NIGERIA: THE WAKANDA THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) depicts a fictional nation in the eastern part of Africa that shares borders with countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan. They primarily speak English, Xhosa, Igbo and maybe Swahili because of its geographical location. Wakanda is a country with very rich cultures, different ethnic groups and also religions. It is ruled by monarch figure known as the ”Black Panther” who is the Armed Forces Commander, Chief Security Officer and Prime Minister of the state. The Black Panther oversees the “Dora Milaje” which is an army of highly trained women who serves as special forces for the nation.
Wakanda is not like your contemporary African nation. While its African counterparts were struggling with problems such as political instability, human rights violation, ethnic tensions, poor infrastructure, famine and the rest, It was building its nation to be something else, something different, something extra-ordinary. The first Black Panther Trailer movie shows two characters discussing about the nation. Ulysees Klaue (played by Andy Serkis) - a black market arms dealer who had his hand cut off by Ultron in the MCU movie Avengers: Age of Ultron while the second character is CIA agent Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman). Both Klaue and Ross were in a conversation where Klaue asked Ross what he knew about Wakanda. “It’s a third world Country. Shepherds, textiles, cool outfits ” Ross replied. Klaue laughed it off and tried enlightening him that everything he knows about Wakanda is a fallacy. Klaue referred to Wakanda as “El Dorado: The Lost City Of Gold”. His response was somewhat a metaphorical exaggeration but to me it is quite an understatement.
The conversation between Klaue and Ross contains something interesting. Klaue goes on to clarify that Wakanda only masquerades as a third world country when in fact it is the most technologically advanced state on the surface of the planet. The disguise of the country is a perfect cover, like who would suspect that an African country has advanced technology ? . You already know the answer to that question. From Ross’ earlier response, you could see the stereotypical view of an African nation by individuals from developed countries. Was Ross’ wrong to think that way? , No is the answer. It is what he has grown up to know but that’s what makes this narrative exciting – nobody knows.


“ The disguise of the country is a perfect cover, like who would suspect that an African country has advanced technology ? .”



While Wakanda’s African neighbor states are still being tagged developing or underdeveloped, it is advanced. Some nations like USA, Japan, UK, Germany & Russia are regarded by today’s metrics to be developed because they have high standards of living, basic infrastructure, social amenities and technology. Most African nations do not have all these, hence the tag developing or underdeveloped. Let’s look at Wakanda. It is said to be advanced. Advanced is what I would like to describe as “development prime”. In real sense, it is far much more developed than the so-called developed nations. From my research of Wakanda in the MCU, its technology is said to be 100-200 years ahead of what we have now. This means your fancy iPhone X is like scrap metal to the indigenes of Wakanda. In more humorous fashion of describing this, the world’s fastest computer right now is just as fast as a Wakandan micro-wave. That is, the fastest computer has just enough processing power to get a dish of egusi soup hot. This rhetoric might seem hilarious but it is true.
Let’s discuss how Wakanda became what they are. It is said that thousands of years ago, a meteorite from outer space crashed on earth. It contained a fictional metal known as vibranium which is the hardest metal on earth. The Wakandans discovered the amazing physical and spiritual properties of this metal and it was utilized to its maximum potential to develop very advanced technology. In Wakanda, vibranium is everywhere from their weapons and vehicles right up to their ankara fabric for their attires. The use of vibranium has become part of their culture and lifestyle while it is scarce outside the country. The rest of the world do not have 1% of the amount of vibranium Wakanda does. It is in fact the most valuable natural resource in the world up to the extent a piece of vibranium that is the size and weight of 150CL table water is worth billions of dollars and Wakanda has an ocean of it. They sell it in little quantities and use it to invest in their people. By default Wakandans are very smart people, T’challa – the current King of Wakanda and Black Panther has a Ph.D, his arch rival Erik Killmonger had 2 Ph.Ds before he was 25 years old. T’challa’s 16 year old sister is a genius inventor. It seems Wakandans are born into a society that pressures them to be intellectually sufficient to handle the demands of such a technologically advanced society, this means that having lots of degrees in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) fields is just very normal. Another factor that contributed to Wakanda’s greatness is its ethnic and tribal diversity. The various tribes of Wakanda may have cultural differences, different languages, dialects and social structures but they all agree on one thing which is “Wakanda Forever”. This phrase may be vague but in it lays a philosophy that states that Wakanda must move forward no matter what. They do not allow their differences stand in the way of progressing.



