By nature, development ‘belongs to those who know it, not those who have it or can buy it.’ It is like a picture, which one keeps working on. Parochialism, on the other hand, is a cultural entrapment. It is evil! With it at work, extant philosophies are laced with the cultural sentiment that a people cannot develop beyond their social thoughts. Once the ruling paradigm in the public administration is ‘awa-n-tiwa’, the society is doomed, with the social thoughts and concomitant expectations most certainly not extending the frontiers of knowledge or the ideas of development.
Embracing parochialism lends itself to easier and non-rigorous interpretation of government policies, which makes survival easier, especially for those who are stealing our commonwealth to continue doing their things without obstruction or impediment. Sooner than later, the dregs and the mediocre in the society will find elective or leadership positions attractive and suitably qualified to vie for public office. But then, the people cannot but be parochial because a man who wants to develop must be exposed to the rudiments of development. Anything outside that can only be likened to dreaming for impossibility.
The creation of pattern and its sustenance explains the development of all the nations of the world. Ever from the time of King Phillip of Macedon; to the epoch of the Tsars of Russia; down to the fall of the Republics in Rome; and the 1974 wave which culminated, especially, in the democratization of Latin America and post-communist countries of Eastern Europe, development has never been seen to have come by dint of luck, but by hard work. In plain English, there must be pattern creation and pattern sustenance! The same pattern that triggers development will also set the standard.