05/11/2025
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.
“𝖶𝗂𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝖻𝗈𝗈𝗄𝗌, 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖽𝖾𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗈𝗉𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝖼𝗂𝗏𝗂𝗅𝗂𝗓𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗁𝖺𝗏𝖾 𝖻𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝗂𝗆𝗉𝗈𝗌𝗌𝗂𝖻𝗅𝖾. 𝖳𝗁𝖾𝗒 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖾𝗇𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾, 𝗐𝗂𝗇𝖽𝗈𝗐𝗌 𝗈𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗐𝗈𝗋𝗅𝖽, '𝖫𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾𝗌,' 𝖺𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗉𝗈𝖾𝗍 𝗌𝖺𝗂𝖽, '𝖾𝗋𝖾𝖼𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝖾𝖺 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾.' 𝖳𝗁𝖾𝗒 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗉𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌, 𝗍𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗌, 𝗆𝖺𝗀𝗂𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗇𝗌, 𝖻𝖺𝗇𝗄𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗍𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗎𝗋𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗆𝗂𝗇𝖽. 𝖡𝗈𝗈𝗄𝗌 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗁𝗎𝗆𝖺𝗇𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝗂𝗇 𝗉𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗍.” _ 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐞𝐫, 𝐆𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫.
Nothing makes a man like reading — not just reading, but reading things that are backed up by pure reason and empirical evidence.
I am currently reading and enjoying Conquest and Culture by Thomas Sowell.
If you read his work and then read something related to his topic, the first thing that happens is contradiction sets in immediately.
Now, your ability to use your mental faculties to synthesize the subject and arrive at a novel judgment is what makes you articulate and intelligent as an individual.
My dear friends, please give yourselves to learning and stop complaining about the nature of Africa and Nigerian politics.
Most of the time, such complaints are a sign that 99% of you are not well-groomed politically.
You were raised to be political fools, which is why your scrutiny of the country and the continent is so shallow that even a ten-year-old child is more articulate than you.
To me, reading is leading — those who do not read will not lead well.
Our young people in Africa rarely read anything worthwhile. They read only How to Think and Grow Rich and then go about talking trash about the economic situation of the continent. That’s an insult to those who know.
Such self-help books can help you grow as individuals, but rarely can you glean from them any important principle that can help you build a community, talk less of an entire country or continent.
I used to read self-help books a lot; you won’t learn how nations are governed or developed by reading those things.
To understand politics, you must think politically, and to think politically, you must immerse yourself in the works of great thinkers — past and present.
Starting from Socrates to Confucius, Schopenhauer to Kant, Hegel to Nietzsche, Machiavelli to Locke, Russell to Bacon, Madison to Gandhi, to Lee, and so on.
There are countless thinkers of the past and present whose works, if you do not read, you will never become a good leader. It is very disappointing that 99% of our leaders do not engage in serious reading or learning.
The question is, how will you be able to lead your people to the Eldorado world you promise them? You cannot give what you do not have.
Every great leader is a real intellectual, as noted by James M. Burns in his book Leadership.
I have said it time and again that as a leader, or one aspiring to be, the least number of books you should read is 1,500 and above — and not just any books, but books written by great thinkers.
Schopenhauer advised his readers never to read books not written by thinkers, for it is the fastest way to waste one’s memory and time.
If you must lead any group, you have to have in-depth knowledge of their culture, history, biases, pain, and possibly what gives them bliss.
By that standard, you must know at least the most important aspects of human history, philosophy, religion, politics, economics, culture, customs, and norms — that will give you clarity about human existence.
Since our life cycle is very short — say 100 years — you won’t have the time or resources to live through every nation’s history or experience life long enough to rule with the wisdom of a great king.
So you must learn from those who came before you — and the only way to do that is by reading books and applying the principles from where you are. If it worked for others, it can work for your people.
We live in a world that responds to laws and principles. A + B = AB in America, and the same applies anywhere in the world, for principles are embedded in universal equations.
By and large, what I am saying is that we neither read nor research in this part of the world. That’s because it requires a fine nature to endure the pain of reading boring, well-researched books — and not everyone has that mental stamina.
