FLASH: 3 Lessons from US History That Can Transform Nigeria

1. DON'T COPY SYSTEMS, INVENT THEM

The US Presidential election 2020 has been very intense and competitive. We are reminded every 4 years of the weirdness of the way they elect their Presidents...

...through the Electoral College System, which no country has admired enough to copy. And that is exactly the point: systems are put in place to repeatedly deal with PRACTICAL issues affecting a group of people in a predictable manner.

The Electoral College System, for example, handled effectively the peculiar and practical issues the 13 colonies (states) faced at that time in electing a President. It is therefore foolhardy for any country to blindly copy it now. Unfortunately, Nigeria has copied a lot...

from developed nations whatever system they fancied, but have left out the most important part of dealing with PRACTICAL issues peculiar to us. Our Constitution is, therefore, mostly alien to us, & sometimes counterproductive. We need a truly peoples Constitution that is organic.

2. POLITICIANS DON'T BIRTH NATIONS

Did you know that the Framers of the US Constitution did not conceive the idea of political parties? In fact, George Washington, the first US President, did not belong to any party, as there was none.

The Founding Fathers of America were not politicians in today's sense of the word; they were purely Statesmen leaders who had a set of ideas about how government should function in order to achieve a COMMON ASPIRATION.

Politicians are concerned with gaining political power in order to achieve a certain agenda. Such agenda may initially be patriotic, but over time, it is usually transformed into a selfish & elitist agenda. Statesmen, on the other hand, are concerned with having an agenda that...

will increase the political gains of their State or country. The difference is clear.
A new modern nation is born out of ROBUST IDEOLOGIES that define a healthy relationship between its citizens, between its independent constituent units, & between those units & the government.

A people-oriented constitution needs citizens who'll sit at the seat of brotherhood, & fashion out a system of rights, responsibilities, & governance that work for their progress. This initial step in the birth of a nation can NEVER be achieved by politicians in political parties

...without the need for so much bureaucracy. That was the case of The US in their early years post-independence. The new constitution was ratified in 1788, and by 1789 a set of 10 Amendments was already created, famously known as the Bill of Rights, which was ratified in 1791.

When you consider that there were no telecommunication and modern transportation systems, it was an extremely rapid process. The 11th and 12th Amendments were created in 1794 and 1803 respectively, in response to new challenges that were not previously envisaged.

Quick and easy changes come with high political will. Politicians are famous for only acting swiftly in matters that threaten their selfish political interests. Another reason why the initial stages of this nation's rebirth shall be CITIZEN-LED not Government-led.