Hot SourceMr. Martin Nwabueze, the co-founder of Tilova for Africa (TFA), a non-profit, non-governmental and advocacy organisation, is reinventing charity by empowering vulnerable communities, strengthening small businesses and enhancing livelihoods. But beyond his work in healthcare and humanitarian circles, the Anambra State born and US-based pharmacist is leading a powerful conversation about Nigeria’s future, one not centred on political manifestos or oil wealth, but on disruptive innovation, social reorientation and shared national identity. As one who believes that the key to Nigeria’s rebirth lies in fostering ingenuity, breaking free from divisive structures, and empowering individuals to build wealth independent of the state, through Tilova, he is also addressing mental health, poverty, and social stigma, giving voice and dignity to those most often ignored. Uzoma Mba brings excerpts
Nigeria is a rich country but the citizens are very poor. How can we change the narrative?
Well, I won’t say Nigeria is rich but we have enough resources capable of lifting more citizens out of poverty if managed properly. But beyond bad management, which is a human factor, Nigeria also has natural intricacies that inherently present obstacles to progress and prosperity. The natural factors I believe contribute to the man-made factors but both are intertwined. I’ll explain further: Nigeria is the only country in the world where there are so many things dividing us and nothing uniting us. A country can only thrive as a unified entity when citizens have shared characteristic and attributes that can make the people whole. It is this wholeness that breeds patriotism and nationalism which are the driving forces that move nations forward in the right direction. We are divided across tribal, religious, linguistic, cultural and even intellectual lines.
These divisions create mistrust that naturally awake the survival of the fittest instinct instead of love of country. So, we have people that love themselves, their families, their tribes, their religions, their regions, their languages and their leaders but nobody loves Nigeria because we do not see ourselves as one. And like I said, it is not our fault we feel this way, it is natural. America has so many things things that unite them like language, religion and culture but colour divides them and they have battled for centuries and are still battling to cope with that single division.
So, you can imagine how difficult it is for Nigeria to succeed in the presence of so many divisive factors. And then in the presence of so much divisions, our economy is natural resources dependent which makes it even more complex since the people in the areas where these resources are located naturally feels entitled to their ownership and when such resources are shared to the whole country, especially by the people that live in areas where these resources are not located, it gives rise to feeling of marginalization, sense of deprivation and agitation for self determination, corruption, discrimination and insecurity, which are all recipes that amount to catastrophic failures in nation building.
It is the division across tribal and religious lines that causes the confusion and mistrust that caused bad judgements leading to the events of 1966 coup and counter coup that ended up in the civil war, which remains the darkest moment of our history and we are yet to see the light since that darkness descended on us. So, what we have now is a country still suffering from the aftermath of that dark history.
We are still being led by people who lived or participated in that war and whose actions are intentionally or unintentionally influenced by the emotions or events of that era. So from 1966 until now, leadership and wealth are still in the hands of the victors of that war. The young soldiers that were on the winning side have been taking turns to be Presidents, from Gowon, to Murtala, to Obasanjo, to Buhari, to Babangida to Abacha to Yar’Adua. Aso rock, wealth and influence have revolved around the conquerors and their cronies and friends. Even late Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu who was on the losing side remained the most influential person in Igboland until death and even after death, his influence is still overwhelmingly present. So, we are still struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel that started at the civil war and when we shall finally get to the end of that tunnel, light will shine and Nigeria will be well. And fortunately we are so close to the end of that tunnel and if you look and think deep, you will feel it, I’ll explain more.
Since nature has put us in this complex geography and society we call Nigeria and idiosyncracies borne out of this has lead to subsequent man-made disasters, it makes common sense to say that it will take providential interference and disruptive innovations and personalities to pivot us away from this status quo and lead us to a fresh and progressive destination. America had ugly history and divisions that set them up for failure initially. Slavery, civil war, assemblage of people of different colours, religions, countries of birth and culture as well as the great depression once created an American atmosphere similar to what we currently have in Nigeria. Japan, south Korea, Germany, England and the most successful countries went through very catastrophic moments presented by devastating wars and natural phenomena but they came out of it the same way and that same thing that has worked for America and other successful countries will also work for Nigeria and give us the come back story we clamour.
Take America for instance, following slavery, civil way and great depression, America has waged a very strong come back based on massive building of wealth and cultural reorientation through individual ingenuity powering great scientific and technological disruptive innovations as well as activism.
From the discovery of automobiles, to airplanes, telephone, television, computers, alternative energy, social media, crypto currency and now to Artificial Intelligence, it has been one disruptive innovation after another creating different industries, different mentality, massive wealth, employments and, most importantly, increasing knowledge, making people more civilized and independent of government thereby creating the proverbial American dream.
It is not politics or any one President that made America great and no one President can make Nigeria great. So, whenever I hear any politician say vote for me and will make Nigeria become China in four years, as if one man transformed China in four years, I conclude such politician is either uninformed or mischievous. It took some auto companies to make South Korea what is it and you can compare South Korea’s prosperity with devastates North Korea where one man after another has remained in power trying to change the country their own schizophrenic way.
