By Tim Akano

Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity proved that the properties of time and light can be reduced to a simple mathematical formula: E=mc², where energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared (2).

The secret the formula revealed: that mass and energy are different forms of the same thing- had eluded scientists for centuries, much like how transformation has eluded Nigeria for decades. Nigeria’s arrested development remains a great global paradox: how can a giant elephant deliver a kitten, and the wealthiest become the poorest? The country’s numerous development plans, including the 1960s & 1970s, Visions 2000, 2010 & 2020 and the 2014 National Conference Report have all failed, they are a case of recurrent miscarriage.

Worse still, the ‘Hope’ in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda- seems to have bolted- as major multinationals either close shop, exit, or scale down operations. Companies like P&G, GSK, Equinor, Sanofi, PZ Cussons, Microsoft, Unilever, NABISCO, Bolt Food, Jumia Food, and even the ‘Seven Sisters’ oil companies among others. When I observed the “sifia pains” people are enduring and the alarming rise in ‘legacy and executive beggars’, I took Nigeria’s case study to Albert Einstein laboratory, through “Professor Google”, pleading with him to diagnose the country and recommend the best way forward.

Nigeria is an abnormal country, and Nature always completes her transactions, her books always balance. Unhappiness, untold hunger and frustration of life are due to a breach somewhere of the law of balance. When nation-states within a geographical space try to take from one another to enrich one and impoverish the other, when there is a disequilibrium in wealth distribution, when people are unequally yoked, two violently unbalanced conditions which cause civil war or circular crises occur.

Professor Einstein concluded that Nigeria is like a partial differential equation which is difficult, but not impossible, to solve. He likened Nigeria’s predicament to a “madman’s luggage”. The question remains: who will unpack it, how and when?Professor Albert Einstein’s QR code for transforming Nigeria contains a mathematical formula: T = EC³ + (D – C²) × i, where Transformation (T) equals Elites’ Consensus plus Commitment and Capacity (EC³), in addition to Decentralization (D), minus Corrosive Corruption (C²), multiplied by the speed of Innovation (i).

In his view, Nigeria is not a simple equation like 2x – 4 = 2. The British Empire deliberately created Nigeria as a complex partial differential equation: 2uxy + 3uy – Bux + 11 = 0. The exam is to find 0. Sadly enough, the past fifteen Heads of government couldn’t find 0, indeed, four of them died in office trying to find 0, and the current one is sweating profusely, pencil-in-hand, trying to solve the equation. Solving a complex partial differential equation sometimes requires a re-arrangement and separation of variables, i.e. moving the terms in an equation around.

Which is why holding elections every four years using the same unworkable 1999 Constitution and hoping to find 0 from such rituals is both naive and wishful thinking. The greatest scientist of the 20th century is of the opinion that Nigeria needs to pause, and re-think, and recalibrate, which is called ‘’re-arrangement and separation of variables’’ in partial differential equations.

Our whole world is bound and governed by certain immutable laws of Nature, for Life is not casual, but causal. Concerning modernization and nation-building, there are three immutable laws: (1) the law of Homogeneity and Centralization, (2) the law of Heterogeneity and Decentralization, and (3) the Inviolate law of Balance. It is instructive to learn that history honestly testifies that it is impossible to achieve transformation in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria that is governed centrally due to cataclysmic disorder. Even then, for any of the three immutable laws to succeed, having the elite’s consensus, commitment and capacity is nonnegotiable.

Additionally, Albert Einstein emphasized that eradicating corrosive corruption is critical, urgent, and compulsory. While corruption exists in every society, Nigeria’s variant is corrosive. Like Sodium and Sulphur, it destroys and kills through a chemical reaction. Corrosive corruption manifests when Nigeria’s elites loot the treasury and send their stolen wealth to secret foreign bank accounts or store it in septic tanks, bury it underground on farms, or even in graveyards, (‘Dead Money’) rather than ‘drycleaning’ it in Nigeria for the Common Good. He also argued that Nigeria must innovate at the speed of light, which is directly tied to the quality of education given to children.

This, in turn, depends on the quantum and quality of infrastructure, the relevance of academic curricula, and the nutritional well-being of both students and their teachers. Nigeria remains the only ‘opposite’ country among those identified by the United Nations in the 1960s as “The Next Medium Power” of the seven nations projected, which are China, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Nigeria. Only Nigeria remains stuck at the basement of modernization while her peers have ascended to the seventh floor. Indeed, China made it to the 9th floor within 30 years, while UAE did it in 10 years! Similarly, in 2011, Nigeria was included among the MINT countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey), projected to achieve economic greatness by 2020. While the other three met and even exceeded expectations, Nigeria had “carry-over” in all nine subjects she sat for.

Again, in 2015, another international group identified the next three wonders of the world as “PIN” (Philippines, Indonesia, and Nigeria). When the results came out, “PI” passed while “N” failed. Finally, by 2019, Nigeria emerged as the world’s poverty capital, a shameful trophy that concluded the discussion.

Albert Einstein described Nigerian elites as “UDJ” (Uneducated Dumb Jokers). That categorization led me to request “Professor Google” to organize an online interview with him. The following is the discussion: …. click here to continue