Also published in DAILY TRUST
It
is an unmistakable fact that Nigeria is in a deep self-inflicted mess. Equally
the resultant misery needs no further explanation, because as a Hausa proverb
puts it “Jiki magayi” which more or less means physical suffering says it all.
Ironically
also, there is a general apathy despite the common agony, which some analysts
attribute to a pervasive hopelessness. Perhaps it is such hopelessness that
gave rise to our obvious collective hypocrisy, which makes us pretend to not
know the very cause of the mess let alone tackle it. Instead we beat around the
bush to find a scapegoat to blame. In fact some of us (out of sheer naivety)
even attribute it to God the Almighty Himself, claiming that it is actually our
predestination, hence it is beyond our control.
Frankly
speaking, we are all responsible of this mess only that our roles and degrees
of culpability vary. For instance, while a microscopic minority loot the
country mercilessly, the rest not only pretend to not know them but even
glorify them for that matter, which effectively put the looters and the looted
(i.e. general public) in the same box indeed only that, on one hand there are
looters and on the other there are hypocrites.
Interestingly
enough, I am not an unrealistic idealist to expect every individual to confess
his role in creating the mess, neither do I expect everybody to name and shame
his own relative, acquaintance, benefactor or boss involved in creating and/or
exacerbating the country’s mess. Because in as much as such acts are virtuous,
it takes a high level of adherence to the principles of morality for one to do
it.
What actually surprises me is the sheer lack of conscience suffered by the vast majority of both the thieving elite and the masses alike. A typical thieving elite for instance, whose legitimate income can’t justify even 1% of his recklessly amassed wealth does not hesitate to condemn corruption and lament incompetence with emotion, referring to others, particularly his superiors as corrupt, and his inferiors as incompetent and saboteurs. He gives the impression that, he is a helpless innocent, and even if not completely innocent, his role is not substantial enough to cause any grievous socio-economic impact. By the way, some friends here in the UAE told me how on a casual encounter with a former Nigerian head of state in Dubai, the former head of sate lamented Nigeria’s failure as opposed to the UAE’s remarkable success, though as he reportedly pointed out, Nigeria is actually richer than UAE. And I believe so many people have had such an experience either with their fathers, brothers, acquaintances, friends, bosses etc.
The
funniest aspect of such mutual deception scenario is, once some of such
thieving officials lose their positions of relevance, they (out of the blue)
turn to activism purportedly to promote transparency and good governance,
which not only reflects their decomposed conscience (if they had it in the
first place) but in reality indicates their sheer contempt for people’s
intelligence and indeed how they take Nigerian masses for granted.
Nevertheless, admittedly I am sometimes tempted into understanding (not
necessarily justifying) their obvious lack of guilty conscience, simply because
the way the society glorifies them is impressive enough to make them assume
that they are not thieves, or indeed their own corrupt practices are not
grievous enough to cause any considerable harm.
A
typical thieving official for instance, who not only lives beyond his
legitimate means but actually flaunts his loot contemptuously, commands a great
deal of respect from his cronies or relatives, who particularly celebrate him
as a unique and enviable success case, and automatically make him the ultimate
mentor/benefactor of their entire extended family clan irrespective of his
moral standing and maturity. Meanwhile, traditional institutions shower him
with traditional titles, and academic institutions compete in awarding him
decorative honorary degrees while religious bodies revere him for his “service
to God” and flatter him as though they would guarantee him a direct entry into
the heaven in the hereafter.
Whereas
on the other hand, any official in a position of influence, who nonetheless
restrains himself from stealing the public fund, is bound to be despised by the
same society, ridiculed and even be branded as cursed of a sort, who is (as
Hausa say) “ko a garwar mai aka tsomashi, haka zai fito abushe kandas”, which
means he is too ill-fated that even if he should be dipped into a peanut oil
jerry can, he would come out rough and dry anyway.
Moreover, the most ridiculous aspect of such culture of hypocrisy plays out when such a corrupt official pretends to resist or fight corruption. His dilemma is admittedly tricky, because on one hand he has to (though) pretentiously portray himself as honest and competent, and on the other he must not jeopardize his own interests by implicating his associates and superiors let alone himself. So, he would simply sacrifice (by probing, prosecuting and even punishing) some unlucky equally corrupt officials particularly those against whom he either has some personal scores to settle, or those whose prosecution is not likely to affect him in any way. This is however before the turn comes to him also, as he may himself fall victim of the same trick from someone more influential than him.
Interestingly,
once any corrupt official is unlucky enough to be subjected to such sacrifice,
his relatives, cronies and other beneficiaries of his loot would cry witch hunt
and victimization. Lawyers would jostle to win the “honour” of defending him in
courts, compromised journalists would swing into action in desperate efforts to
portray him as a victim of a conspiracy, lobbyist would go to any length to get
him free and religious leaders and bodies would embark on special prayers,
which may take some of them all the way to Mecca (if he is a Muslim) or employ
the services of such “rappers-like” Christian prayer warriors (if he is a
Christian), and hired thugs would throng the courts to show solidarity.
Given this pervasive attitudinal trait, I can’t help concluding that, hardly if at all any adult Nigerian will live long enough to see a better Nigeria, because after all no one seems to sincerely believe that Nigeria will actually change for the better within his lifetime, hence this hypocritical attitude. This explains why, in as much as the rulers are looters, the ruled show no sign of being any different if given the chance either, as almost everybody is apparently either waiting for his turn, or the turn of whom he believes will benefit him personally, or actually pursuing some deals likely to culminate in a chance for him to grab his own share from what is popularly called national cake. Ironically most of such theft-addicts come from very poor backgrounds, only for them to metamorphose into such fake characters behaving as though they have never been poor before.
Frankly
speaking, we have a long way to go in order to see a Nigeria of our dream. And
unfortunately we have not yet taken the direction of that long way, which is
attitudinal transformation. We have no excuse whatsoever to attribute our
plight to God, unless if we expect Him to send down the angles to manage our
abundant human and natural resources for us to enjoy good standards of living.
