Dishonourable honour

Also published in Daily Trust

The use of vulgar language and fists to settle political differences by the politicians at all levels of government in Nigeria does not only warn of serious repercussions on the already fragile peace in the country, but it also erodes the already meagre amount of public respect the politicians enjoy.  

Though it, albeit rarely, happens in some other developing democracies, it is particularly becoming phenomenal in Nigeria, where no meeting, conference or gathering no matter who are in attendance, is considered too important to be turned into a wrestling ring where the wrestlers are ironically “honourable” lawmakers and “distinguished” legislators, who trade unprintable abuses and go berserk exchanging blows, breaking the furniture, smashing the equipment to eventually and shamelessly emerge with swollen faces, tattered and blood-stained clothes.

Now that, both the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly and many other state and local government legislative chambers are already used to free-for-all fighting, one can’t rule out the possibility of a similar incident even in Presidential chambers also, and right in the presence of Mr. President himself. This is even if he does not physically get involved also.

After all, before the recent fight at the national assembly between members of Bamanga Tukur-led faction and Baraje-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, there was a bloody “legislative confrontation” in Rivers State Assembly several weeks ago, where in the process of the ensuing chaos, an “honourable” legislator was videotaped pounding and battering another “honourable” member with the very assembly mace, which is the symbol of authority.

Moreover, a couple of years ago some widely circulated images of another “honourable” lawmaker with tattered clothes and a female “honourable” legislator being dragged out of the chamber of the House of Representatives during another fight in 2010 were equally very embarrassing.

Anyway, while I feel quite embarrassed whenever an incident of such nature occurs, I pity myself for being too unlucky to be governed by such supposedly educated and responsible people, whose behaviours ironically confirm how they are attitudinally stuck in the past. Besides, only the intellectually disadvantaged resort to verbal abuse and physical violence to settle their ideological, intellectual or political differences.

Furthermore, this attitude reflects the sheer desperation of such leaders and officials to cover up their gross incompetence and failure to live up to the expectation of the people they supposedly lead or represent, which has also stripped them of self-confidence necessary to inspire the public. Consequently, they instinctively behave completely contrary to what is expected from them by virtue of the positions they hold.

One can easily observe this even from a distance especially by comparing them with their counterparts elsewhere. For instance, while they hardly show respect and courtesy to their subordinates, their pretentious show of respect to those who rank above them is simply too self-degrading hence definitely hypocritical.

Meanwhile, when they are among their peers before or after an official event for instance, they, apparently under the pretext of cracking jokes, descend too low where they behave like glorified adolescents in a hangout chitchatting, gesticulating and, every now and then, bursting into boisterous horse laughter.

But when they are in foreign countries or even with visiting foreign dignitaries in Nigeria, they hardly maintain their composure as they unconsciously demonstrate an inferiority complex and behave either rather shyly or even timidly, depending on the influence of the foreign  dignitaries at a particular event and the significance of the event.

It is obvious that, the way foreign diplomats in Abuja and other top ranking foreign officials in Nigeria behave and conduct their works shows how they take their Nigerian counterparts for granted and indeed how they take advantage of the inferiority complex and low self-esteem displayed by such Nigerian officials to gain undue advantage at the expense of the country.

Furthermore, while Nigerian ambassadors, high commissioners and other diplomats in foreign countries literally struggle to get the minimum respect and recognition from the officials of their host countries, British High Commissioner or French Ambassador in Abuja for instance, can, whenever he wishes, seek and get an appointment or even be granted an unsolicited appointment to meet with, not even Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, but Nigerian President himself for that matter.

After all, some leaked cable communications from American Embassy in Abuja obtained and published by the WikiLeaks maintain how many top Nigerian officials were literally begging for an appointment with the then US envoy to Nigeria, Ambassador Robin Sanders, who also appeared to have played an important role in influencing the events in the country during the political impasse caused by the long absence of the former president Umaru Musa Yar’a-dua in 2010.

Though there are no perfect leaders anywhere in the world, yet in many parts of the world there are many people in the positions of authority and influence, who are highly competent and enjoy a great deal of moral credibility as reflected by their inspiring charisma and the amount of confidence they apparently enjoy and obviously radiate.

In any case, in light of the foregoing, one can easily realize how no matter how one struggles to defy the overwhelmingly frustrating instances of leadership failure in Nigeria in order to remain optimistic and hopeful for a change in the country he will have to always give up, for he will often be confronted with monstrous hope crushing realities that get worse on a daily basis and never show any sign of improving.