Opinion: Potentiality Digest: Tribute to Dr Obadiah Mailafia

By Sodeeq Abdulakeem Sulyman

Every soul shall taste death…the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities.” – Surah Aal-e-Imran: 185.

Monday is a day I always anticipate to experience because of the kind of intellectual explorations I engaged in, in order to nourish my own intellectual firmament and maturation. This is as a result of the various newspaper articles written by distinguished intellectuals like Sam Omatseye (The Nation); Alex Otti (ThisDay); Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Tope Popoola, Amb. Ademola Adeoye (The Nigerian Tribune) and the now late Dr Obadiah Mailafia (The Nigerian Tribune and the Punch newspapers).

From the list of the renowned personalities I mentioned, the late Dr Obadiah Mailafia is one, whose intellectual disquisitions and explication always leave me in sheer amazement. Dr Mailafia was an Economist who combined intellect with brilliance to relay his views to the public, without holding any restitution regardless of whose ox is gored! He was a man of sound conviction and principles whose foundations were built on the ideologies of the great philosophers of the Classics and Renaissance.

With the short and simple descriptions I have presented on the personality of Dr Mailafia, I was saddened yesterday (Sunday, 19th September, 2021), when I heard the news of the shocking and sudden demise of his. I was devastated to confirm that one of the sages that I hold respect for their views, positions and arguments on both national and international politics, economic and sociocultural affairs and reforms lives no more!

As the loss of Dr Mailafia’s great soul perches my mind, and troubles my heart, I deem it necessary for myself to pen this tribute, to join his colleagues, mentors and protégés around the world who will be pouring encomiums on the lifetime of Dr Mailafia. For me, this is a choice that was so easy for me to make, because Dr Mailafia used his moral, religious, political and ideological infirmities and proclivities to objectivised his views on any subject matter he wishes to discuss. No doubt, if you lay your hands on anything written by Dr Mailafia, you will be left with no choice than to commend his panache and astuteness.

Dr Mailafia was a man I firmly believed that I am going to meet him one day. But now that I am in emotional torrent because of the void Dr Mailafia’s demise will create in the space of our nation building, most especially now that we are in urgent and serious need of his technocratic and bureaucratic acumen, as a trained Librarian, Author and voracious Humanist, I don’t joke with quotes and wise sayings of anybody I read their works. Dr Mailafia’s point of views occupied a portion of my quote bank.

Hence, I am humbly sharing some quotes and wise sayings of Dr Mailafia with you. I hope the few ones I am sharing will affirm to you the depth of Dr Mailafia’s eloquence as a monumental and topnotch scholar whose kind is rare in this era. Excerpt:

Every leader is limited by his education, innate ability, mindset and unique circumstances.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Democracies, if truth be told, do not die because of violent interventions. They die because of daily acts of lawlessness and impunity; because of extremism devoid of restraint and forbearance, because of disloyalty to the nation by leaders and citizens.” – Obadiah Mailafia

In a country of such diversity, ethnic and religious cleavages can easily be exploited by unscrupulous elites to inflame latent tensions, leading to inter-communal violence.” – Obadiah Mailafia

The 1999 constitution is a fraud. Nobody knows who wrote it. In good hands, people can live with even bad constitutions. But in the hands of closet Jihadists, it represents the triumph of tyranny.” – Obadiah Mailafia

The highest wisdom of statecraft is to know that even the saint will occasionally get his hands dirty.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Technocrats focus on getting the right things done; politicians focus on getting the right things in tune with the popular will. Politics, after all, is the art of the possible.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Nations are not impersonal abstractions. They are the collective outcomes of individual creativity, vision and purpose.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Nations that flourish are those that continually reinvent themselves in light of domestic and changing world conditions. Those that fail to reform will atrophy and die.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Great states are not products of chance. They are products of imagination, creativity and purpose-driven leadership.” – Obadiah Mailafia

In our 21st century, national power is determined by population, territory, landmass, economic prowess, technological capability and military might. National glory is an important, albeit unquantifiable, element, in that equation. National glory is about prestige, national reputation and aura.” – Obadiah Mailafia

A good economist, in my view, must be a leader who knows the price of everything as well as the value of the most important things that matter for humanity and civilisation.” – Obadiah Mailafia

Dr Mailafia was an embodiment of excellence and distinction. His story will continue to resonate to both the present generation and posterity as a beacon of hope and advocate of social justice. He was a rare leader that lived to exemplify the words of Simon Sinek that “There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influence. Those who lead inspire us.”

Dear Dr Mailafia, I can categorically confirm to the world that your intellectual gumption always pushes me beyond my limits. As you joined your ancestors, I am taking courage to accept your death as inevitable through your patriotism, intellectual devotion to change the narrative of the Black race and drive changes by deploying confidence, compassion and capabilities. I join everyone around the world to salute your soul. You have lived well to be accommodated to the pantheon of noble Nigerians.

I extol your virtues. Rest well my Master of unrealistic epiphany.