What 50 represents

Oka Obono

Every number is ultimately a mystical symbol. Each represents something special in transient terms. Numbers embody potentiality. They are summaries of cycles but their possibilities may not be realized without the exercise of human agency. Nigeria turns 50. What does that mean? What does it signify to be 50 at a time like this?

These annual political rites of passage are cycles that influence the lives of individuals, groups, communities and nations. In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell makes the point that the timing of one’s birth within a given calendar year – whether early or late – can create structures of opportunities that could predict success or failure. It indicates that, although numbers are types of statistics, their significance is nuanced. Statistics are condensed accounts of complex reality, compressing processes that engage discourse at multiple levels.

Numbers are the building blocks of political and economic understanding, the basis of social comprehension. In line with this, some numerologies hold that the material world is illusory and structured in continuous systems of seven, which is taken to be the number of spiritual perfection or the number of God’s seal. In the Jewish tradition, any central point can project itself in six opposite directions. In that system, the word for seven (“sheva”) has similar characters with “savea”, which refers to satiation and signifies a realm in which the full expansion of all possibilities is realised. Because it comes after seven strings of seven (or 49), therefore, the number 50 represents the capacity to overcome the past and enter new planes of higher existence. Hence, it is associated with national rebirth or metamorphosis and provides a context for deep reflection.

What does it mean for a pariah Nigeria to turn 50? Perhaps not much, if predictions of ancient Mayan numerology are anything to go by. Apart from the scale of its temple pyramids, the Mayan civilization is remembered today for its prediction that the world would come to an end in December, 2012. Many analysts take this prognostication seriously, especially as they detect connections between it and Judaeo-Christian prophecies of an impending apocalypse. If these predictions hold, then some may argue that it is futile to pursue greatness since those who should have observed it would perish anyway. However, the point must be made that greatness is pursued not so that others will see it but so that we can realise our destinies, and recognize what we were meant to be.

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Nonetheless, there is some ambivalence in the fact of Nigeria turning 50 at a moment of such opportunity and pointlessness. The thrill of possible transcendence is overshadowed by the awareness that its achievement has come too late. In 50, living entities possess the ability to transcend history. It is the point at which political infancy and petty kleptocracy can be overcome. Underlying the Jewish celebration of Shavuot, which occurs 50 days after the Passover, is the understanding that a nation might start out from the humblest and most despicable of beginnings to rise above these negative circumstances and attain positive renown. In principle, Shavuot is the occasion for becoming something bigger than this noxious present and larger than life itself. Is Nigeria listening?

This is why the 50th year is identified with the theme of restoration. In ancient Israel, it would be announced with trumpet blasts from rams’ horns, from where we get the name “Jubilee”. Slaves would be emancipated, captives set free. Corruption would cease and justice reign. In Nigeria at 50, what does this represent? Many souls have been abducted for ritual sacrifice. They languish in forest enclaves, awaiting an uncomfortable fate. Should our jubilee not commit itself to their emancipation, as well as the emancipation of many Nigerians “kidnapped” by poverty and suffering from a harsh socioeconomic predicament?

This should be the season for introspection. Should we rate our lives only by our flag independence from Britain? Should “independence” not be celebrated more as marking the end of a truncated pre-colonial civil experience? Should we not contemplate a return to a system of values in which public thievery and criminal non-performance attracted strong communal sanctions?

Rather than reflect on these things, our leaders threw a meaningless bash in London to celebrate Nigeria’s 50th birthday. Try imagining Obama and his cabinet rushing off to the UK to celebrate American independence. Not possible. What type of “independence” does one celebrate in the home of a former captor? What need was there to provide him with fresh evidence of a slavish mentality? The dividends of this jubilee should be realised in poor Nigerian homes, not the lavish hotels of London metropolis.

This 50th anniversary is a moment occurring at the confluence of opportunity and waste. We would either use it to push for pervasive revolutionary change or lose this chance again – as we have these past 49 years.