FORREST GUMP VS. NIGERIA: Thin lines between Reality & Fiction

Photo by Yosuke Ota on Unsplash

– Or perhaps Nigeria has always been Forrest Gump.

ABOUT THE MOVIE

If you’ve never seen Forrest Gump, allow me to introduce you to one of cinema’s most endearing characters. The film follows Forrest Gump, a kind-hearted man from Alabama whose low IQ leads many to underestimate him. Played brilliantly by Tom Hanks, Forrest lives an extraordinary life without ever setting out to do extraordinary things. Along the way, he falls deeply in love with his childhood friend, Jenny Curran, whose life takes a far more turbulent path. He forms an unlikely friendship with Lieutenant Dan Taylor, a soldier haunted by war, and with Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue, whose dream of owning a shrimp business eventually changes Forrest’s life. As these relationships unfold, Forrest repeatedly finds himself at the centre of some of the most defining moments in twentieth-century American history – not because he planned to be there, but because history seemed to have a peculiar habit of finding him.

That, perhaps more than anything else, is what makes Forrest Gump unforgettable. It isn’t merely the story of a man moving through history; it’s the story of history moving around a man who never quite realized he was living through it.

FORREST GUMP VS. NIGERIA

Forrest Gump had an extraordinary gift.

Not intelligence.

Not foresight.

Not strategy.

Presence.

History had an uncanny habit of finding him.

The Vietnam War happened, and there he was. Ping-pong diplomacy became an international affair, and somehow Forrest was involved. A tech company called Apple was beginning to grow, and Forrest accidentally became an investor. He wasn’t predicting history. He was simply… there.

For years, I have wondered if Nigeria has a similar gift.

Or perhaps, a similar curse.

Every few years, the world changes direction, and Nigeria follows. Sometimes eagerly. Sometimes reluctantly. But almost always after the wind has already shifted.

There was oil.

Then telecommunications.

Then fintech.

Now it is Artificial Intelligence, robotics, engineering, digital skills, STEM education and innovation.

Universities are receiving funding to improve engineering laboratories. Technical education is once again fashionable. AI has become the newest phrase in policy documents and conference speeches. Students are encouraged to learn coding. Researchers are urged to innovate. It is all good news.

And yet, I hesitate before celebrating.

Not because these things are unnecessary.

But because I have seen this film before.

Nigeria has never lacked the ability to recognize the future.

Our problem has been deciding to stay with it.

We discovered oil.

Oil did not fail us.

We failed to build around it.

We discovered agriculture could sustain economies.

We abandoned it for crude.

We spoke of industrialisation.

Then of entrepreneurship.

Then of digital transformation.

Now we speak of AI.

Each decade introduces a new messiah.

Each decade buries the previous one.

Perhaps our greatest natural resource is not petroleum after all.

Perhaps it is enthusiasm.

We become passionately committed to whatever the world has most recently decided is important.

There is nothing wrong with joining global conversations. In fact, refusing to adapt would be foolish. The danger lies elsewhere.

Do we have a destination of our own?

Or are we merely excellent at changing lanes?

That is the question STEM forces us to confront.

Because laboratories are not built for today’s headlines.

Engineers are not trained for next year’s budget.

Scientific research is an act of faith in people you may never meet and problems that may not yet exist.

The countries we admire did not become technologically advanced because they heard the wind blowing before everyone else. They became advanced because, once they chose a direction, they refused to abandon it every election cycle.

Consistency is a technology of its own.

Perhaps that is what Nigeria has been missing.

Not intelligence.

Not talent.

Not resources.

Memory.

The ability to continue building yesterday’s dream even after tomorrow’s trend arrives.

Forrest Gump’s accidental journey through history is heartwarming because he is one man. Coincidence is charming when it belongs to a character.

It is less charming when it becomes national policy.

So, as Nigeria embraces STEM, engineering and artificial intelligence, I find myself asking a question that has little to do with science.

Will this become another chapter we abandon when the next fashionable idea arrives?

Or is this finally the story we have decided to finish?

Because history is full of nations that arrived late and still transformed the world.

What history rarely remembers are the nations that kept changing direction until they mistook movement for progress.

But perhaps I have been unfair to Nigeria.

To say we have no long-term vision would be inaccurate. We do. We have development plans, education reforms, industrial blueprints and ambitious agendas that stretch decades into the future. Every administration seems capable of imagining a better Nigeria.

So perhaps the question is not whether we dream or are being moved by the strides of the winds of globalization.

Perhaps the question is why so many of our dreams remain unfinished.

Why do our plans so often outlive our commitment to them?

Why does each generation inherit a new blueprint instead of the completed foundations of the last?

Maybe Forrest Gump was the wrong metaphor after all.

Forrest stumbled into history because he was one man. Nations should not rely on coincidence. They should rely on conviction.

As Nigeria embraces STEM, artificial intelligence and engineering, I hope this is more than another moment of catching the latest wind. I hope it becomes a direction we refuse to abandon when the next fashionable idea arrives.

Because history is kind to nations that dream.

But it remembers only those that endure long enough to finish the dream.