Government is and will remain a foreign symbol. Average Nigerian does not see government as ‘we-project’ but ‘they-structure’. Government does not belong to us, it belongs to them. Government is a white man’s structure of economic oppression, their ccompany. Our people who work in government are white men’s puppet. They are biblical Esaus who would sell public birth right over a plate of Jacob’s porridge. That’s why Igbos till date call civil servants ‘Ndi Oru Oyibo- White men’s workers. They do not work for general interest but serve white people in their needs.
In Achebe’s No Longer At Ease, Okonkwo was repudiated by his kinsmen not for the embarrassment and shame he brought to his family by stealing from this company called government but for not being smart enough to escape the eagle eyes of the government. Nigeria as a country is seen as colonial creation, symbol of sad memory. Nigeria is not our country, our fatherland. It represents interest other than ours. It is the graveyard of Euro-mentality. It is a white man’s structure where Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas and others amalgamated for perpetual war of survival of the fittest.
Average Nigerian worker is always on target for the least opportunity to defraud that oppressive entity called Nigeria. Nigeria independence could not change it. The post-independence leaders knew that Nigeria is not a nation but a company; and if it is a country, it is not ours. The post-independence leaders were ethnically chauvinistic, worse than European overlords. They do not see themselves as ‘Ndi Oru Obodo- servants of public, who are called to guard and serve public destiny aright. And generations of leaders that followed them were not different.
Public and civil servants squander trust and betray common destiny. Work is not for job satisfaction but self-aggrandizement. Widespread looting has seen money go into the hands of privilege few. Leaders are iron fisted and adopt politics of divide and rule to keep their subjects restive while looting goes unnoticed. There is enthronement of mediocrity and suppression of ingenuity. Strong races are weakened, manipulated to sing with discordant voices and ridiculed before weaker races. Among the workers, there is authority consciousness. Everybody wants to be at the top but nobody wants to work. The masses have also learnt that criminality is pay off and decency is indicting.
All these ugly developments point to one destination: Nigerians are in dire need of moral courage to guide and mentor themselves. Every day now reveals that the way we run government sabotages future. Everywhere bleeds profusely of poverty, failure of leadership. Serial killers are made custodians of public conscience because they belong to ruling confraternity. The greediness and irresponsibility of leaders have met the indisposition of citizens to make hard choice. There is no patriotism after all why dying for a country that doesn’t care you exist!
When lawlessness becomes the only norm, dishonesty becomes statecraft and money flows into the hands of fools and big criminals. Nigerians know the price of things and not their value. Traditional rulers, children, women, etc all want money and nothing else. Traditional rulers know that giving title to rich fools and criminals will guarantee a change of menu, car, and luxury. Traditional stools and churches are busy conferring honours on public enemies not minding the message it sends to the awaiting public. Money is the only value worth looking and dying for.
In most families, a child is acceptable mostly if he comes home with money, even if he has killed or looted public treasury to get it. No father asks his children the source of the money they bring home. Once one has money, the relatives are happy. The parents are proud, the siblings brag lawlessly in his name and connection. It does not make sense whether he has gone to school. The next thing he does is to look for a graduate to marry, even when he cannot write his name. With no brain and virtue, his wedding will have the officiating witness of bishops even as the couple does not know the basic moral obligations and mutual duties of a Christian couple. Pastors in the parish use the opportunity for fund raising. Economy has substituted for love in marriage. He who has money has everything.
Towns repudiate their sons and daughters in public service who fail to bring down all government projects to their homes. A public servant is good if he loots public treasury and privileges in favour of his people. A politician is a Christian if his loot robs of on church projects. He is given all titles in the church. What leaders do with pen, criminals do with guns, pastors also do with the Bible. That name ‘Jesus’ is providing menu on the table of pastors that have converted pulpit to platform and workshops. Instruments of our professions have been turned to tools of dishonesty. Engineers use their clippers to frustrate government heavy machines and make case for changing some damaged parts, real or imagined. Doctors use their scissors to terminate pregnancy. The list is endless.
The worst is that no Nigerian is ready to accept any blame. Every person admires decency in foreign countries but nobody works to make Nigeria better. Nigerian armed robbers are angry when their victims tell them lies. We want those around us to be honest but we cannot be. We want power but disobey people in authority. The northerners want peace wherever they are in Nigeria but southerners do not deserve to live in their place. Government blames people and people blame government. The church faults civil leadership but her own leadership as a divine institution has not fared batter. At another time, we say it is Islam but the rivalry among Christian denominations can’t convince us that Islam is our real problem. We unite only in moment of crisis and scatter in peacetime. Nigeria is a country hated and deserted by her sons and daughters.
No person can live in Nigeria without catching from it madness of corruption. Professional integrity remains as long as temptation of money has not come. And when it comes, not many of us can resist. I might be forgiven for thinking that in my apostleship of pen money can change my adjectives in favour of he who pays the piper. God forbid! We all have gone mad.
