The country is beset by growing restiveness that has seen many groups clamouring for self determination. The one that’s mostly in the news is the one for Yoruba Nation. However, I’m compelled to enquire how we got here. How did we become a warring nation full of insurgents, militants and secessionists? While I don’t readily have the answer to my question, I have decided to think about what possibly rid this country of its citizens. While it has become a case of the pot calling the kettle black Nigeria is in a bad place and in bad shape. The Yoruba who fought a hard civil war with the slogan, ‘To Keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’ cannot have suddenly decided that self determination will be the way out of trouble. Would the agitation not divide Nigeria, which happened to be indivisible, indestructible and indissoluble? Since, the country has remained a one year old toddler, always throwing tantrum and full of sh#t! The Yoruba aren’t totally blameless. They are leaders of many government agencies and parastatals. They own many businesses in Nigeria. They bought up most of the foreign companies that the white folks left behind after Independence even bankrupting the Igbo in a rogue 3R (reconciliation, reintegration, rehabilitation) programme of the Federal Government after the Nigerian/Biafran war. Here, are six (6) vices that I believe negate Yoruba patriotism and inadvertently affect the progress of the country, Nigeria. These include:
1) Prejudice: Remember Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen? Anyway, this one isn’t about love affair even though it takes all into account. Prejudice means, according to my dictionary, ‘unreasonable dislike of or preference for a person, group, custom, etc, especially when it based on their race, religion, sex, etc.’ I find it hard to talk about a tribe that I don’t belong to. However, permit me to use my time spent in Oyo state to talk about my experiences and hence, this blog post. I don’t know what anybody knows about the Yoruba except that they are the children of the Oduduwa and hardly tolerate criticism. They would even kill their own who challenges their prejudice. The late Chief Bola Ige was probably a notable victim. Their preference for anybody supersedes common sense. No matter whatever extenuating evidence is before them, the Yoruba wouldn’t budge. Once they are given to an inclination, it’s dead there, never to be reassessed nor reexamined. I had to leave Idia Hall for this very reason and never returned. I didn’t want people being unnecessarily bullied or sullied while others were given the ‘sacred cow’ treatment. I saw it during my one year NYSC at AFCS, Ibadan. One lady was preferred over other six corps members. Each week, she went in to speak to the commandant. Each week, she spent time discussing with him probably concerning her mates. He accommodated that well. I had on occasion gone to see the same leader and of course, it had to be the last time that I went in to have a long talk with him. The same officer who complained bitterly of the time I spent with him, who never complained to my hearing about the excesses of that corps member. Strangely, she never appeared in any of the pictures taken during the exercise yet got all the attention. Lol. So, that’s my point. She spoke to him all the time and the two made her the leader of the corps members without consulting anybody. A woman who conversed in pidgin English only during the entire exercise. I didn't realize when pidgin was the national language of formal communication. But the military officers perhaps with the exception of Flight Lieutenant Ogbonda were prejudiced in favour of her and her excesses. Even those who observed the corps when they were above 30 years were favoured. I wasn't bullied but it did seem that there was a prejudice against me especially whenever I brought up the sensitive duty I was detailed with another corps members. While Ibadan isn't all of Yoruba land it's supposed to be the educated part. Shouldn't they have been more aware of the consequences of prejudice?
When we first arrived the compound of AFCS, Ibadan, the commandant warned us, the new corps members, that if we exceeded the one week he gave us to return to work after the Orientation exercise that he was going to reject us. Theresa Agbubui was still the one who came back after two weeks and nothing was done to her. Another corps member stayed away from the exercise but only managed to do his community service every week, yet nobody complained to the Secretariat. I shall speak more on this on patronage. I knew that I was favoured especially since I sat the UME for Civil Law and gained admission to study Igbo instead. Even though it wasn’t my preferred course of study it was regarded as very unheard of that anybody would be so lucky. Chai.
Many candidates who probably didn’t qualify got their preferred courses/programmes of study. Imagine this went into the public sphere especially in government ministries. How would you think the country was run; on mere prejudice? It’s not healthy to have left the leadership of Nigeria to elements that favoured people based on whatever preference that they chose as individuals or a group. The country is bleeding too much for how depravation has become centre stage and nobody is discouraging the evil. Imagine a military leader preferring a syndicate than bona fide graduates of the country. And you ask how we got in with insurgency? The military sold us for all sorts of prejudice. Ah! Whenever an Igbo is concerned the Yoruba will run away but open their door to an enemy. Favour is a personal preference but when it comes to work and life, one must eschew prejudice. Anyway…. Ashewo/prostitution cannot be a work culture. If she were a decoy why let her do so much harm and still consider it harmless because you preferred a lay about? Why should remain in your life if it were merely for work? The baby mama syndrome appears to be the only way the military thought to unite the nation. What a shame as they can’t get out of it. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and all other government machinery are not the means to reward and sponsor the baby mama industry no matter how suitable they might appear. That’s indiscipline allowed to run too long. Abuse of authority due to prejudice (with other vices) is vile. A word is enough for the wise.
