The interview of Patrick Wilmot by Kabiru A. Yusuf published in the Daily Trust Sunday, is one of the best interviews in the Nigerian media space in recent times. It was calm, deep and insightful. Both the interviewer and interviewee in the framing of questions and answers showed class and cerebral profundity. Within a few hours of reading the interview, its power and potency as a commentary on social change struck me with its massive appeal and circulation on social media platforms. In less than three hours of reading the interview, I received 11 copies of the interview on my WhatsApp, including that from a friend of mine who sent it from Berlin.
I have read three of Wilmot’s books – ‘Ideology and National Consciousness’, ‘Sociology: A New Introduction’ and ‘Apartheid and African Liberation’. As soon as you open the pages of these books and begin to read, you are suddenly gripped by an intellectual spirit and the radiance of his brilliance glows over the head of your mind. He is simply an ideas man, the intellectuals’ intellectual, and original thinker.
Recently, I have turned my gaze to contemporary African fiction; if all things were equal as the economists would say, and I dare say, they are not equal, I would have turned to Amazon to order his two novels.
That said; he touched on striking fundamental issues. I will look at five. Firstly, is the role of the intellectual in society. Intellectualism is a calling; and the primary duty of the intellectual is to the society. The intellectual, it is, who simplifies complex matters that affect society, loosens the grips of the cobwebs of superstition and ignorance and falsehood on the thinking process and by so doing it is set on a sustained path of dynamic and progressive development. For instance, on the Southern African problem, he said, “the analysis of the African society, by the Americans and Europeans was very primitive.”
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To date, Western analyses of Africa are filtered through their cultural lenses. African intellectuals must rise to the occasion, be vigilant and combat-ready for the ongoing cultural warfare tagged globalisation. In girding the loins toward this task, the African intellectual must set sight on the target with every iota of focus.
There are bound to be distractions and betrayals on the way, but such distractions and betrayals should be treated as mere irritations and nuisances. Such is the enterprise of intellectual calling.
Secondly, is the place of multidisciplinary in contemporary scholarship and social thinking. Until this interview, scarcely did I know that Wilmot’s disciplinary fort is philosophy. With a PhD in Philosophy, he was given a place in sociology and did exceedingly and admiringly well. If it were Nigeria of today, I can wager my last bottom dollar that he would have in all likelihood not have been given the appointment. And the reason is simple, he doesn’t hold a PhD in Sociology; he is not a sociologist!
The Nigerian academe is so territorially fixated. There is a lack of understanding that cross-disciplinarity/interdisciplinary/multidisciplinarity is the new intellectual gold. Disciplinary boundaries are fast collapsing and giving way to hitherto unimagined scholarly collaborations. The Nigerian university system should imbibe and flung open its doors to the values of cross-disciplinarity/multidisciplinarity/interdisciplinarity as the contemporary global best practice in academic research.
Thirdly, the issue of theory in analysis. Just as we alluded to disciplinary fixation, there appears to be a fixation on theory; an obsession with theoretical framework of analysis. And in most cases, the provenance of such theories is from dead white scholars. Africa is generally visualised as afflicted with a theoretical drought.
Lest I be mistaken, I am not against theory, but we must cultivate what Professor Mvendaga Jibo, my teacher, sees as theoretical and methodological eclecticism. We must re-examine our idea of theory and theoretical framework. In any piece of social analysis, there are hints of theories that the theoretical imagination can construct.
Fourthly, the role of the university in the development process. Wilmot, aphoristically opined that “you can’t have a successful country without successful universities.” No truism about the development imperative of the university can be more apt in clear terms, the argument is that the present level of development of Nigeria cannot be insulated from our kind of university system.
The National Universities Commission (NUC), the universities and all stakeholders must re-examine the role of the university in lifting Nigeria out of the current trap of poverty and underdevelopment.
Fifthly, and lastly, the need for visionary leadership. M. D. Yusuf saw something in Patrick Wilmot at a time when most people hardly knew his potential. This is the power of foresightedness and visionary leadership. He was not concerned about his religion, region, race, creed, ideological affiliations. He saw something in Wilmot and wanted that thing for Nigeria. As if Britain was waiting in the wings, timing when we will throw out a thing whose value we didn’t understand and cherish, as soon as Patrick Wilmot departed, the British government was on hand to cradle and cuddle him.
As Wilmot stated; “When I was kicked out, they wanted to take me to Jamaica but they had to go through Britain. They contacted British immigration and they contacted the Home Secretary; and Prime Minister Thatcher herself said, “You better do whatever he wants. If he wants to stay in this country, let him stay because if we do something to him the repercussions will not just be in Nigeria but all over the world and British interest will be damaged.” Leadership at work.
Patrick Wilmot is a big in-law to Nigerians but wouldn’t be coming home soon to see them because of so much wahala. Soonest these problems will be a thing of the past!
Till we meet then, happy 81st birthday, Dr. Patrick Wilmot.
Pine wrote from Makurdi, Benue State
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