Ownership vs Victimhood - by Tomi Walker

In an earlier article, I asked who was responsible for the failure of African states. In it, I argue that if anyone is to be blamed for our current state of affairs, it is Africa's intellectual class. The poor are too weak and uneducated to create any sustained change. The rich are too comfortable and the current systems work for them. They have little incentive to risk their status in pursuit of a change that might not benefit them. The intellectual class however has the knowledge, organizational ability, networks, and resources to influence society. Africa's intellectual class has the tools for change but has shown little of the imagination, long-term strategic thinking, long-term organizing, industriousness, and teamwork needed to create a new world. Given this pretext, the question is; how do we get Africa's intellectual class to rise to the occasion of organizing itself into a vehicle of change and transformation? It brings us to an attribute I call extreme ownership. I watched a video a few days back and in it the narrator stated how housing and neighborhood associations in the USA work with local governments to help enforce housing regulations, building codes, and zoning laws. I found it interesting that the housing associations were essentially an extra layer of governance at the grassroots and ensured that their communities were well maintained. This is extreme ownership; people actively participating in ensuring their neighborhood is held up to standard. How many of us are active in our neighborhood associations? How many of our neighborhood associations are used to ensure that the quality of the neighborhoods is maintained at an exceptional level. How many of us donate to causes we believe in? Or volunteer our time to causes we believe in. We Africans aren't raised with the belief that our actions are consequential and that the world around us results from our actions and inactions. This leads us to the opposite end of the spectrum of ownership which is victimhood. Most of us believe we are victims of the societies that we live in and there is little we can do to change our societies.  But the gag here is that when millions of people feel powerless, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The key to moving our societies forward is having millions of empowered and motivated intellectuals take ownership of their neighborhoods and communities in meaningful ways. If you're reading this, there is a high chance you fall into the bucket of people with the education and intellectual capacity to create meaningful change around you. I hope you find it in you to take ownership, be empowered, and realize that you're not a victim but a victor.

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