information on agriculture in the desert, even if they can’t produce food, another thing that will amaze you is hydroponics and Aeroponics system of agriculture, with these, you don’t even need soil for agriculture anymore, you can grow crops, vegetables and others in a controlled environment, just like a factory. With these system of farming, you can use a plot of land to achieve whatever you want to achieve on an acre of land, all you need is too pile up. I can’t explain this now, check for more on the internet…. you need to note this too, agriculture will attract many volunteers, massive eateries for eating in and take away, foods would be produced massively and storage facilities will help to conserve, nevertheless, don’t think people will have the freedom to waste food, individual consumption can be tracked and penalties would be there for wastefulness.”
“But aeroponics and hydroponics will not give us quality foods, maybe quantity.”
“Well, a colleague told me that too, but let’s reason together. I agree these system of farming, including GMO might bring quantity but not quality, but what we need to know is that, the process would be improved over a period of time, even if not improved, we should enjoy the quantity like that. The world that we are living is growing old with all its naturalness, from oxygen, carbon dioxide, soil, climates, natural resources and so on. So, what’s this stress over quality all about? Please, let’s enjoy the quantity and believe many rooms for improvements will surely open.”
“Okay.”
“Back to cars, it will get to a stage that having a car won’t make sense, you’ll look stupid to have one, just like the way horses are in today’s world. All you need is to check the nearest car pool in your area, pick one with the app on your phone and give it direction to wherever you are, the car will come, take you to your destination and go back to the pool or another person can see it with their app and make use of it. Apart from cars, many small designs of mobiles that can transport individuals will flood the market, cars might be too big for that generation. You might be thinking that human will still want to show off or proof that I am better than you. The answer is ‘No’, those materialistic concept will gradually fade away, people would be more humane than materialistic. I see a world where almost everyone is a volunteer, you will need to be a volunteer in a place to keep fit, meet people, live longer and if you can’t get volunteering space or opportunities, you will have to do exercise on your own or join people in the nearest park, gym or whatever to keep fit. So, being lazy is not an issue, it is a choice for those that want to die early.”
“I am finding it hard to believe anyway, especially in a country like Nigeria, what you’re talking about can happen easily in 1st world countries, where volunteering is already a way of life, not third world like ours.”
“It will happen here too. It is good you open my eyes to the fact that it is already a way of life there, that is to show you that the world is gradually going towards that direction. Back to our discussion, one thing about technology is that it creeps into people’s lifestyle at exponential rate and knock culture or other viewing of circumstances off. For example, I experienced the transformation of analogue phones to mobile phones here in this country, within a space of one year, we all forgot there was something like land phones, mobile phones knock it off completely and NITEL died. The post office box did not receive mails again as internet took over the medium for sending letters. Another thing that will shock you is those Universities spreading around like wild fire, let them continue to build, in the next two or three decades, people will see University gates and will not go because the certificate is of no use. We will convert those hostels to fine rooms for people to live in.”
“Hostel rooms? Maybe for the poor.”
“No, the rich and poor ideology will not be that strong anymore. Hold on before you ask another question, let me nail this. I am happy you saw those empty mansions we saw in Abuja the other time, it will get worse over a period of time, one fact you need to know is that most people that grew up in mansions don’t love to leave in one, big mansion with few people is like a prison. When you look at it very well, most of those mansions were built by poor people that eventually made it in life through their personal efforts, God’s grace or corruption in politics and other fields of life. With time, their children will embrace humble lifestyle and live modestly while another set of poor people that just made it will buy the mansions from them. So, when the penchant for money disappeared, people will leave mansions and want to mix with others. Places or homes like hostels will thrive again, people will pull down their fences because sense if insecurity is gone and the state of mind of humans would be free again. Social media will experience low patronage because people would be tired of virtual life and virtual relationships, minds would be freer and people can easily mingle again without class and those useless materialistic stratification.”
“Whao! That’s heavenly to some extent. Wait daddy, all these things you’re talking about are just like dreams, I am finding it hard to believe, just like fictions to me.”
“With experience and gift or talent, I can easily tell you that what a man sees while sitting down, a boy cannot see it, even while sitting on a tree. You get my analogy?”
“Yes sir.”
