Let us gather the bullshit. I mean all the bullshit in the street. If you live in one of the less trespassed areas in Nigeria then perhaps this article is arguably further away from home for you than for many others but feel free to participate, there is enough bullshit to go round. One of the most provable truths of man’s existence is that at the heart of every problem lies a practical attainable solution which more often than not represents opportunity. Sometimes it is merely a small matter of finding the compromise and the willingness to consider flipping the script.
The Nomadic Cattle farmers popularly known as ‘Fulani Herdsmen’ for the longest time imaginable (at least since the amalgamation, which is when we started keeping score), have been the poster boys of controversy relating to grazing control. Some of the more severe issues involve the damaging of crops. While that is a slightly more complex problem to solve, there is also the problem of pollution which is a less “politically sexy” cause but is just as destructive if not more. All we hear about are the farmers. But if you stay anywhere near the frequently trespassed surroundings in many of our cities, you would agree with me that it never makes for a pretty sight when you walk down the street and see several piles of fresh bullshit strategically dumped along your way on a hot afternoon. It gets even more real when you need ninja skills to avoid the bullshit on your way to the kiosk down the street on a dark drizzly night.
Granted it is annoying. I know this from personal experience and I cannot describe the frustration that comes with dipping your slip-on clad feet in one of those. However, on the flip side if you consider the market value of the bullshit, you can begin to see a picture emerge of economic wastage and the role you and I could play in milking the potential benefits of the silver lining wrapped around the cattle grazing issue.
What If we had a system for tracking the cyclical pattern of the movements of the herdsmen? we can track the bullshit, bag it and turn it into compost for growing crops or biogas for generating energy. Think of it, for every herd of cattle and their shepherd, you can have two or three attendants who collect after them and deposit the dungs at collection points. A 1kg bag of cow dung retails at around 700 Naira and there is no question as to whether or not the demand is there. Of course this does not make the news but Nigeria is currently following closely behind Somalia on the hunger crisis with a staggering 1.8+ million people on the verge of famine, so yes we do have more than sufficient “demand” to necessitate an increase in food production.
My point is that we have numerous means of solving our most pressing issues particularly the ones relating to the stomach. Whoever spoke of stomach infrastructure is no jester. The man simply cannot think of higher purpose if he remains unfed and uncertain of feeding himself in the future. We need to tell ourselves the truth right now. Not all of the answers are at the office desk. There exists a world of wasting opportunity, potential and adventure beyond the suit and tie and beyond what meets the eye. You could start collecting garbage and animal waste today and the next minute you are producing biogas that could power a small processing set up to set you on the path to financial independence.
We have been conditioned to live within this delusion of a perfect life of glamour, caution and comfort. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty, quite literally or challenge the status quo. So we turn our noses up at the potential opportunities that are staring us right in the face. We look for every possible reason and excuse. That is the only time we task our brains to dig deep beneath the surface, is to find excellent excuses as they always are so very excellent. Our favourite one in this part of the world is “Government”. We pollute our environment without a care in the world and then when it becomes unbearable to live in the filth we scream about Government’s ineptitude. This is not to make a case for the failing institutions of government in these parts but really, it doesn’t take a government contractor to sanitize the streets, keep them tidy and illuminated at night.
All it takes to achieve these things is collective commitment. Perhaps if we stopped looking at our country as a halfway house for in-between immigration then people might take more care to see to the sanitization of their immediate surroundings. They might even find sense in deriving all round value from their environment. There is a reason nobody seems to have the time to grow vegetables in their backyard. We would rather seal the soil with interlocking concrete than plant vegetable gardens when all you need to get from your gate to your house is a small drive way and a walk way. Yet we tear our hair out everyday at the rising cost of food items in the market. There is no reason neighbours cannot come together to build neighbourhood farms, neighbourhood sports and recreation centres, etc. It is not a pipe dream. This current unsustainable, “large scale or no scale” model is the pipe dream!! and we’ve been stuck in it for too long.
If we are to survive what is coming, then I think it is time for the scales to fall and we must begin to see the truth about how information and technology have created a more flexible world where as individuals we have more power at our our finger tips and as a community we can achieve so much more than we previously thought possible. The question is how many are willing to take on the bullshit and make it work for good?
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