Great nations build more institutions, not fewer — Prof. Gold

EMMA CLEMENT

Professor Mondy Selle Gold has called for a deliberate “Ijaw Institutional Renaissance,” arguing that the current questions around the Ijaw National Congress present an opportunity for the Ijaw Nation to expand its institutional architecture rather than limit it.

In a wide-ranging statement on nation-building at the weekend, Prof. Gold said concerns recently raised by patriots about the constitutional integrity, governance structure, and direction of the incident deserve “serious, sober, and intellectually honest reflection.”

He stressed that institutions derive legitimacy not only from history, tradition, or emotional attachment, but from constitutional fidelity, procedural transparency, ethical accountability, inclusiveness, gender equity, and the confidence they inspire among the people they serve.

“When an institution encounters prolonged internal challenges, visionary societies do not place their collective destiny in suspended animation while awaiting its restoration,” Prof. Gold said: “They neither retreat into silence nor surrender their future to uncertainty. Instead, they establish new institutions, strengthen existing ones, and broaden the foundations of collective advancement.

He described the approach as a natural process of civilizational renewal, not a rejection of tradition. “Great societies are not distinguished by the absence of challenges but by their capacity to respond with creativity, resilience, and purposeful institution-building,” he stated.

“The Ijaw Nation must therefore never allow its future to become constrained by the uncertainty surrounding any single institution”, he added.

Prof. Gold framed the Ijaw Nation as one of Africa’s most historically significant indigenous civilizations, with millions across the Niger Delta and a vibrant global diaspora.

“A civilization of such complexity, geographical reach, intellectual capacity, and historical responsibility cannot reasonably entrust the entirety of its collective aspirations to a single socio-cultural organization,” he said, adding that no modern nation or ethnic nationality achieves lasting progress through institutional singularity alone.

To support his argument, he drew on global and Nigerian examples.
He cited the Jewish people, whose global engagement is advanced through the Jewish Agency for Israel, World Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, educational foundations, philanthropic networks, and research institutions.

He also referenced the Kurdish people, estimated at 30 to 40 million across Türkiye, Iraq, Iran, Syria and a large diaspora in Europe, who sustain identity and advocacy through political parties, humanitarian agencies, academic bodies, media platforms, women’s and youth organizations despite not having a sovereign state.
He pointed to Scotland, with a population of about 5.5 million, where the Scottish Government operates alongside the National Trust for Scotland, universities, business networks, cultural organizations and a diaspora of tens of millions.

Among Indigenous peoples, he noted Canada’s First Nations, with more than 600 communities and over 1.8 million people, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis, who have built the Assembly of First Nations, tribal councils, educational institutions and economic corporations.

He also cited the Māori of New Zealand, approximately 900,000 people, who maintain iwi organizations, trusts, Māori Television and educational initiatives that preserve language and strengthen economic independence.

Turning to Nigeria, Professor Gold said the Yoruba and Igbo experiences demonstrate the value of institutional multiplicity.

He noted that Yoruba advancement has been strengthened by Afenifere, the Yoruba Council of Elders, Yoruba World Congress, professional associations, traditional leadership platforms, business networks and diaspora institutions.

Among the Igbo, he said Ohanaeze Ndigbo operates alongside the World Igbo Congress, Alaigbo Development Foundation, business and investment networks, youth and women’s organizations and global diaspora groups, and that this ecosystem has expanded capacity for leadership, policy, entrepreneurship and cultural preservation.

“These organizations do not represent a collapse of unity,” he said. “They demonstrate a sophisticated understanding that a complex people require multiple platforms.”

Prof. Gold also drew lessons from historic movements. He said the American Civil Rights Movement succeeded not through one organization but through the combined work of the NAACP’s legal strategy, the SCLC’s mass mobilization, SNCC’s grassroots organizing and CORE’s direct action.

He disclosed that he became a registered member of CORE in Brooklyn, New York in the mid-1980s, an experience he said taught him that “lasting social transformation is rarely achieved by one organization alone.”

He made a similar point about the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, where the ANC’s political leadership was reinforced by the PAC, UDF, COSATU, the South African Council of Churches under Archbishop Desmond Tutu, student movements, women’s organizations and international campaigns.
“The triumph over slavery in the United States and apartheid in South Africa was not the achievement of a single organization; rather, it was the collective victory of a broad institutional ecosystem,” he said.

For the Ijaw Nation, Prof. Gold said the challenges of the 21st century require adaptive institutional architecture, interdisciplinary collaboration and strategic capacity beyond advocacy.
He argued that institutional plurality should be seen as a reservoir of intellectual capital and transformative potential, not as division.

“The future permutation of the Ijaw Nation will depend upon our ability to construct an ecosystem of purposeful institutions, each contributing its distinctive competencies toward strengthening economic self-reliance, expanding intellectual influence, shaping national policy discourse, enhancing international visibility, and accelerating sustainable transformation,” he stated.

Within that framework, he said the INC should continue as an important apex socio-cultural institution, while new organizations can provide specialized expertise in public policy research, economic development, environmental advocacy, legal strategy, leadership cultivation, international relations, technological innovation, and youth empowerment.

“The defining question is not which institution should possess exclusive authority,” he said. “The more consequential question is how every capable institution, organization, professional, traditional authority, and member of the global Diaspora can contribute meaningfully to the construction of a prosperous, influential, resilient, and sustainable future for generations yet unborn.”

Prof. Gold concluded that the present moment is a historic opportunity, not just a period of reflection.
“If today’s challenges inspire the emergence of new centers of excellence dedicated to scholarship, economic transformation, environmental protection, leadership development, constitutional governance, cultural preservation, and international advocacy, future generations may look back upon this era not simply as a season of uncertainty, but as the beginning of an unprecedented institutional awakening,” he said.
Quoting Nelson Mandela — “It always seems impossible until it is done” — he added: “Great leaders cannot surrender to the storm; they must become the architects of the next horizon.”

Professor Gold is a governance expert, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Leadership and Governance in the United States, and recipient of the Colorado State University Best Faculty Spotlight Award and the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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