“I understand you. Even, adults around my age range laugh at me whenever I discuss issues like this. It’s human, that’s life, people tend to believe more in a disastrous future than a better future. For me, a better future is what I have decided to see, embrace or install in my mind despite the hopelessness around us . For example, a man granted an interview on BBC in the 50s, he talked about the future, using 100 years as a yardstick, people didn’t believe him, nevertheless, most of the things he said are reality now, I will forward the YouTube link to your phone later tonight or tomorrow. Just remind me.”
“Noted. All right, let me agree with you anyway and ask this question. How long do you think Nigeria and other African countries will experience this?”
“Hmmmm, despite the fact that I believe this is realistic, it is hard to say it will happen in Nigeria within the next 40 years. What I am seeing is this.”
“What?”
“Hold on, I am trying to get my thoughts together.”
“Okay.”
“Now, let me unfold it this way. Look at this country very well, especially, the political class and their egotistical wealth sharing formula. It will suddenly hit Nigeria in the next few years that the so called oil they hook up to like evergreen tree will be useless. Hold on, let me put it this way, not that they don’t know but they can’t imagine how soon other technologies will make our oil a redundant mineral resource. Electric cars and solar powered panels for every equipments, devices and electronics will flood the world. Unusual breakthrough will still come up in the manufacture, generation and distribution of solar energy. Almost every device will come with solar panel, due to this, electric poles will disappear, oil firms might not be too effective, in short, so many things will happen and our dependency on government will dissapear, after all, we are used to providing everything by ourselves before. Don’t get it wrong, government will still be there, just that the political space would be clear for creative and innovative minds, creating good atmosphere for volunteering and other fantastic wholesome gestures. Gradually, all the religions would loose their grips on humans, especially among Africans. After all, religion is the opium of the poor, believe me, life would be so sweet, but sadly, morals would be complex to deal with. We might still spoil the happy world with some excesses but I can’t just figure out what and how we are going to mess up the world by ourselves. Just beyond my comprehension. Let me delve into this too, I’ve been dissed by people like you that I don’t believe in religion or whatever, they said everything God said in their holy books will come to pass. I don’t have any problem with that, it is your choice to believe in those books and their prophesies, and it is my choice to believe this too. As events begin to unfold, I believe that time will tell. All in all, we both believe that this world will come to an end.”
“Daddy, please, let’s leave religion out of this discussion.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s okay.”
“Don’t you think this your dreamworld is like socialism?”
“In socialism, everything is owned by the government. In this case, companies, structures, establishments or whatever are owned or being controlled by individuals or groups, just like private companies.”
“Well, you’re entitled to your opinions or dreams anyway?”
“That’s true.”
“One thing I think you need to evaluate properly is that rich people will never succumb to this idea. The future you’re talking about only favours the poor, it is not easy to leave everything you’ve worked for to follow one humanitarian gesture because many people can’t find jobs to do. For me, I believe that situation or circumstances will provide new set of jobs for each generation. Many decades ago, there were no pilots, insurance companies, app developers, internet businesses etc. I feel a new set of jobs will evolve for humans to take care of themselves. Whatever the case may be, there will always be the rich and the poor.”
“I understand you, just like you said earlier, you’re entitled to your opinion or dreams. This is mine, I have seen it, I can see it, though, I haven’t experience it physically. Believe me, that’s the future.”
“Are you a time traveler or seer?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a dreamer. I’ve seen this in my dreams several times. Maybe it is a kind of thought forms. You know, when you fill your mind with some thoughts, it is like giving it nutrients to grow and it forms over a period of time.”
“Like you have a revelation.”
“Maybe.”
“I like your sense of imagination dad. That reminds me of your dream university in your book ‘Vision’. We are still waiting for United Nations to come and tap into it.”
“That’s just fiction and a good concept for year 2000, I envisioned it in the 90s, as you can see, the book is almost 20 years old now. I am not sure if the concept can still work today’s world. Let’s put that aside, don’t derail this discussion.”
“All right, my honest conclusion is that capitalists will never allow this to come true. They rule the world, the world is theirs or in their hands and they determine the future.”
“Let me see if I can answer you this way. Just like Nigerian or African politicians, they thrive on the bad society to make money, Same way with capitalist, they thrive on people’s situation to make money. Always looking for cheap Labour to make more money. Now listen to me, every concept in life is for a season. Capitalists are investing more in ways to pay less or cut cost to make more money. Eventually, it is this act that will still shoot them in the legs.”
