2015 through a glass darkly

The year 2015 is everything rolled into one. Like a rollercoaster fired by socio-economic political and religious pressures or forces, it moves up and down: weaving, turning, winding and throwing up varied themes that define 2015.

Of defining themes, terrorism in its most barbaric form and injustice (social, cultural, linguistic, economic and political) that the former feeds on voraciously, are the ultimate.

Man and the environment are at the centre as the 2015 roller coaster crests and troughs, symptomatic of the biblical rise and fall of Man - within an Eden-like environment - a latter-day amusement park and at play in this environment are human ingenuity, genius (good and evil), intelligence and talent.

When the rollercoaster troughs, our hearts throb and we introspect like the famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawkings, on how our intelligence and genius can threaten our very existence.

The defining moment of how far artificial intelligence can go was the 1997 very tight chess contest between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, a machine, the latter won! At that time, we hailed our scientific and technological prowess. In the process, artificial intelligence took flight until Stephen Hawkings admonished in a December 2, 2014 BBC interview, “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Thus, would the battle of all battles before the world implodes be between fast-thinking, fleet-footed machines (robots) or biological creations and human beings? Paradoxically, mankind would eventually succeed in creating machine or biological monsters (Frankenstein of sorts) in its image and likeness that would end up stalking and wiping out the human race!

Better programmed and remote-controlled, our machine or test tube creations should be invaluable partners in medical, archaeological, space and ocean explorations as well as the impending clash with unidentified persons in outer space! Drones, unidentified flying objects (UFOs) lookalikes, have virtually become foot soldiers in the war against terrorism!

On the other hand, very intelligent machines or clones can take us 2,000 years and more down history; thus we would be able, in partnership with robots or clones, to unravel our far-flung past!

Interlude: It is written that we are little less than gods; are wedaring the gods or nature by tinkering with their handiwork through genetic cloning/engineering and stem cell research? Did we fiddle with our genes to produce an Albert Einstein, a Chinua Achebe or a Cheikh Anta Diop? Why are we in such a haste to replicate an Einstein, a Mandela or a Pele in a test tube?

When the rollercoaster crests, we puff up and punch the air with pride and make futuristic projections like Bill Gates or Steve Job. When the latter died, Smartphone users worldwide paid him a religious-like reverence with lit candles to boot! He epitomised a sector where innovation is so fast that my grandmother who never used a landline leapfrogged or jump-started and made her first telephone call by manipulating a mobile phone!

In 2015, the cell phone (mobile telephony) and computer (information technology) are game changers since with at-the-speed-of-light innovations they shoot down communication costs; transform dramatically health care as well as the manner we run businesses/government and conduct warfare; how thugs in the name of religion carry out, finance, recruit, brainwash and showcase terrorist attacks; how we entertain ourselves, organise our lives, as well as conduct and win elections.

The rollercoaster troughs and we catch our breath. Boko Haram is wiping out whole villages and occupying swathes of territory: slaughtering, maiming and burning in the process. Brutality, barbarism, hostage-taking and wanton killings are its trademarks.

Indeed, a Sumanguru is holding court! ISIS, ISIL, or DAESCH is over running huge chunks of Syrian and Iraqi territory, unleashing its horrific, inhuman and atrocious terrorist acts. Beheadings, hostage-taking and ransacking of World Heritage sites are its signature tunes. Verily, a Ghenghis Khan is holding court!

A twenty-one year old white young man walks calmly into a church in Charleston, South Carolina, United States of America, sits and listens to the preachments of the pastor for about an hour, then unsheathes a gun in the manner of John Wayne and shoots indiscriminately at the congregation killing nine people, all black! You would expect remorse, like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the infamous 2013 Boston Marathon bomber! No, the Charleston terrorist, Dylan Roof, maintained a terrifying sangfroid and coldness!Indeed, Satan is holding court where the Pilgrim Fathers sought to build a city of Light!

But the recent San Bernardino, California shooting, that jolted the Obama administration and the American conscience, puts to question the American definition of terrorism and gun control. Is Dylan Roof less a terrorist than the perpetrators of the carnage at San Bernardino? Can Roof be described as a moderate terrorist? What is the difference between a moderate terrorist and a radical terrorist? The cynical difference might be that moderates do not hold territory while radicals do. But both moderates and radicals shoot to kill, maim and instil fear!

When the rollercoaster crests, we thumb up for the triumph of democracy in Africa's most populous country and largest economy, Nigeria. Like Wole Soyinka, we see 'something born again' in Muhammadu Buhari alias Mister WAI (War Against Indiscipline). Like Jerry Rawlings, we see Buhari's election as a clear indication where Nigeria wants to go and inevitably restoring its battered pride.

Nigeria once knew where it was going but, paradoxically, it was under a military strongman, the late General Murtala Muhammed and a host of visionary military officers. Today, a onetime maximum leader, Muhammadu Buhari, who has apparently undergone a Damascus road conversion, is bent on taking Nigeria where it rightfully belongs.

He is a strongman keen on putting in place strong institutions. Not quite in tandem with Barack Obama's strong institution not strongman mantra. However, in line with Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, would he change the idea of government in Nigeria as a 'few holding the cow for the strongest and most cunning to milk?' (Obafemi Awolowo).