On 14 November 2020, the Nigerian former minister of Finance and the favourite candidate for the top job at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo Iweala (NOI) had on Twitter thanked French President, Emmanuel Macron, President of EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, President of Korean Republic, Moon Jae-in, Prime Minster of Spain Pedro Sánchez, and the Gates Foundation for pledging a total of $360M to GAVI in view of the equitable distribution of the COVID vaccine around the world. Okonjo concludes the Tweet by stating that “this is a huge step toward a solution to the #COVID19 pandemic that works for everyone, everywhere.”

The next day, 15 November 2020, Sunday afternoon, I had an interesting conversation that was centered on NOI’s words. I was having a lunch with a friend who has a profound fascination and love for NOI. In the middle of our discussion he refers to the above tweet of thankfulness by NOI, and then he said to me: “I love the way she concluded the Tweet in terms of providing “a solution … that works for everyone, everywhere.” My face was a bit bland, while his was lit up with exuberant joy. Upon suspecting that I may probably not be impressed by how such a simple, ordinary statement could get him so excited, he then chipped in immediately: “I mean, when you love someone, even the most common and normal things become fascinating.” Well, appearance could be very deceptive. I was only in my thinking mood. Of course, I have immense love for NOI. Perhaps not as much as my dear friend. However, I consider even her simple statements as intentional, measured and deeper than they appear. So, I was probing more on the inside.

Responding to his seeming ad hoc defense, I decided that we need to unravel what she stated there in the tweet. As someone with whom I have shared the most profound, transfigurative intellectual moments, I decided that I would employ him to help me dig this out. No! We just weren’t going to leave it to the sentiments of love! Then, I said to him: “I think there is something deeper in what NOI was saying. Imagine a world where the most basic needs of life are available to everyone, everywhere.” What immediately comes to mind is how in most of the Western world, living in the remote villages like Boxberg in Germany or As in the Limburg area of Belgium makes little or no difference. For just as those in the urban areas, village people have access to good roads, electricity, internet, local transport, healthcare, supermarkets, and so on. The standard of life is basically the same. In fact, the villages often have better advantages in terms of the serenity, communality and cleanliness of their communities.

In most poor or developing nations, the cities are the only place one can find relatively better amenities. In my little village in Imo State, for example, the road is terrible and even unpassable during rainy season. The people there have never had electricity even when they have contributed so much to get the electric poles and wires. If you must have light at night, then be ready to use the generating set. Growing up, there was only one poor midwife who lived in a poor hut for years in my village, assisting people even?! from less fortunate villages nearby until 2018 when a priest had to put up a clinic with the assistance of his German friends. The government never blinked. The government remains totally absent. And this is not peculiar to my humble village. There are thousand others. 

NOI just pushed the lightbulb as she teaches us by her example of public service. By pushing for a world where the vaccine to defeat the pandemic would be made accessible to everyone, everywhere, NOI reminds us to make our own contributions towards making the basic amenities of life to be available to everyone, everywhere. This is the project of redistribution of development, of earthly goods, such that even the poorest of the poor can live with a minimum level of dignity. Water, good roads, electricity, clean and green environment, healthcare, decent living and wage, efficient transportation, and other necessities should be made to reach everyone, everywhere. The government, as the custodians of the citizens’ collective sovereignty, should lead in this project. So also, other institutions and organizations – religious, business, NGOs – as well as individuals should join in creating this better world. Sometimes, and given our limited capacities, the journey of making life better for everyone, everywhere begins with the project of making life better for someone, somewhere.

This is just a tit-bit of my conversation with my friend. We spent the next two hours unpacking how this seeming utopia can function in reality.