Guinness and the Happiness of Quitting

By Elempe Dele / posted June 14, 2024

The recent viral news in the traditional and social media platforms that Guinness Nigeria, a Nigerian-based subsidiary of Diageo Plc of the United Kingdom, a long-time brewer and investor in the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage drinks sector of the Nigeria economy has signposted its intention to leave the country after 75 years of operation, for specific and extant reasons, have elicited a mountain of comments from the general public. Elempe Dele, a nationally recognized media and public affairs analyst weighs in. Grab a bag of popcorn and read on.

“The way some some Nigerians celebrate any news that is negative or seem to be negative apparently is bemusing, especially after the 2023 election which was lost and won. If Guinness Nigeria wishes to leave Nigeria because of the cost of fuel today, a product it has enjoyed its subsidy for decades, should not make us go into feats of ululation.

“If Nigeria goes into irreversible destruction as some of us will wish, how exactly will it favour us that live in it and earn our existence from the patchwork? Oh, would our chant of “we nor tell una” put food in our mouths afterwards if it happens?

“We are not organisms under observation, we are within a nation confines where we interact to meaningfully sort our day-to-day existence. There cannot be any claim to mystic endowment by anyone to magically undo the deeds of decades in one day or ten years or thirty years…

“The essence of our existence is to better that which we have been given to tender – there is nowhere food comes without labour. And this hard work is defined in our collectivity. We cannot under any guise continue to rob ourselves that entitlement to be hopeful, to optimistic, to be sure…in the face of these daunting challenges we are faced with collectively and individually. We must all have that inherent craving to fulfil social and economical expectations through fortitude and hard work. There is no such thing as hope through resignation and pessimism.

“We must in the face of all these challenges activate the idea of both self worth and nationhood that can possibly animates the spirit and our membership of this nation. If nothing, this is a moment of self-sacrifice – what we are doing away with are those things we can no longer afford. We have lived a lie for too long – sooner or later, we would have crashed beyond repair – let no one tell you anything differently.

“We must not necessarily identify with our Local Government Chairman, our Governor or even our president, but we must identify with our nation, which we have sworn oaths to defend. We must take upon ourselves everything the nation is passing through; the successes and embarrasments and disgrace and greatness and humiliation. This is an act of maturity and inherent consciousness of the self connecting to the essence of the nation just like every group; old school group, age group, church society, confraternity…We must be patriotic enough to look at the nation as the extention of ourselves, which ought to supercede other cravings because this is where we were born and earn our living. If it is destroyed, we are destroyed too. We must deliberately develop that sense of belonging rather than that of detachment.

“When you are part of a nation, you must think of the shared experience with others, and this must not necessarily be positive experiences. But you are in it with others, and must accept it as part of your experience. These experiences can range from political instability, economic downturn as we are presently experiencing today, to issues of exclusion. However, we cannot forget that in spite of these, we are part of the nation.

“My preoccupation in this offering is the tendency towards the devaluation of the nation and craving for every negative news – we must have a rethink. “Oh, this was the most shameful election ever conducted in the history of the nation! INEC is a total failure! The judiciary is the worst in the world! Companies are living! We dont have a country! Democracy is under threat! …and the demarketing worldwide goes on and on while we are preparing for the 2027 election that will be held within the confines of the same nation ironically by these same institutions we crisscross the world condemning.

“All nations have their challenges – and the struggle between the weak and the strong has been on as far as the beginning of life. We must therefore crave to be among the strong, and be able to form sets to protect the weak.

“We must turn to ourselves and ask how we have been part of the degradation our nation is faced with. The clerical officer who’s file one depends becomes a lord, The university professor who exchange sex for marks, the bestial elder who sort the which is in between the legs of a 6 year old girl, the civil servant who knows how to collude with appointed politicians to steal from the commonwealth, the contractor who does poor jobs for profit, the trader who produces fake drugs and killer drinks, the unknown gun men killing civilians and security men alike…where are we in this critical walls that cut off our humanity? Where here is our gesture of disdain against our nation and its peoples?”