“How?”
“Thank you. As it is right now, robotics or let me say Artificial intelligence and its products are taking jobs from humans in organisations and apps is removing middle men in retail businesses, customers or end users can get products straight from the manufacturer and be satisfied. As this continues, the world will reach a stage whereby 5% of the world would be richer than the remaining 95%. Some moguls would have billions, sillion, zillion or whatever but this won’t make sense to people anymore, it is mere monetary worth, it wont be able to drive the economy anymore, it would be reduced to a redundant entity, just like when a new system knocked cowries off as a mean of exchange in some parts of Africa. Nevertheless, before the world will get to that stage, there would be a kind of friction between Capitalists and Humanitarians. These humanitarians were Capitalists but events will change their paradigm.”
“How?”
“This is it. While some Capitalists are basking in the euphoria of monetary worth, some Capitalists will change direction from making money to impacting lives because that is the only way to be relevant, that is the only way they can make use of their automated production equipments, machines, tractors etc. If not, everything they have invested in will just be there and rust away. Statements like this will be common ‘With our structure and few volunteers, we are feeding 500,000 people everyday, driving the world with our auto-cars, flying the world with our auto-planes, building hundred or thousands of houses everyday, connecting the world with our media gadgets etc.‘. By that time, the number of lives a company is touching is their worth, this will make the CEO and management feel like kings on top of the world, they will be relevant and respected. It is a wonderful feeling, After all, having billions in one’s account is a feeling too, it is mere artificial social factor, totally aesthetic, it doesn’t add any value to anybody apart from the owner. By that time, if the richest person in the world was announced in the media, no one cares because the numbers of lives your organisation is making happy is the new measure of relevance, value and popularity. Attention has shifted from money to impact and that’s how it should be in the first place. Whatever people want to do, they will do it for love and not for money. A whole new world and a lovely one too.”
“Hmmmmmm. Though, I am still finding it hard to believe but I can see the picture you’re painting now. It makes a lot of sense but not very realistic me. Let me share this message with you, I just sent it to you now.”
“I’ve received it.”
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Socialism principles: All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.
Possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment…
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that it does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
“First of all, there won’t be need for those competition and unhealthy rivalry. Second, I stand to be corrected, to me, I believe Capitalism is not working too. Just likePareto’s principle, it is just 20 percent of the rich making use or manipulating the remaining 80 percent to make money. And when they make the money, what do they do with it? I don’t want to go into that. Back to the article, one mistake we often make as humans is using a one sided story or an example to explain the situation in a complex world like ours. Look, another side to the write-up is this, if some set of students read and scored high marks and some scored low or whatever, the fact is this, those with low marks are good in other endeavours. Outside that class, you will be surprised that they are good in other fields of life where they will score high and those in the class might score low. Those that scored high in the class will then appreciate the sharing that time. I believe the future I am talking about will encourage people to do what they love, what is naturally comfortable for them and we can all grow together. In life, there shouldn’t be competition, everyone should do what they are good at and at their own pace. Competition is good for entertainment anyway, let’s all enjoy that part of life. Yes, I agree that some people might be seen as lazy because you cannot see or feel their impact. Let me tell you, I have seen a lazy man that is full of wisdom before, he lived his life like a useless person but don’t despise his wisdom, if he gives you direction, try to trust his direction. I have seen a drunkard that is sound is in the issue of life, Faith and fate. This article you just read cannot be followed or strictly adhered to. Life is complex.”
“I have heard you.”
“But still not convinced.”
“Yes.”
“I understand you. It is a big world, it is normal for us to see the future from different perspectives. That’s what I am seeing anyway and time will tell.”
“A future without money?”
“Yes, a future without money.”
“You’ll need to write a film script on this.”
“Yes, I will, because the scenes in my head need to be seen in visuals, I will be able to address many issues beyond the scope of this discussion. You know, movie is a powerful tool to change people’s view and win more follower these days.”
“Yes, that’s true. …You still want to wait for mummy?”
“Yes.”
“All right sir. Good night.”
“Good night. We will wake up one by one.”
“Amen
