Guide for the Institute for Restart National Conference
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BACKGROUND
Given that a society is not just the people living in an environment at a time, but also the dominant set of ideas (ideology) that influence peoples’ feelings, thoughts and actions in the environment, whenever there is a steady decline from harmonious growth in a society, it becomes vital that a group of custodians should evaluate and redirect the society to the basic principles and ideals that will guide them to harmonious growth. So, this Institute for Restart National Conference is aimed to serve as the group of people that will steadily evaluate and promote the principles, ideals, ideology and programs that will influence people in Nigeria and Africa towards harmonious growth and true happiness.
The current set of ideas (ideology) that have been used to control and exploit Africa is the colonial ideology of favorite slaves. And even as this ideology is not officially stated, it is indirectly implied and used in the different laws, policies and programs that keep controlling various generations of Nigerians and Africans. This current ideology of favorite slaves is the colonial belief:
“that Africans are naturally inferior and will always rely on foreign intervention to survive; and that the most Europeanized Africans must man the four institutions of public control, which are government, religion, academia and mass media to sustain this intervention.”
This ideology of favorite slaves enabled the European colonialists to impose their tripod stand of bondage on Africans in order to maintain the neo-colonial control for continued exploitation of human and natural resources. This tripod stand of bondage consists of imposed nationhood, land-expropriation law and contests for foreign products.
To liberate Africa, this colonial ideology must be replaced by an objective and suitable ideology, which is the ideology of intercultural liberty. This ideology of intercultural liberty is the belief:
“that there is something great in every community and culture, and so, they all deserve the liberty to own, modify and use their cultural, human and natural resources to prosper and manifest their greatness to their communities, nation, continent and the world. And that the four institutions of public regulation, which are government, religion, academia and mass media, are only made to support these communities and their members to manifest their greatness.”
Unlike the colonial ideology that relies on the tripod stand of bondage, the new ideology of intercultural liberty needs the creation of the tripod stand of freedom, which consists of consented nationhood, private property rights and socio-industrial contests for world progress.
This tripod stand of freedom mostly relies on private property rights. For instance, when the Europeans migrated to colonize America, they practiced a communal system where they owned the land together and were all entitled to its harvests. With this entitlement, some people became smart to work less and eat more, which made the food to finish faster, and brought widespread poverty and hunger. So, Captain John Smith, officially shared the land so that everybody could privately own, work or trade his land as he wished. This institution of private property drove everybody to work hard on their lands, since they now privately own the land and everything in it; not state, local or federal government. With this private property right, people boldly took industrial initiatives, studied deeper, got loans, investments and partners to create more goods and services. With the ability to produce more, they needed to support or compete with others to produce and trade more in their exhibitions; while government focused on regulations, tax and public works. This private property idea spread to all parts of American life for people to discover, develop and protect their private (material, intellectual or labour) property. It led to the liberty that made America the richest and strongest nation on earth, and it has been the key element in the success of most multi-culturally developed nations.
However, when the Europeans invaded to colonize Africa, they imposed land-expropriation law to seize all lands as colonial property for extracting resources. This is the law that reduced African to tenants and unofficial occupants on their lands. And while leaving at independence, the colonialists handed this law to post-colonial governments to sustain the neocolonial extraction of human and natural resources till today.
So, it becomes necessary to create the tripod stand of freedom to counter this colonial system. And creating this tripod stand of freedom needs convoking national conferences for the various communities that were tied under the colonial system to discuss and freely consent to their mode of living and working together as free nations. In line with the need for a tripod stand of freedom, the Nigerian Restart National Conference is expected to achieve 3 main agreements as its result:
i. Adopt the ideology of intercultural liberty as the basis and purpose of Nigerian (and African) unity over the colonial ideology of favorite slaves for the present imposed nationhood.
ii. End the colonial land-expropriation law, and both the postcolonial Land-Use-Act and Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act by recognizing the various communities’ and individual’s lands as their private property, along with their right to protect their lives and property. Then, set reasonable deadlines for the enactment (like 1-2 years for general and 4-6 years for Niger-Delta onshore oil property).
iii. Form the cultural destiny contest (as triennial or quadrennial contests for various communities to display their various products, services, groomed environments and acted/scripted/depicted noble ways of life) starting in Nigeria, to later extend to other African countries. Then, set a date for the first edition of the cultural destiny contest.
So, the Institute for Restart National Conference shall be a non-partisan group of people that freely support in organizing Nigeria’s first true national conference; and if the Institute is accepted by the National Conference, they will also handle the organization of further national conferences and socio-industrial programs/contests.
Click the link below to fill and submit the form that will be used to introduce you to the Restartnaija group.