Prof. Oyewale Tomori’s name is now well-known among many Nigerians. The revered scholar has expanded his image not only as a world-renowned virologist, but also as an ardent Nigerian patriot. Prof. Tomori sobbed at an Abuja Summit on December 6, 2021, for the Nigerian state’s numerous missed possibilities for national greatness and the dwindling likelihood of national salvation. Prof. Tomori’s public emotion should be interpreted as a profound metaphor for viewing Nigeria’s future through the lens of depression. When the ancient elders of Israel saw the duplicate of Solomon’s Temple, which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, they were moved to tears by the feeble contrast of greatness. Tomori’s tears were unquestionably a patriot’s sorrow for the shadow of what Nigeria has failed to be. This is the same Nigeria that gave him the opportunity to become the world-class genius that he is now. Nigeria is an emotional narrative, as evidenced by Tomori’s cerebral development trajectory compared to what we have today. Who wouldn’t have wept?

There’s more to that public display of passion than meets the eye. Emotion isn’t only about tears. “Your intellect may be confused,” says Roger Ebert, the American film critic. “But your emotions will never lie to you.” What did Prof. Tomori’s tears tell us? Has Prof. Tomori reached a point of resignation? Has his indebtedness to his country reached an absurd level? Many prominent Nigerians have expressed concern about the future of the Nigerian state. Chief Obafemi Awolowo presented Nigeria as a “mere geographical expression” that he attempted to rule with his democratic socialism ideology, which we have yet to understand. The Nigeria Project’s central goal is to ensure that Nigerians have a sense of belonging in Nigeria in ways that transcend the mere geographic expression to a full-fledged civic nationalism in which we all believe. This did not happen. Awolowo’s heart must have been bleeding to death. Chief Bola Ige also reached the point of “siddon look,” a deep and dissatisfied resignation with all things. However, the siddon glance is a common attitude among Nigerians. The harsh experience of infrastructure failure has taught us this approach. The 89 million Nigerians who live below the poverty line would understand both Ige’s’siddon look’ and Prof. Tomori’s tears. In their own circumstances, they mourn for their very lives. Wole Soyinka’s judgment of generational failure is a more comprehensive appraisal of Nigeria’s current state. The idea that Nigeria has failed to tap into its generational capital, first expressed in 1984 and then reiterated 35 years later in 2019, must have stemmed from a deep source of emotional turmoil.

For me, Tomori’s tears are a direct translation of Princeton Lyman, the former US ambassador to Nigeria, deconstructing Nigeria’s greatness. In his 2017 presentation titled “The Nigerian State and US Strategic Interest,” Lyman selected every factor that is considered to be the foundation of Nigeria’s greatness and attacked its importance in tangible terms. It no longer makes sense to celebrate Nigeria’s status as Africa’s most populated country when the Nigerian state has continually failed not only to capitalize on that population strength, but also to ease Nigerians’ infrastructure suffering. According to him, Nigeria’s contributions to continental emancipation are now “history.” And this is because Nigeria is no longer a key actor in the continent. South Africa and Ghana are more important players for us. And oil is no longer a comparative advantage, as many other nations now produce oil, and Nigeria’s former consumers are looking for alternatives. In essence, Nigeria is rapidly becoming irrelevant not only to the United States, but also on the continent. Proclaiming the Nigerian state as a crippled behemoth would be an understatement of how far we have fallen in importance.

And Lyman’s most severe critique is directed at the Nigerian wealthy “Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they have…: disgraceful lack of infrastructure, the growing problem of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy….” So we come full circle back to where we started. Nigeria is complicated since her elites are involved in its complex state. Nigeria is on the verge of disaster, and it is up to the elite to guide the country. The destiny of a state is frequently deducible. And at this point, emotion will not suffice. As much as one sympathizes with Prof. Tomori’s anguish over how the Nigeria that gave him the giant intellect has failed to make the destinies of millions of Nigerian youths a reality, tears have little place in the hard sociological and sociopolitical understanding of how to get Nigeria from where she is now to where those potentialities are realized. Resignation is a defeatist attitude. Any elite who wants to stand akimbo and give the’siddon look’ has effectively violated the essence of what it means to be an elite in post-independence Nigeria. No elite can avoid the charge of culpability in Nigeria’s current situation. We’re all involved, from politicians to civil society.

We’ve all heard the slogan “Organize; don’t agonize.” National organisation entails a variety of activities. The first for me is the importance of faith and hope over tears—except that tears crystallize into a resolve to keep believing. What Nigeria requires now is faith in the prospect of what can happen, despite its history of failures since independence and its current condition of pessimism. I am a believer in Nigeria as a matter of spiritual confirmation. And if anyone has had some bad and depressing experiences with Nigeria’s institutional frameworks and dynamics, it’s me. I’ve dealt with dysfunction and its consequences. I have an idea why Nigeria isn’t working. I understand where we are as an institution and where we should go. So I still have hope. My hope has context. According to Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, “Hope is not the same as optimism.” It is not the confidence that something will turn out good, but the assurance that something makes sense, regardless of the outcome.” Nigeria makes sense to me, despite its current position. And that is the source of my hope—and optimism.

Accepting that Nigeria and her destiny make sense needs much more than mere patriotism or sentiment. It emphasizes the importance of fighting for what makes that sense. Fighting for Nigeria means taking her seriously. For the political class, it implies taking her seriously enough to commit elite suicide. By “elite suicide,” I mean the courage to reject the patronage sensibility and predatory attitude that the Nigerian political class is notorious for and instead join with Nigerians to get the country back on track. What distinguishes a wealthy society from a poor one is the political class’s decisions; it is the type of politics it engages in. The patriotism of Nigeria’s political class is questionable. It is a patriotism financed by the commonwealth in ways that harm Nigerians’ well-being. It is a patriotism that takes advantage of institutional flaws and fissures for personal gain.

Nigeria’s greatness requires more than emotive displays and weeping memories of the past. It takes more than a resigned mentality to allow evil actors to infiltrate national politics. Nigeria demands collective and patriotic acts that establish participatory democracy as the foundation for good administration based on effective institutions. Nigeria is a magnificent country, and its future depends on individuals who perceive it and struggle to make it a reality. However, the future is not something we expect to happen.

On the contrary, the future of the Nigerian state and people will be determined by the deliberate and foresighted decisions made by the political elite beginning now. This is the transformational elite nationalism that the Founding Fathers of the United States established many years ago, laying the groundwork for a great nation. Lee Kuan Yew’s brand of nationalism is responsible for Singapore’s rise to first-world status. Nigeria requires this form of nationalism in order to become a big global participant in the twenty-first century’s fourth industrial revolution.