“It seems Wakandans are born into a society that pressures them to be intellectually sufficient to handle the demands of such a technologically advanced society”





We have discussed much about Wakanda but let’s now focus on my country Nigeria relative to the fictional nation. Nigeria is not really much different. It is blessed nation in the west side of Africa. Nigeria is the largest black nation in the world by population. We sometimes refer to Nigeria as the “giant of Africa” but how much have we done to justify this title? Not much really. Nigeria is much more complex, diverse than Wakanda. It is a country of over 250 ethnic groups and is believed to have a population of over 180 million people (2017 estimate). Nigeria is as blessed as the fictional Wakanda in terms of natural and human resources if not much more. I am not insinuating that we should have developed technology that puts us 100 years ahead, I am actually questioning why we are behind the league of developed nations when we have a lot more potential to be ahead.
Nigeria and Wakanda can be compared on quite equal grounds. They are both African countries but what makes the latter stand out relative to the former? Let us find out. The leadership system of Wakanda is a monarchy while Nigeria is a democratic state. In the movie Black Panther, I observed that Wakanda is quite a liberal society even with its system of government. From the comics, I also observed that it practices socialism in which the government provides for its citizens while Nigeria practices capitalism which is rhetorically described as “every man for himself”. However I am not endorsing socialism as I am a capitalist myself and several factors are responsible for why both nations chose their respective economic philosophy but let us see a great advantage of socialism Wakanda has really exploited. The government sends some Wakandans citizens to the best universities in the world and expects them to come back and use what they have learnt to better improve their society, hence you can see why the average Wakandan has more than one degree – they do not joke with education at all because they see it as a tool to better and improve their society. As I stated earlier their high emphasis on education gives rise to an intellectually sufficient society. In Nigeria, the government has failed to invest in education. It showed in the recent 2018 budget where the budget allocation for education was just 0.71% of the entire budget. The government is blind to see that it will benefit from properly educating its citizens. I quote the Late Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful too you can use to change the world” .This means to change Nigeria for we need to take advantage of education now or we will get further left behind or rather create an intellectually insufficient society. It is not news that Nigerians are very intelligent people as this can be seen in foreign universities where Nigerian students graduate top of the class but the main issue is why we are losing the brains to other countries and this is making our nation stagnant in development. You see that the fictional Wakanda values its citizen’s intellect and this why they are so advanced. The government needs to find to make the citizens of Nigeria feel valued and appreciated for what they give to the nation and this will create the key phrase “Nigeria Forever”.



“This means to change Nigeria for we need to take advantage of education now or we will get further left behind or rather create an intellectually insufficient society”



We have talked about education and its advantages but we have forgotten education is an investment. Quality education needs Quantity funding. Education has a price but we must now discuss where the monetary resources must come from in order to fund it. Money comes from offering value, it comes from offering something needed or wanted. Wakanda’s vibranium is their natural resource and is known to be the hardest metal in the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its hardness, its ability to absorb kinetic energy and a host of other properties to many to mention is the reason why it has so much value. Earlier I did tell how much a piece of vibranium costs. The revenue generated from vibranium sales was used to boost the nation’s basic amenities and infrastructure. You can see that Wakanda can make billions of dollars just by selling a very small and insignificant quantity of vibranium and I am guessing you know what this means, well it means Wakanda must have a humongous Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that I could not estimate. You can observe that there is no room for corruption or nepotism towards utilizing resources. Every resource is channeled towards the progress, betterment and forwardness of the fictional nation but the question now is what is Nigeria’s Vibranium? I will say we have many. We have oil, natural gas, fertile land for agriculture, uranium and most importantly the human resources (the intelligent Nigerians). All these resources and we are still far behind says a lot. The average Nigerian struggles to everyday to make ends meet while standing and threading on a blessed land. The resources we have would have made Nigeria an utopia , a place worth calling home but the opposite is the case. We still struggle with corruption, nepotism, tribalism and religious discrimination and all these stagnates our progress. Wakanda’s tribes all have distinct culture, religion, language and social structure but this does not hinder their vision of making Wakanda better and better. There is little or no corruption as a result of the key phrase “Wakanda Forever” which is much more than a battle cry. Every Wakandan wants the same thing hence why they are so advanced while still staying close to their root culture and africanism. Nigeria exports oil but imports refined oil (petroleum), this is a simple example of selling cassava and buying garri , we import tomatoes, toothpicks, pencils and a whole lot things we ought not to import when we have the resources to produce. The government of both past and present is to be blamed for where Nigeria is today.

Nigeria has to build a future. It is almost too late but not yet and we have to start now. The government needs to the right things at the right time and should be held accountable. Wakanda is not a democracy and I think this where Nigeria has advantage over them. The citizens of Nigeria should be mindful of who they put in power – we need to appoint leaders that put Nigeria first. We need to follow the Wakandan model of investing in natural resources, reap returns and invest back in to human resources who reap intellectual returns and invest it towards the betterment of Nigeria. I know you may say Wakanda is nothing but fiction but the devil is in the detail. I conclude by telling you that if we follow some models of Wakanda and use it to advance our nation, we would in no time have the exclusive rights to honestly describe other nations as shitholes.

Written By Clinton Nzedimma

cc: lalasticlala seun mynd44 ishilove

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May God bless you sir.
May God bless Nigeria and Nigerians.

Habyz:
May God bless you sir.
May God bless Nigeria and Nigerians.

God bless you too sir

ClintonNzedimma:

God bless you too sir

Amen