These days, it’s even harder because we live in a pleasure-driven society where fools are celebrated, and the intelligent ones are nullified.
It gets worse in a third-world country like Nigeria, where less than two million people out of 300 million have ₦500,000 in their bank account — that’s less than a day’s pay for an expert in an advanced country.
Yet, once someone has ₦5 million or ₦100 million in their name, they suddenly think they have the right to talk about nation-building. Idiots!
Some of you, out of naivety and cluelessness, think that a nation is built by owning five shops at Alaba or Onitsha Main Market.
If I were the president of Nigeria — or any African country — I would make sure that people without a certain level of exposure or expertise would never publicly express opinions about government.
And if they must, they must back up their claims with facts. Even if you don’t have an elementary school certificate, I would still allow your opinion to be shared publicly — provided you’ve done your due diligence research.
But don’t come out and start insulting people up and down when you know nothing about how states function. Do you think we are in a zoo?
My advice to you is this: if you want to start talking about the economic and political issues in your country, first, go and read. You always use America and other countries for comparison, but if asked what Nigeria’s GDP rate is, you don’t know.
What is our per capita GDP? You don’t know. What about nominal GDP, purchasing power parity, institutional reform, or policy initiation? You don’t know! So, what are you talking about then?
This is why, even though Tinubu’s economic policies and reforms are superb, many of you still talk nonsense, claiming there is hunger in the land.
Nigerians are hungry because they refuse to do the right thing. Everyone is waiting for oil revenue. Based on data-driven statistics, 75% of Nigerians are below the age of 30.
By this fact, you people are not hungry, you are either lazy or stupid. Nigeria has some of the best arable land in the world — so how can you be hungry?
Our forefathers, with no science or technology, had more than enough food in the 1940s. There were groundnut pyramids in the North, cashew and red oil in the East, and cocoa in the West.
They had more than they could eat and exported heavily, becoming top exporters of palm oil, sesame, cashew, groundnut, and more — and this was before crude oil!
What this shows is that we are becoming lazier every day — undisciplined youths everywhere, with distorted work ethics and moral values. How can you build anything in such a state?
What really prompted me to write this article is that while reading ‘Conquest and Culture’ by Thomas Sowell, he discussed how Peter the Great tried to industrialize Russia.
Peter discovered that his people lacked the skills and knowledge required to build an industrialized society.
So, he traveled all over Europe — especially the Netherlands and England — learning how they built their economies.
As I listened to that chapter, my mind leaped to what Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore from the 1950s to the 1990s. They did the same thing but in different ways.
Had I not studied, would I have known that Lee wasn’t the first to adopt that principle of nation-building? Not at all. Can it be replicated in Nigeria or elsewhere in Africa? Absolutely yes!
In fact, I went further to ask my research assistant, ChatGPT, to compare Peter the Great’s economic development model with that of Lee Kuan Yew’s modern Singapore.
By the standards of what it produced, I can say with all clarity that ChatGPT is far more intelligent than 99.99% of the young men and women who talk about politics in Africa.
Go back to the library before you open your mouth to analyze or criticize a system you don’t even understand.
What really peeves me is that supposedly legal students and political science graduates in Nigeria are too empty to share any meaningful opinion about the politics of our dear country or continent.
99.99% of them haven’t read anything on political economy, political theory, political history, institutional reform, policy-making, leadership, or even history — yet they have all manner of nonsense to say about the backwardness of our democracy.
Who will tell these people that only those who understand a subject are qualified to share their opinions on it?
Anyway, we shall rise — and we shall get it right by all means necessary.
If you are interested in politics, send me a message and let’s have a discussion about our country and continent.
But first, you must have read a great deal on the topics I listed above; otherwise, don’t bother chatting with me.
I loathe aimless discussions that lack facts.
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𝐶&𝑃 𝑏𝑦 𝐺-𝑇!
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I remain, Captain Africa aka kelechi Ogbonna | 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫 | 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫/𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 | 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 | 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 | 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 | 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭 | 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐏𝐚𝐧-𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐞.
