The world is rapidly changing right before our eyes. The Cornelius van Der Bilts of this age i.e the Bill gates and co of the dot.com era have paved the way and laid the foundations for the new set of industrialists ready to take the world….literally take it. DISCLAIMER!! THIS IS NOT AN ARTICLE ABOUT BITCOIN. Yes the blockchain technology is awesome and revolutionary, cryptocurrencies are the future of money and yes you should invest your life savings and thank me later with a handsome cheque.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me proceed to the matter at hand. I watched a presentation today that opened my eyes to a possibility that has pretty much been staring us in the face, and has been a sort of pseudo reality for most countries in the third world but has never been quite so neatly articulated or attempted, at least not so directly. We all know that multinational corporations have pretty much ruled Africa for the past three centuries. I do not want to go into the details but if you are a Nigerian and you paid attention during history class you must have heard of The Royal Niger Company. They operate under a different name today. Impress me by guessing it right in the comments section. A brief history of the RNC is that they were in fact the first form of foreign influence to claim a “legitimate” control and frankly ownership of what was then the lucrative parts (south) of what we now know today as Nigeria as early as 1886. While they made astronomical profits from exploiting our resources, we can say one thing for sure, they did contribute in no small part to leading us out of “the dark ages”.
So fast forward 100 and some years, The RNC has given way to some other big names and the world is now a global village, still controlled largely by corporations whose powers go far beyond what George Taubman Goldie and his mates could have imagined. Or maybe they did imagine it. Who knows… Anyway I am sure you are wondering who in God’s name is Bitcoin Jesus (pun intended) and what he has to do with anything. Well as early as 2011 this guy called Roger Ver like most revolutionaries over the course of history, projected himself many years into the future and and saw what most of us now wish we did. Potential. He became obsessed with digital currency and soon enough he made what is known as the first significant investment in bitcoin (Again I promise, this is NOT about bitcoin). At the time the currency was valued at less than 5 dollars to one bitcoin. As of today one bitcoin is valued at over 5,600 dollars... as in U.S dollars, and it is still rising. Of course he became a multi millionaire if not billionaire and he did what most of us in this part of the world only dream of doing. He renounced his citizenship (of the United States) and Launched a full on assault campaign on the global banking industry, calling them out for their atrocities to mankind, investing even more in bitcoin and talking to everyone who cared to listen about the power that lay within this tour de force as bill gates called it and thus earning himself the sobriquet “Bitcoin Jesus”.
Roger has since started on a new campaign called The Free Society (https://www.freesociety.com/) Their goal is to create what he describes as a geographical space without a central government or any form of central authority or control. A sort of utopia if you will. He and his fellow libertarians have been speaking to a number of countries (so far no names have been mentioned) trying to buy land along with the sovereignty attached to it, with the aim of building this Free Society in as many places in the world as they can possibly get land and sovereignty. I am not going to get into the details because I do not have them. I only watched his presentation and it gave me what I think is an idea that could lift many parts of our country out of decadence. Of course we say it often enough, mostly jokingly but truly what if we actually can sell off this country for what it’s worth and forget the amalgamation and the entirety of this geographical expression along with it’s mindless sentiments? We can start with the least economically viable states. Sell them off to Roger and friends to build whatever they want and resettle the inhabitants. One thing for sure that money will go a long way to service our national debt and by encouraging them to use the locals for construction and other work, will solve a significant chunk of the unemployment crisis. Federal Govt can sell the resource rich areas to the highest bidder and we can use the cash to develop the infrastructure for whatever is left of our country, invest in education…the real kind, not this travesty, and still have some cash left for the big boys and girls upstairs to loot. At least with the “Free Society” as they call it in our own back yard, they won’t need to go as far as Paris to buy overpriced apartments and we can at least see where all the money is going.
This might seem like an unrealizable dream or even a joke today but as we have seen and as many generations before us have seen, there is nothing impossible beyond conception. While this is still in the early stages, it is not an idea that is far fetched from reality. Our ancestors would never have imagined 500 years ago, that a time will come when the lands which they fought and bled over will be commandeered and restructured to suit the wishes of foreign powers. Our adamance not to learn from history might yet prove defining for the future generations to come. The world is advancing at a much quicker pace than we could imagine and it will only be a matter of time before we are cast further beneath the thumb of oppression. But the times have changed and the world is more connected. The knowledge we need to catch up with the rest of the world is available for free at our fingertips and all that is left now is for us to collectively push the right buttons to drive the change which we all desire.
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