Our traditional African culture frowned at anything remotely dishonest or unscrupulous because as it was rightly believed then, such deviant behaviour could eventually corrupt the entire community, if allowed to stand. Contrary to what prevails today, greed and selfishness were not typical African traits. As a communal people, every man was expected to be his brother’s keeper. It is unfortunate, however, that almost every African nation without exception, sunk into the perfidy of executive looting after gaining independence; ironically taking after their colonial masters who’s stock-in-trade was to steal their colonies dry and use the stolen resources to develop their own countries. Not much has changed as even now, funds looted by African leaders contribute immensely to the further development of already developed societies across the world. Turn by turn.
To justify their callous and thieving actions, the colonials patted themselves on the back for bringing “civilisation” to this dark continent and for ameliorating the African. After all, they were teaching the Africans to read and write amongst other things. The colonialists convinced themselves it was their duty to “better” the African as a human being by dismantling his primitive culture and integrating him into a more “civilised” and progressive way of life. Sadly, most African countries are yet to stabilise following this disruption to our way of life. What gives most concern is the way African leaders appear to still see the imposed form of governance by the white man as a foreign contraption which belongs to no one in particular.
This frees up their conscience to rape it repeatedly without having to deal with the inconvenience of acknowledging they are denying their own people. Still seeing government as no man’s land, for want of a better expression, the lucky individual who finds himself in government believes God’s favour has provided him an opportunity to take his own slice of the cake. After all, when he looks around, he sees everyone else just waiting his or her turn to do the same. Remember, it is turn by turn. This is not who we were, but I am afraid to say this is who we have become. An aberration has become the norm. In those days, the character of anyone vying for any position or title in his community was thoroughly examined and had to be vouched for before he could even have a chance of success. Not so anymore.
Till now we have a teeming number of our people who believe anything Oyinbo or even foreign is better than everything African. This unfortunate complex pushes many of our people to form foolishly as if there was ever good forming
Colonialism, racism, and other forms of ethnocentrism can trace their foundation to the principle of Moral Biologism. This is a theory which avers some are destined to rule while others are born to be conquered and in extreme cases, to live as slaves to the rulers. More recognizable terms are “survival of the fittest” and “might is right”. In both of these cases, the strong feel justified to do anything to come out on top and particularly in the case of the latter, moral standards are determined by the strong, as their position accords them the “right” to determine that and everything else too. Anything he does is therefore “right” since he is in the driving seat. Sounds familiar? Does it not remind you of how the Nigerian big man “chances” the poor man and even uses the policeman to enforce his will? The policeman, sworn to enforce the law, will for that moment push the rule of law aside and trample on the rights of the poor Nigerian, while dancing to the tune of the one he can instantly benefit from. In the eyes of the big man, his “might” automatically makes his actions “right” and the poor man who thinks otherwise obviously does not know his place. After all, it is his turn.
The propagators of moral biologism claim that the triumph of life forms depend on how well they can survive, based on the exploitation of others. This places the colonials in the same bracket as our so called leaders who see the Nigerian populace as a conquered people and who, rather than it prick their conscience that they treat their people so abominably, see the exploitation of the people as necessary for them to survive (sustain the status quo). We should be careful about the things we emulate.
Till now we have a teeming number of our people who believe anything Oyinbo or even foreign is better than everything African. This unfortunate complex pushes many of our people to form foolishly as if there was ever good forming. On a slightly lighter note, some of us may remember one of our biggest football stars who was lucky to play for one of the leading clubs in Belgium, at a time when there weren’t many Nigerian players plying their trade in Europe yet. After spending a couple of seasons in Belgium, he surprisingly acquired an American accent.
In Belgium! Go figure. Whether it was a New Yorker accent or a southern drawl from Texas, I really cannot remember but either would have been equally miraculous. I do not know about you, but many decades later I am still trying to work that one out.
The inhumane acts of injustice and exploitation which oppression represents, dehumanize both the oppressed and the oppressor. The former is made to feel less than human and in a desperate effort to free himself, sometimes discards of all moral inhibitions; while the latter, in his equally desperate bid to break the spirit of the oppressed through repressive and callous actions, chisels away at his own humanity, until what is left of him can be described as barely human. In the end, “no one wins.
One side just loses more slowly” is a quote from a TV program called, The Wire and it stuck in my mind because it speaks so succinctly to the current Nigerian situation where we appear to have returned to Hobbesian “state of nature”; a time where life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. It was a time when only the fittest survived. Sounds all too familiar. It is still turn by turn.
Changing the nation…one mind at a time
