Yesterday I was at a fast food joint with a friend, Dr.
Dickson, a well-educated Nigerian-Brit. Our intent for meeting was to catch up
and discuss some of his projects but we spent most of our time deliberating
Nigerian affairs. We hit on oil pipes vandalism, shared sentiments towards the
former coordinating Minister/Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the rapid
aging and weariness of our current President Buhari, the Delta state governor
and his conservative habits in sharing money, and the crucial need for state
governments to generate their own interval revenue. We also centered on the
Nigerian mindset, a hot topic among Nigerian diaspora everywhere. Quite an
inciting conversation actually.
I brought up an observation from the past year of life here-
there’s a general acceptance of subjugation by those who senior you, or elders.
If you look at the church structure, the reverend Father, priest, Pastor or
Bishop gives instructions and you’re obliged to follow it. What is, infact, an
obligation is translated to obedience to God; thereby restricting any form of
rebellion. When the father of the house speaks, everybody shuts up including
the woman, because whatever he says you must all do. When a man becomes the head
of the house after marrying a woman, he’s boss in public, though all know that
the woman runs the house, and like my father says, she’s the neck and the neck
has the power to turn the head whichever way it pleases. When at the office you
practically bow down to the ‘oga’, the boss, and subject yourself to any and
every errand on which they send you, and you must be outta your mind to
question him, and on rare occasions, ‘her- the madam.’ I think this mentality
permeates the entire black African culture, from east to west. Given this deeply ingrained hierarchical system, I had an epiphany once upon a time- If the head
is correct and applies the appropriate degree of force, they can pacify the
entire body and move it any which way they desire. So does this mean that if
the leaders of this country get it together, all of Nigeria will succumb on
goodwill?! Somehow I doubt this, but live with a glimmer of hope that it is
actually quite plausible. My doubt comes when I think of our own people and how
our, at times, serious mischief causes pernicious results. It was as if the
moral fabric of our existence as a country took on a precipitous decline and
now it may take a generation to rectify the convolution. Reminds me of a case
study on a Latin American country where the innovative mayor won the election
on the stance of changing corruption. After recommendations by ‘experts’, he
made a strenuous effort to implement them, only to incur an affront by the
every people he tried to help. Let’s just say he was voted out by the next
election cycle. See, it’s not only in Africa that such scenarios transpire:)
I’d say Dickson and I agreed that when someone wants to
bring about effective, positive change especially in politics, the people
reject the person contemptuously. We are messing up our own selves and our
status quo should be attributed to poor self leadership first and foremost,
then to leaders. Many have disagreed with this ideology, and rightfully so,
while many have gisted the same gist time and again, and in the words of
Professor Charles X: “Countless choices define our fate: each
choice, each moment, a moment in the ripple of time. Enough ripple, and you
change the tide... for the future is never truly set.”
Now back to work..
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