Dear Reader, there are so many emotions coursing through my veins, along with what I hope is red blood, that I don’t know which one I should indulge first. Well, there’s the very shocking news that Spain has appointed a very beautiful woman as its, wait for it, Minister for Sex. Now, I say, that is a very hot one. Have you seen her picture? Man, she is hot, and her job is even hotter. She is charged with the onerous duty of jacking up the
population of the country which they say has been dwindling since 2008. For the life of me, I don’t know how Spain hopes that this beautiful woman can turn the nation’s population situation around. I mean, she is just one woman! Well, we can only wait for the logic of her appointment to mature.
Then there was the hilarious story that an Eighty-two year old (82) Nigerian justice was being screened for an ambassadorial position. Seriously! That was one big hoot for me; but the bigger hoot was the sentence that said the ‘Screening Committee was shocked’ (!!!) when the old man ‘refused to recite the national anthem’. Believe me, I am shocked that the committee was not as shocked by an 82-year-old being nominated as by his refusal to recite an anthem. Wonders will never end, they say.
Let me see now, if I am lucky enough to hit 82, I don’t think I will be wasting my time remembering the anthem of a country. I will be lucky if I know the name of the country I’m living in. So, what can that old man be thinking of seeking this kind of appointment? More importantly, I’m thinking, what is President Buhari thinking of nominating someone of that age? Most importantly, what is the committee thinking of by going ahead to screen an eighty-two year-old man for a job outside the country, even if it only takes him to Cotonou? What is this country, a circus?!
Then, during the week, I heard again that people have now ditched putting looted money in overhead tanks or underground soak-away. The government has wizened to those tricks. So now, looters have resorted to hiding their money in coffins. Really!!! I mean, how sick, desperate and twisted can Nigerians really be, I ask myself? Obviously, very.
To top my emotions, I came across the news that the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had admonished Nigerians to stop ‘celebrating’ treasury looters. Now, say I, what is our VP trying to do, cause disaffection between looters and their worshippers? Does he not know that indeed most people steal these monies so that they can attract hordes of worshippers to themselves? Sir, the average Nigerian would not go after money as they do if there was no one to worship or envy them, and that is the half-truth. I don’t know the other half. Seriously, I have heard so many arguments on this I am almost believing them. Examples: Nigerian leaders are bad but the followers are just as bad. Therefore, the followers are as much to blame as the leaders. Another version says that actually, it is the followers that make the leaders bad. Yet another version says the leaders are the contagions. They contaminate everything they touch – whether they are political, social or religious leaders. They are all the same. Now, I’ve heard everything. So, where were we? Oh yes, we were trying to settle the question of which is influencing the other more: the leadership or the followership.
I have been in gatherings where people have argued back and forth on this question as if they were trying to settle once and for all the question of which came first: the chicken or the egg. How shall we ever know except we ask Papa Noah just what he placed in his ark – two eggs or two chickens? Until then, we have to hold our peace and calmly examine the issues.
I honestly cannot argue for any side but I can wax historical and lyrical. I remember that there was a time in this country, around the sixties and seventies, I think, when leadership positions – whether in corporations, civil service, army, etc., — were held very delicately. At that time, a good name was more important than gold because it opened even more doors. Now, the reverse is the case. The gold is esteemed to bring in the name. This is why people are going after the money like mad.
Listen, both the leadership and the followership have failed dishonourably but one definitely bit the dust before the other. Most people who come to power are under the illusion that it is ‘what the people want.’ In truth, the real power does belong to the people. Most times, however, a few force their will on the ‘people’ by hijacking the machineries of power until the people rise with one voice as happened in France in the eighteenth century when the entire country rejected the dynasty of the reigning king and queen. It also happened in Russia when the people got rid of the reigning Czar and instituted a more people-based government.
However, in those and more cases, the people were led by their hunger and anger, both of which were vulcanised together by a vociferous group on behalf of the people into one coalesced ball of fiery action. In other words, even a revolution needs a leader. However, in sane climes, the leader steers the state but the people rule his heart and hand. What is known today as the western world has been able to endure because the people rule the hand of the ruler. Twisted paradox, no?
The point is that the people are important only if they are well informed about their rights and obligations in the land, and responsibly discharge both. This was the first thing America’s early leaders ensured: the people’s rights and obligations. Nigeria’s leaders since independence have never consciously tried to bring up the people to a position of knowledge about their rights and obligations in order to empower them to take responsible and informed decisions. This is why it is so easy for the new elites to simply fall in line with the will of the country’s leaders rather than the will of the people.
Reader, the paragraphs above have been given as an attempt to explain what is going on in the country. It is not meant to excuse bad behaviour on anybody’s part. The people’s behaviour in celebrating treasury looting is still reprehensible because they are adoring today what will make them cry tomorrow. However, the leaders’ behaviour is more condemnable because they are knowingly and recklessly leading the people to destroy themselves.
The onus for change lies with everybody. It seems more realistic to me however when the leaders are seen to be serious with the desire to lead by taking serious actions against looting. China, I hear, summarily executes such people. Better one man dies than millions be contaminated. We here can jail them. However, when Nigeria pats looters on the back, the only message that is passed is ALOOTER CONTINUA. Now, I must go reconcile my housekeeping accounts before I become…
Credit: http://thenationonlineng.net
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