Musing; Hypocrites All!
Ours is a hypocritical society. Yes, we deserve our leaders. After all, we produced them, we must ‘enjoy’ the fruit of our labour.
Enough of the rants. Enough of the name calling and slander. Enough of the screams and shouts. We could as well be throwing stones at ourselves. Nonsense!
As a student in the university, I was introduced to Leadership 101 Nigerian style. Both within the secular and religious circles, the moment someone assumes, electively or selectively, a position of leadership, they stop being ‘one of us’. We, ourselves, by ourselves elevate them to levels they never expected. Some were given rooms to stay alone, or at most, with just one other person, to stay on campus. Some even had off campus apartments acquired for them by the organizations (secular or religious) they belonged to. This never made sense to me then, it still doesn’t.
I rolled more in the religious circle. Calling my colleague, a classmate, in some cases, an age mate or someone I’m even older than, ‘papa’, ‘mama’, ‘oga’ and so on riled me greatly. Many times, I didn’t, sometimes, for the sake of peace, I did. Special privileges came with the position, which I’m too embarrassed to bring to fore. Let’s just say they were unnecessary. These people were immersed in a leadership of privileges. It came with the office, they expected it. We, the people, the led, made the rules. We laid the foundation.
Let’s take a peep back into our homes and what happens there. Let’s lift the curtain on a sample family. Daddy and mummy have four children, three boys and one girl. Daddy takes the boys on outings with him while mummy stays with the girl cleaning the house and making it comfortable for the ‘men of the house’. Girl is brought up to slave for the boys, to answer to their every whim. The boys are brought up with a sense of entitlement.
Everything they ever need, or want, is dropped into their lap by mummy and sister. What they want, they get.
One of the boys grows up and goes into politics. He gets elected as a local government chairman. He grew up expecting to have what he desires, so, his constituency becomes an extension of his nuclear family. He expects those that elected him to serve him. He has never served before, he does not know how to do it. They owe him a mansion in a choice area of their constituency, a car fully paid for and serviced by them and a huge salary. Afterall, he’s sweating in his air conditioned office, on his plush leather chair, for them. He’s thinking about them and constantly attending to their cries, opening their letters has given him sore fingers. He’s giving to them much more than he has ever had to give in his life, he deserved all, and more, of what they were giving to him.
Interestingly, he did not even need to make any demands. The moment he signified interest in the position, he became a tin-god. Members of the community volunteered themselves to ‘guard and protect’ him from themselves. A chieftaincy title was immediately thrust on him. They worshipped the grounds he walked on. Winning the elections, he was told he needed to change his wardrobe. He needed to appear as a big man, he was one now, anyway. His car had to change. He needed to get something which ran into millions of their own money. They made over his office, sinking in some obnoxious amount into that. He felt like he did when mummy and sister attended to him hand and foot. It didn’t feel wrong, it felt normal.
Now, they have pimped their local government chairman and they have nothing left in the coffers. Infact, they have had to borrow. Cholera was killing them, yet they had no health centers to get treatment from. Their roads were at best retainers of rain water. In anger, they marched to chairman’s office, with stones and sticks in their hands. He did not understand their anger. I whispered to one of them, throw the stone at yourself!
It would have been a little more tolerable if it remained at this level. But the other two brothers also went into politics. They proudly became governor and senator. Now, their mother was one of those complaining that tomatoes are expensive. One of their sister’s husband’s brother had lost his job in the downsizing they helped influence and he was cussing to the clouds and back. Their own sister had lost a child during a surgery when the power supply was cut off and there was no petrol to run the generator. Their father’s older sister had been robbed on the highway by boys who had graduated for years and could not get employed. She barely escaped with her life. They were pointing fingers, they were burning tyres, they were going on strikes.
I stood by and laughed at our foolishness. Of course, their brothers did not understand their pain, they genuinely could not feel it. How much was a thirty six million naira car, compared to all the resources flowing on the streets of the nation? Oh, they deserved their cars. The nation should pamper them, cut their toenails and give them massages to calm their frayed nerves. They were sweating as they traversed between their offices and meeting venues, chauffeur driven in brand new, air conditioned SUVs. They were the real victims here.
