Dike Chukwumerije is a prolific performance poetry artiste/author passionate about driving positive changes. In this interview with IKENNA OKONKWO, Dike who recently established Dike Chukwumerije Centre (DCC) in Abuja, in line with his drive for impactful ideas, speaks on how Nigerians can unite and make Nigeria great.
Excerpts…
How did you conceptualise the idea of advocating for Nigeria’s positive values and not the usual public condemnation even when you are not and haven’t served as a government official?
I have been on advocacy for a new and better Nigeria over the last 10 years. So, this is a conversation about that advocacy, bringing things in a structured way and into an institution to push them forward. It is something that I have been developing over the years.
What does the structure of this whole advocacy idea represents?
It is a civic education sector to empower people on how to engage. It is a process of bringing about sustainable change in Nigeria, not just winning election where one person goes, another person comes but the system is still the same.
So, how do we change that system?
What we do here is that we have studied the Nigerian system and broken it down in the way Nigerians do things.
All these Chiwachiwa (meaning corrupt tendencies) we do up and down, there are reasons we do it. We have designed an intervention strategies that can effectively change behaviour and mindset. We are also interested in teaching young people about Nigeria and getting them to see Nigeria. A lot of people have a very negative misconception about Nigeria and people believe because they didn’t have all the facts. There are stories about Nigeria that are not told; so, we are telling the whole story so that you can make an informed decision before you write Nigeria off.
Moreover, it is always your country. It’s almost like even if your father is a drunkard, you can’t grow up hating him. You have to appreciate the person for who he or she is. So, Nigeria is your country and always your country. We are really teaching patriotism in a very whole form. This is not about government. Patrotism is not about loving government; it is about being loyalty to the country, but before you can be loyal to your country, you need to know what the country is. So, we are telling people about Nigeria, we revealing the true nature of Nigeria so that you can attach your loyalty and love to your country and that will even help you better when you want to criticise the government. By that, you won’t criticise in a way that looks like you are throwing away the baby with the bath water and end up attacking the country itself. You can criticise the government while building it. These are the young kind of people or activists we want to develop.
How possible is this advocacy bearing in mind that Nigeria is already over 60 years with a fixated mindset?
We are starting with one person at a time. The country has over 200 million people and we have already created community heads and we are going to be having regular programmes so that people can keep coming and going through the year. And as we keep engaging and talking to people and sowing seeds in their hearts, one person will touch another, the other will do same; so, it is going to be community centred and dedicated to spreading this value. It is not one off thing; we are here consistently. We also have plans to engage with the Ministry of Education eventually in order to get some of our contents into their curriculum.
The above picture shows Dike Chukwumerije receiving recognition/appreciate presentation from his first set of DCC students recently
By that, children will begin to learn those thing from teenage age because as much as you know Nigeria is 60, we are still a very young country. Sixty is not old at all. We are still babies growing. Remember that about 40% of modern Nigeria are below 40. So many of the people who are over 30 are not even the majority. The majority are still coming. We are very interested in that young population and we need to start investing in that population and begin to sow those values in their mind, because if people don’t love their country, they won’t be able to fight for it. The kind of fight required to have victory can only be motivated from one with passion for the country and passion for life. So, it is very important for people who actually want to change Nigeria to have passion, not just to be motivated by anger or frustration. Anger and frustration won’t give you stamina but love and passion.
Why do you think Nigerians are against the idea of patriotism?
Why people are resistant to patriotism is the fact that they equate it with being pro-government. That is not what it means. It means you are supporting Nigeria. Nigeria and government are two different things. That is one of the first lessons we teach people here. You have to be clear about what Nigeria is, so we spend a lot of time teaching about the values that actually define our country which our government and politicians many times betray the people. We are more intentional on holding government and ourselves accountable. So, we will keep driving these ideological values through education and advocacy.
What would be your driving force to propel this project?
The greatest challenge which everyone talks about is frustration; that is sowing continuously and not receiving any result. But I’m prepared for that. I intend to be resilient. I grew up doing Marshal Arts, competitions etc, so I mean with the mindset of not giving up. This is something I have committed my life to personally, so I can’t be frustrated out of it. And if you are fortified with the spirit of resilience, the things happening around you cannot do anything to you.
If you throw anything to me, I’m going to keep coming. We are not just relying on government, this is a citizen-led idea. We are not waiting for government to do what we need to do. We only know that it’s important to get it into the academic curriculum and we will keep pushing it. Eventually, it will get their attention. Everything is just time and patience. Apart from our intention to get it to the schools, we are also going to be be using social media. So, we are going to be creating contents like comedy, drama, songs, skits, etc so that in such ways, we would be speaking to the mindset of the people. I’m not not intimidated at all; the worst anyone will get in driving a process is frustration and because of how resilient I am, there would be no looking back.
How much of impact will the project have on Nigerians?
I think we are going to have a lot of impact. The way and the fact we are making effort to change values, we will have a very good impact.
Nigeria has lot of potentials, promises and prospects despite the challenges. That is why the country requires a generation of people who are really committed to seeing the country achieve its full potential. The moment we build that community of patriots, we are going to see Nigeria take-off like never before.
Do you have a particular figure who is like a role model to this initiative?
We don’t really have a particular model or figure we are patterning after, but take a lot of inspiration from social struggles in other places like the struggle in South Africa, civil rights movement in the United States of America and taking a lot of lessons from the books we read over the years on the importance of developing an ideology in terms of conscientisation, not being in a hurry. There is also building social movement and muscle where people gather and it eventually translates into a political impact.