It will take ingenuity and innovation to make it obvious to Nigeria that oil is becoming an obsolete wealth source because in a world economy where Facebook is worth more than all the companies in Africa put together, you will realize that if Mark Zuckerbeg, founder of Facebook is Nigerian, he will be more powerful than all the politicians in Nigeria put together because his disruptive invention would be creating more jobs for the people than the Nigerian government. Amazon as a company is richer than Nigeria when you compare their earnings to our GDP. So if we have a Jeff Bezoz, Amazon founder, in Nigeria, he will command more respect than government officials. NVIDIA, the American AI leading company, is valued at over four trillion dollars, making the company richer than most countries in the world and when Jensen Huang, the CEO, talks, President Trump listens because his company has, within a space of few years, become the backbone of the American economy, leading to massive wealth, jobs and a skyrocketing stock market. We all know the TESLA and Elon Musk story and how it has disrupted car making and wealth making. Note that all these companies and individuals are not in any way beneficiaries of government empowerment and none was borne as a result of connections with those in political offices.
This is what needs to start happening in Nigeria and the only thing that can change the country. Running a country through harnessing of natural resources controlled by government and distributed by who ever is in power never moves any country forward rather it precipitates opportunities for corruption, distrust, and insecurity. We have to pay attention to innovations, technology and individual ingenuity that create wealth and produce entrepreneurs that are independent of who ever is in Aso Rock and who will command more respect and create more opportunities for the people than the selfish and confused politicians in power.
When financial power is snatched from the presidency and handed to non politicians through innovation, the desperate hunger to become a politician to steal money and be adored by the masses will disappear. Then politicians might start doing the right things to win the trust and respect of the people because currently what they believe is that as long as they are the richest people in their communities they will attract fear, love and respect from their people making it easier for them to manipulate and control the people.
I talk about light at the end of the tunnel because we are begining to see Nigerians disrupting wealth building through self and innovative efforts independent of Aso rock. We have some big players and we have others less influential but equally important in young kids that are setting up technology and innovation incubators all over the company trying to be or to find the inventor of the next big thing. We have Crypto currency defining how wealth can be made and kept without government control and interference.
We have app builders all over the country looking and will sure find apps that will create so much wealth that will make politicians look stupid when they steal and try to oppress and impress with their loot. When more people depend on the private sector than the government to make a quality living the people will begin to loathe the corrupt politicians rather than admire them. And we are approaching that stage and we are only getting started.
On social perspective, social.media through content creation, music and movie industry are now reliable and diverse means of income and they are changing how the world see us. We have gone from a country whose citizens are known for crimes to that known for Afrobeat and Nollywood thanks to Burma Boy, Davido, Rhema, Whizkid and many other musicians and Nollywood. This social redefinition is encouraging international investors to take a second look at Nigeria as investment destination and they are begining to trickle in. Nigerians born overseas are suddenly proud of Nigeria and confidently call it home and look forward to visiting or relocating.
Every kid wants to be identified as Burna Boy or Davido’ brother rather than son of a politician. It is huge because cultural orientation is as important as economic development. So Nigeria is changing as money from oil controlled by a few loses control as the major souce of income for the vast majority of the people as in other rich countries and as corrupt politicians lose their attractions as role models as the people are motivated by ingenuity and innovation. In summary the wind of change is blowing.
A natural evolution that will end the dominance of the old brigade that play politics based on the emotions and bias of our ugly past rather than love of country is nearing completion cos age and death are making that generation of leaders and their cronies disappear. Gradually ingenuity and technological innovations will replace oil as the major souce of wealth in Nigeria and the wealth will reside in private individuals that will use it to impact positively on the masses. All these will inevitable create a new generation of leaders that will see politics as a call to service rather than a tool to steal money.
We shall live in a different and much better where we shall be united by wealth built by ingenuity hard work and technological innovations rather than divided by pennies obtained from oil and distributed by corrupt greedy politicians. This does not in any way diminish the importance of good governance because ultimately the government has a big role to play by maling policies and laws that create enabling environment and equal opportunity that will allow private ingenuity and entrepreneurship to blossom. Security and infrastructural development which the government should provide will go a long way to get us to the destination faster and smoother. We shall have a better Nigeria in next 20 years or so. We hope to see it happen.
Why did you study pharmacy in Nigeria and went to practice in US after graduation?
Actually, my original intention was to study medicine because I was an excellent science student and actually made the best WAEC result in FGC Sokoto Class of 1990. But by the time I wrote JAMB, I was distracted by my ambition to travel to Germany to study medicine, which made me enroll in Goethe Institute, Lagos to learn German language. This was the same time I was preparing for my JAMB exam. So, I ended up with a score of 251 which was not enough to get me into medical school but it was good enough to get me into pharmacy as the Germany ambition did not pan out eventually.