Oh, ours is a hypocritical society! We deserve our leaders. We should stand before the mirror and throw rocks at the men and women looking back at us.
Enough of the rants. Enough of the name calling and slander. Enough of the screams and shouts. We could as well be throwing stones at ourselves. Nonsense!
As a student in the university, I was introduced to Leadership 101 Nigerian style. Both within the secular and religious circles, the moment someone assumes, electively or selectively, a position of leadership, they stop being ‘one of us’. We, ourselves, by ourselves elevate them to levels they never expected. Some were given rooms to stay alone, or at most, with just one other person, to stay on campus. Some even had off campus apartments acquired for them by the organizations (secular or religious) they belonged to. This never made sense to me then, it still doesn’t.
I rolled more in the religious circle. Calling my colleague, a classmate, in some cases, an age mate or someone I’m even older than, ‘papa’, ‘mama’, ‘oga’ and so on riled me greatly. Many times, I didn’t, sometimes, for the sake of peace, I did. Special privileges came with the position, which I’m too embarrassed to bring to fore. Let’s just say they were unnecessary. These people were immersed in a leadership of privileges. It came with the office, they expected it. We, the people, the led, made the rules. We laid the foundation.
Let’s take a peep back into our homes and what happens there. Let’s lift the curtain on a sample family. Daddy and mummy have four children, three boys and one girl. Daddy takes the boys on outings with him while mummy stays with the girl cleaning the house and making it comfortable for the ‘men of the house’. Girl is brought up to slave for the boys, to answer to their every whim. The boys are brought up with a sense of entitlement.
Everything they ever need, or want, is dropped into their lap by mummy and sister. What they want, they get.
One of the boys grows up and goes into politics. He gets elected as a local government chairman. He grew up expecting to have what he desires, so, his constituency becomes an extension of his nuclear family. He expects those that elected him to serve him. He has never served before, he does not know how to do it. They owe him a mansion in a choice area of their constituency, a car fully paid for and serviced by them and a huge salary. Afterall, he’s sweating in his air conditioned office, on his plush leather chair, for them. He’s thinking about them and constantly attending to their cries, opening their letters has given him sore fingers. He’s giving to them much more than he has ever had to give in his life, he deserved all, and more, of what they were giving to him.
Interestingly, he did not even need to make any demands. The moment he signified interest in the position, he became a tin-god. Members of the community volunteered themselves to ‘guard and protect’ him from themselves. A chieftaincy title was immediately thrust on him. They worshipped the grounds he walked on. Winning the elections, he was told he needed to change his wardrobe. He needed to appear as a big man, he was one now, anyway. His car had to change. He needed to get something which ran into millions of their own money. They made over his office, sinking in some obnoxious amount into that. He felt like he did when mummy and sister attended to him hand and foot. It didn’t feel wrong, it felt normal.
Now, they have pimped their local government chairman and they have nothing left in the coffers. Infact, they have had to borrow. Cholera was killing them, yet they had no health centers to get treatment from. Their roads were at best retainers of rain water. In anger, they marched to chairman’s office, with stones and sticks in their hands. He did not understand their anger. I whispered to one of them, throw the stone at yourself!
It would have been a little more tolerable if it remained at this level. But the other two brothers also went into politics. They proudly became governor and senator. Now, their mother was one of those complaining that tomatoes are expensive. One of their sister’s husband’s brother had lost his job in the downsizing they helped influence and he was cussing to the clouds and back. Their own sister had lost a child during a surgery when the power supply was cut off and there was no petrol to run the generator. Their father’s older sister had been robbed on the highway by boys who had graduated for years and could not get employed. She barely escaped with her life. They were pointing fingers, they were burning tyres, they were going on strikes.
I stood by and laughed at our foolishness. Of course, their brothers did not understand their pain, they genuinely could not feel it. How much was a thirty six million naira car, compared to all the resources flowing on the streets of the nation? Oh, they deserved their cars. The nation should pamper them, cut their toenails and give them massages to calm their frayed nerves. They were sweating as they traversed between their offices and meeting venues, chauffeur driven in brand new, air conditioned SUVs. They were the real victims here.
Oh, ours is a hypocritical society! We deserve our leaders. We should stand before the mirror and throw rocks at the men and women looking back at us.
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