A Nation In Entropy -By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Growing up, I had a very torrid time with chemistry. The abstract nature of chemistry especially the organic dimension of it invokes currents of fear in me, because of my phobia for chemistry and subsequent disinterestedness, my grades hardly go beyond a Pass (not credits or distinctions) at best and a Fail (F) at worse.

However, despite my phobia for chemistry back days, there are some of its concepts that I know so well like the back of my hand, one of such is the concept of entropy in thermodynamics.

Entropy simply explains the state of disorderliness or randomness in a system when there is a change in the system.

When the state of disorderliness remains the same or constant it becomes an Isentropic process . During isentropic processes, the value of entropy of the system at initial and final state remains constant.

The concept of thermodynamics and Isentropy offers teachable lessons in the wake of Nigeria’s disorderliness. Our disorderliness is not a one off event, it’s the only life that we know.

How do you explain the Governor of a state stage weeping on national television just to curry sympathy from the people to get votes for his stooge? That’s the extent the typical African ruler can go, to arrest power.

The clamour for power is not about responsible leadership or about the people, but about who controls the nation’s resources, yet undiscerning people take sides.

Election is near and there has been several permutations from various quarters , some believe it’s time Nigeria’s old ruling class make way for the young, (A school of thought which I have my reservations for), there are some who have popularized the message of collecting our Pvcs as it is our only hope of redemption even though I wonder if Pvcs only produces good leaders in the absence of logical options.

The challenge we have at hand goes beyond that of Pvcs and age demography, our real challenges are that of values and ideologies.

Will our culture of vanity which is almost a cultural design for the typical Nigerian change? Are we willing to be a more cordial people and relinquish our culture of bringing down (A culture that has curtailed the flow of Success in most African societies) our country men? Are we willing to value humanity more rather than take ‘Selfies’ when people die? These and more are the real issues and not the age or the ethnic affiliations, or the Pvcs.

A fundamental part of the concept of entropy is that when there is a change in a system, the entropy increases. Nigerians are always in search for a change, although she quickly forget that it was the quest for change that brought her here initially, now she’s planning to change the change and hence the entropy remains.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and public speaker.

Email: Kehindeobabtunde@gmaitqatq

Twitter: @_tqatq