My intention to study medicine and subsequent decision to study pharmacy were borne out of my natural dispensation towards serving and helping others. I had always wanted to go into a profession that would give me the opportunity to put smiles on people’s faces and make their lives more pleasant because I am naturally a happy person and enjoy making others around me even happier. I felt there was no better way to make people happy than helping them to better health.
I left Nigeria with the original intention of furthering my education overseas to Masters and doctorate degrees level. I had role models that influenced that decision then. My brother, the great mathematician, Prof. Kenneth Kenechukwu nwabueze, had his post graduate education in Germany. My uncle, the literally giant, Prof. Emeka Nwabueze, furthered his education in USA and my mentor and favourite lecturer in UNIBEN, Prof Magnus Iwuagwu, got his Ph.D in London. He always proudly introduced himself as ‘Prof Magnus Iwuagwu, PhD, London’.
So I believed that travelling to USA to acquire higher education would give me an edge when I return to Nigeria. I did not travel as an economic migrant to America. It was a desire to get what I then assumed was a superior education and knowledge that would increase my chances of succeeding and excelling in Nigeria. I wanted to return to Nigeria with a Ph.D, teach in a Nigerian university while running a pharmacy business and queue up to have a chance of offering my service to the country in any capacity.
I always believed in Nigeria and Awka, my home town, nurtured my personality. So, I am very attached to the town I grew up. But along the line, I met my wife, got married and priorities changed to raising a family here in America where I believed my kids will have better opportunities to live a more fulfilling life. I still shall return to Nigeria at the appropriate time to contribute directly in building my home country. But for now I do my best using Tilova for Africa.
What informed your decision to establish Tilova for Africa?
Tilova For Africa is a natural manifestation of the entirety of my true self. It is an effortless emergence and exhibition of the beliefs and qualities that define me: Love of oneself and family which radiates to love for others around you and society as a whole. Empathy, honesty, humility, openness, kindness, respectfulness which all commingle to exhibit as unquenchable thirst to help others in many forms through direct assistance financially, spiritually and emotionally as well as indirectly through advocacies to push for better societies that are devoid of discrimination, injustice, stigmatization, especially against minorities that are most vulnerable such as the sick, the poor, the ostracized by caste systems or any other marginalized groups. Ultimately, Tilova For Africa is intended to give voice to the voiceless and provide succour and hope for the otherwise hopeless. It is all about giving back to the society because I belief God has showered my family with so mich love and blessings and we owe it to posterity to give back to the less privileged. I am a Christian and the golden saying that ‘it is more blessed to give than to received’ is refreshingly a call to service.
Apart from poverty and lack of education, mental health issues is something that is often overlooked. What is your organization doing about it?
Mental health is a devastating social scourge and Tilova For Africa is very passionate about the fight against it. The biggest obstacle to fighting mental health issues is stigmatization and we are creating awareness and pushing governments and institutions to commit more efforts and resources to policies and campaigns to remove the social stigma surrounding mental health.
Stigmatization prevents patients from seeking care out of fear of social shame and ridicule. People will not seek care for their mental health struggles if they believe they would be seen as subhuman. So, we must enlighten the public to understand that mental health is another sickness like malaria, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, among others. And just like these diseases, mental health issues also are manageable and patients have available and effective treatments to help them live a functional life.
We are also providing counselling on phone and through our website to those struggling with depression and our counsellors are professionals registered in America. We are also pushing state governments to set up toll free suicide prevention phone numbers where those contemplating to take their own lives or those of others can call in and have a professional intervene. We are hosting seminars and symposiums online and on ground to educate and create awareness on mental health. We are doing similar things about HIV and AIDS but in the case of HIV/AIDS we are also offering prophylactic and and antiretroviral drugs to vulnerable populations and positive patients.
What is the cutting edge of your NGO and how is your activities funded?
From the beginning, we set out to form an organization that is disconcentrated from personal ownership but diffused to embrace participation from others that share similar values. This is why we do not refer to Tilova For Africa as a foundation with anybody’s name attached to it as owner. Rather we have founders whose goals are to form a coalition of givers and receivers where both givers and receivers are equally respected and free to mingle with the donors and sponsors.
Ultimately, we aim to build a charity directory where anyone in need of help can use an app to match a donor willing to offer such help. We are still working on that app and pending availability of funds, it shall be out and functional in a short time. So, just like we have many dating apps, we are working to have a Tilova For Africa Charity app. And so far we are seeing encouraging signs of success through our social media activities and participations where we are reinventing charity to make it fun and involve every willing participants so that those who do not eventually get material help will get smiles and happiness from our contents.
While creating this jocular atmosphere we also make sure we seriously advocate the cause we fight for. Currently, our funding is from co-founders’ contribution as well as individual donors and sponsors but we have met all requirements to receive grants from governments and institutions and hopefully those lines of funding will soon be available to avail us the opportunity to execute our mission of reaching as many people that need help as possible and putting as many smiles on as many faces as possible.
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