THE EAST/WEST ROAD AS THE LAST AND ONLY ROAD NOT TAKEN (Part 2)

Jack Amaso

THE OUT OF THE BOX THINKING POWER OF JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES AND THE NIGERIAN QUESTION

“John Maynard Keynes… His radical idea that governments should spend money they don’t possess mystified politicians-and may have saved capitalism”Robert B. Reich.

.

Spending money you don’t have is a classic example of thinking outside the box. The problem is the thinking pattern and mindset of the leadership class, that produced and sustains the failed structure on which Nigeria stands.

THE EAST/WEST ROAD

The out of the box East/West collaboration in the direction of the “Willink’s minorities” of the middle belt and South is “the only new idea he hadn’t yet tried,”  outside the box, that will force Buhari’s ethnic dominion to the table of negotiations for restructuring the Nigerian State,  as the solution to the Nigerian question.

WILLINK’S MINORITY

Willink’s minorities are the indigenous people and minority groups of Benue and Plateau, the present day victims of Fulani expansionism. The pre independence expansionism of the Fulani that they dreaded, has come upon them as this Present day war of attrition. Those minority fears by the Northern and Southern minorities gave birth to the Willinks minority report of 1958.

WILLINK’S REPORT

Officially known as: “Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Fears of the minorities and the means of Them” The high powered commission had Sir Henry Urmston Willink, 1st Baronet, Britain’s Minister of health (1943-1945) during World War II, a former Vice chancellor of Cambridge University between 1953 and 1955 as Chairman. A director in the Chatam based Race Relations Institute, Philip Mason, the deputy governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) Gordon Hadow, and a certain Mr J.B. Shearer. The secretary was Mr K. J. Hilton. The British government constituted the Commission on September 26, 1957 and by July 30, 1958 it submitted its report.

A former Director in the Presidency, Eric Teniola, wrote this about the commission on June 7, 2016, under the headline:  “We can’t be free until they’re free”…..”The commissioners arrived in Lagos on November 23, 1957 and between that date and April 12, 1958 they held public sittings and had private meetings and discussions in each region, in Lagos and in the Southern Cameroons. They returned to London on April 12, 1958.“https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/cant-free-theyre-free/

THE FAILED NIGERIAN STRUCTURE

The present structure that has compromised several federating ethnic interests, for the benefit of one, is seeking a solution in “Hamilton El dorado Midas”, as we saw in the first part, but no efficient driver can get a car with a 10 hour delivery capacity to deliver in 2 hours, even with a Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel, unless the faulty systems are changed!

CHANGE IS GOING INTO THE NO GO AREAS

Until we go into those no go areas, which those national conferences did not go into, we are going nowhere! The terms of our unity in Nigeria must be questioned or division is inevitable! Buhari can’t eat his cake and have it!

THE PROBLEM KEYNES FACED  

Keynes created the solution! The Great Depression was the problem!  It had defied the economy, economics and economists. It took a British mathematician (not an economists) called Keynes who was outside the box of economics to think outside the box of both the economy and economics, to create the solution, he did! Why?

Perhaps because the power of vision is distance, the closer the blinder the farther the clearer……ever wondered why some of the most profound pictures of planet earth are taken from outer space?

He didn’t just create the solution to the Great Depression, he by that brain wave he called:

“The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”.

which was “his radical idea that governments should spend money they don’t possess” that extended the “shelf life” of capitalism by reinventing it, at the critical point of the Great Depression, saving it as a political economic system, under the dual threat of imminent fascism and distant communism. That solution helped preserved civilization as we have it today, for it funded the lend lease by which the United States funded its allies; Britain and the communist USSR, to defeat fascist states of Italy and Nazi Germany and Japan, their axial “ally”. It was the economic basis for bipolar and unipolar America.

“Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.”https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=71

“Bipolarity can be defined as a system of world order in which the majority of global economic, military and cultural influence is held between two states. The classic case of a bipolar world is that of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union,”Dana-Marie Seepersab http://www.e-ir.info/2011/02/17/the-politics-of-bipolarity-and-ipe-in-contemporary-times/

Unipolarity occurs when one country exercises exclusive polarity, like the United States did after the collapse of the Soviet Union on 26 December, 1991.

KEYNES THE THINKING POWER OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Robert B. Reich, writing on the 136th-138th page of “Builders & Titans Time 100 Great Minds of the Century”, a compendium of individuals that shaped the 20th century, published in 1999 by Time books, expantiated it this way: 

“Before Keynes, economists were gloomy naysayers. ‘Nothing can be done, ‘ ‘Don’t interfere,’ “It will never work…… As the Depression wore on,  Roosevelt tried public works, farm subsidies and other devices to restart the economy, but he never completely gave up trying to balance the budget. In 1938 the Depression deepened. Reluctantly, F. D. R.  embraced the only new idea he hadn’t yet tried, that of the bewildered British ‘mathematician.’ “That mathematician was John Maynard Keynes and the idea was, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”. 

ANALYSIS:

1 The mindsets and thinking pattern of great depression economists by the evidence of Robert B. Reich.

• Economists were gloomy naysayers.
• ‘Nothing can be done,
• ‘ ‘Don’t interfere,’
• “It will never work

2 The within the box logical options by President Roosevelt.

• Roosevelt tried public works,
• Farm subsidies
• And other devices to restart the economy,

3 A possible possibility 

• But he never completely gave up trying to balance the budget.

4 From bad to worse because all logical options failed

• In 1938 the Depression deepened.

5 The last option. After all other options failed, the last option is almost always outside the box.

• Reluctantly, F. D. R.  embraced the only new idea he hadn’t yet tried, that of the bewildered British ‘mathematician.

DEDUCTIONS: The economists not economics nor the economy were the Great Depression!

NIGERIA PORTRAIT OF A FAULTY STRUCTURE

1 The Non-negotiability of Nigeria and Major General M. C. Alli’s expose, he chose to call subterfuge.

In part one,  this reference was established:

“By 1998, the need for federal character as a means of protecting the weak north had become, not only questionable, but a subterfuge for displacing southerners and political minority tribes from the fair benefits of the fruits of their land” Major General M. C. Alli.

The non-negotiability of Nigeria is the new subterfuge or deceptive strategy of Buhari’s government to sustain the status quo of his self professed ratio of Northern dominion.

2 Buhari’s body language of  the Great Depression economists, with respect to restructuring the Nigerian state…

• economists were gloomy naysayers,
• ‘Nothing can be done, ‘
• ‘Don’t interfere,’
• “It will never work

2 Diversionary Focus on infrastructure, within the faulty unitary structures at the expense of Federalism.

3 The faulty unitary STRUCTURE. Nigeria as presently structured, is to the political economic advantage of Buhari’s core North. General Alli’s revelations, from his book published in 2001, was the expose revealed in part 1, where he wrote:

“Nigeria has been Northernized in every sector, a situation that has given eminence to calls for the restoration of, or restructuring of our federalism.” Major General M. C. Alli.

4 Arrested development, the failed mutual benefit of the Igbo of the East and Yoruba in the West, on their part are mutual victims of arrested development, through the hostile University admission policy that brands all but one of their respective states as educationally advanced, this has had a set back arrested development impact

THE EAST/WEST ROUTE

The East/West alliances remains the Keynesian catalyst to jump start the process. But the question from the first part remains:

Will the Yoruba and Igbo ever overcome their ego and present the world with the biggest black to black proactive alliance that would redefine development at a rate and pace best defined as nuclear fusion?

Continued.