I had sent in my newly published book to very senior government official many years ago. I had in fact sent it with a letter requesting for support along with five copies of the book ahead of the public presentation. He neither replied nor responded nor answered. In the meantime I had already sent five books.
I called his aides to remind him and they told me he had not received it. I called my staff and berated them. They told me the books had been delivered. Unfortunately they did not collect a number. I considered it a bad rap and moved on with my life. Two months later while visiting Jos for a training I was conducting. While sitting in a restaurant, I saw an expatriate reading a copy of my book. I had not had a public presentation in Jos and decided to ask him how he got a copy. I walked up to him and told him I was the author of the book he was reading. He looked at the blurb and saw my picture and responded with a wide grin.
Very nice to meet you, he said with an accent. Clearly he was not English but spoke English fairly well. Then he shocked me. He had gotten the book from the very senior official whose aides had told me he said he had not received the book. I was stupefied. He had in fact received the books, failed to acknowledge them and was distributing it randomly.
By the time I returned to Abuja. I wrote a reminder, called his aides and was able to get a stipend for the books which had already being consumed. Unfortunately the damage had already been done. His image and his integrity were in tatters. I am a bit ashamed of the way a lot of Nigerians conduct themselves these days. We have clearly lost our sense of direction. We are at a place now where our word is not our bond. In the past we used to say most Politicians were the ones who had no integrity. But I have found lack of integrity between spouses because I counsel, between parents and children, lying parents, cheating children and between teachers and students, between school principals and staff and among civil servants and civil society organisations. It is insane. People tell you one thing and do something totally different. There are daylight brazen lies and the people telling those lies know its an untruth but they do it anyway. Public service, private sector and our visitor some members of the International community are learning to be like us. Barefaced lies. It is amazing.
Read Also: Fidelity Bank CEO advises employees on ethics, integrity
The other day a young friend of mine who teaches told me that her Principal is double faced. She would give you permission to travel and then deny it when the Vice principal asks after you. She would deny that she knows your where about and throw you under the bus. Bosses who lie and give you major anxiety, children who cannot say what they mean or mean what they say, public servants who push untruth and dress it up as the truth and private sector practitioners who evade tax and shout the loudest when there is conversations about how Nigeria is not doing well. It is such a tragedy.
No matter how far we go as a nation, what minuses us in the eyes of other nationals are our trust and integrity issues
Shamelessness has taken over our land, pirates and criminals are expanding their girth, families are no longer wholesome and the worst of us are brandishing guns and unhinged us all. It is sad that a nation where truth and integrity used to be respected has thrown it all out of the window for luce and for greed.
My only concern is how this will affect children and the dynamics of the society? I am also concerned about the diminishing number of people with integrity in our national ecosystem. The general comment from those you try to encourage staying with integrity is turning around to ask who integrity help?
Now we watch as all the values we grew up with are frittered away. Honesty, hardwork, community are frittered away.
These days I watch when bank security or security in a public place checks temperatures for covid-19 spikes. They brush the instrument against your skin without actually taking your temperature. When they are tired, they don’t actually give you sanitisers anymore. But that is their Job description. They have departed because no one is watching. Integrity is all about doing your work when no one is watching, being honourable, letting your word be your bond?
In Lagos two weeks ago, my airport driver was stopped by a policeman for using a one way. I was reading so had missed it. In the end after much pleading the taxi driver settled him by using some of the advance I had given him. He was quite angry with the policeman raining invectives on him for spoiling Nigeria. I said nothing. His option was to go to a mobile court and he chose to find the path of least resistant. His fine was going to be 150,000 naira. He chose to part with less and leave. In fact the policeman had told me he would put me in another taxi so the taxi driver could be taken to the police station. By the time we got to my hotel, he called ne aside and begged that I should not let his boss, the owner of the taxi know how much he had parted with. This was so he could increase how much he paid the policeman and therefore cheat his boss. This attitude that is now Nigeria wide to cheat the next fellow makes me so sad. No matter how far we go as a nation, what minuses us in the eyes of other nationals are our trust and integrity issues. And it is across board on small and big issues destroying the very fabric of our society. Who will rescue our nation?
