In that book, he wrote: “Whatever specific issue or subject they may deal with all these lectures and articles have a single and common engagement. They are all about the liberation of the people of Nigeria from western imperialist domination at the national and international levels.”
Dr. Bala Usman’s activities as an academic and activist were motivated by his ardent commitment to the complete political and economic liberation of Nigeria as the precursor for the emancipation of Africa and the black man everywhere.
Ideas he espoused over the decades apply with ever-greater force today. Here I give clear warning.
I do not aim to pay gentle tribute to man so that you may politely applaud once I sit down. Then we all depart upon our merry way as if nothing profound awaits our economic future.
Or, worse, as if the works of Bala Usman are intellectually stimulating but have no practical application to the situation at hand. I reject that notion.
The truth always has relevance. Meanwhile there are many great untruths this nation must erase before they turn our desire for a better Nigeria into something counterfeit.
Unless we embrace the truths that shaped the prescriptions of Bala Usman, Nigeria will remain a land of false mirrors, where we look at ourselves but see something else, a land of past potential but with its future gone astray.
Look, we have expended much too much money to purchase the poverty we now endure. Poverty should be much cheaper than what we suffered to pay for it.
Whether his thoughts on the Economic Crisis facing Nigeria, or the Manipulation of Religion for political advantage or his analysis against foreign economic oppression as espoused in his stance against the IMF loan in 1985, Bala Usman traded only in truth and honesty at a time when neither honesty nor truth was the expected currency of our political discourse.
For decades, Nigeria has danced in close confines with economic disaster. In the past, higher oil prices allowed us to dodge the worst.
We have survived but not thrived. Improvised but not planned. Spent but not invested. Laughed, drank and feasted but did not build, construct or maintain. Now, Nigeria has collided into a wall, merciless and immovable. The present downturn in oil prices may be more than a slump in the business cycle.
Global economic, geopolitical and technological currents suggest the price drop may be a long-lasting secular development.
To maintain market share and influence on the global market, Saudi Arabia keeps production high and prices low.
Should Saudi Arabia slacken production in a material way, North American production may escalate and even seek to capture a share of the export market from Saudi and Russia.
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