2) Pride: Most English words have several meanings attached to them and pride isn’t an exception. In this context, pride comes into play when you look around and value the events of the past. Let’s check the dictionary again. Pride is ‘a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction that you get when you or people who are connected with you have done something well or own something that other people admire.’ Do I call this positive pride? Em…well sort of. There are other meanings including this one: the feeling that you are better or more important than other people. Most people would readily categorize this latter meaning as negative pride. Well…sort of too. Considering the earlier meaning of pride, I think again that my experiences with UI and the NYSC come to mind. Many events took place while I attended the University of Ibadan. It appeared that a Yoruba man named Mr. Michael Ajayi brought a syndicate to school that were of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I didn’t know how that was faintly possible as I had only gone to UI after taking the UME examination having consulted the JAMB brochure. I have discussed that matter in another blog post. Mr. Ajayi would be vindicated if he was surprised as I was at the number of LDS Church members who chose to attend UI while I was there. I hadn’t informed anybody of my choice to study at UI. My choice was as a result of deficiency and trial. I wasn’t bothered by the number but there was cause to wonder. The only members of the church who attended UI at the time were just two. There were about seven of us who got admitted into UI during the 1998 set. I didn’t know what brought about that certain jump in number. I came the farthest, from Aba, others came from the Southwest, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states. I believe that people got themselves planning for a group of students who had to meet in Ibadan. I wouldn’t know what got people interested in UI. I was only interested in getting admitted into Law. I speak only for myself. While our studies went on, a few hitches here and there happened especially with ASUU strike action. Then there was Joanne’s death. I wouldn’t know what brought about that death. The one, who told me, because I had travelled home to Aba, said she suffered burns from a motor accident and was buried in Sango cemetery. By the way, I never heard about Linda again. Oh, UI. I was told Bunmi travelled to the USA. A lot took place that I find rather confusing.
But today, I’m aware that there has been a gathering in Aba by the groups from UI and the NYSC at the Air Force Comprehensive School, Ibadan. I don’t understand the occasion and the celebration. Is it a celebration of witches and warlocks? What are they conferring on themselves? Was the group at UI that metamorphosed into one LDSSA, Latter-day Saints Students Association, and a cult? Who formed it and why? Who got hold of that group and turned it into a group of gossips? Mr. Ajayi, for his daughter, Lara Ajayi, who was also a UI student to be exalted? Although the Ajayis were useful should any abuse I suffered for knowing them not be called into question? Being young and naïve or presumed so, shouldn’t be a reason to fall or have fallen prey to pranksters and evil doers. Nobody came to steal UI or Ibadan from Mr. and Mrs. Ajayi and their daughter, at least not me. I never heard of nor sought any prize for attending UI except for my certificate. I never thought that I took anything from the Ajayis even with having studied Igbo, it appears some people aren’t at peace. Yet it appears that some madness has got hold of Mormons, like they had to go rampaging everywhere. They made everything a huge secret for themselves to guard. The ogboni thing to do, for freemasons? Please. What’s their pride, the earlier pride or the latter pride? The first one would suggest evil satisfaction in succeeding and getting people destroyed. The second pride would be feeling more successful than others because of having made better life decisions. Need there be such competition? Who set the terms and conditions? Who gave the orientation? Who set the prize? I can only call this a Yoruba problem as it wouldn’t be natural for me to act the way they did. Don’t get me talking about the USA where it wasn’t even needed. People still felt it their pride of place to stalk and monitor my movement to ensure that I wouldn’t succeed. The USA was better than Nigeria but humans are the same all over the world. They still buy gossip, especially when they aren’t the direct victim of any dishonour. Tufiakwa!
3) Patronage: Patronage means the support, especially financial, that is given to a person or organization by a patron. It is also the system by which an important person gives help or a job to somebody in return for their support. I appear to be ranting but the evil people who are known to me know that this is the grail. There was white interference post Independence but the extent that Nigerians succumb to humiliating others is quite shameful. Some people want help for every reason under the sun. They want to get married, they need help. They want to have children, they ask for help. Much of the time the help is often financial. The promise heaven and earth of yours to their patrons in return for the aid. When Mr. Ajayi helped me secure admission mainly by taking me around the Faculty of Arts (he never took me to Faculty of Education so as not to compete with his daughter) he didn’t ask for any money. I didn’t offer him any. I felt proud of being Nigerian. No sex was given in exchange either. I consider him bringing out his time and office as quite altruistic of him. I still hold that view of him till date as far as that admission was concerned. I haven’t been told that he held a different opinion. I’ve only been disappointed in him reading my mission call. I have a little problem of being disturbed when people do the unruly. It wasn’t in his place to have read my letter and I felt insulted. I find it difficult to ‘gift’ the way Nigerians do nowadays. I don’t like to give and I don’t like to receive. Oh, Nigerians killed civil service with ‘official gifts’ which they never acknowledge as bribery and corruption. It was possible that Mr. Ajayi would have needed some money but I didn’t want to yield myself to blackmail. Besides, I had thought that it was unprincipled of him to have asked for any money including the fact that I didn’t even get Civil Law, my preferred course of study. What a miser I must have been. But I dislike patronage. Don't accept patronage as help, because it's a time bomb that must explode and destroy the nation.
Patronage leads to graft and other forms of corruption. It leads to blackmail and undue and unhealthy fraternity. When people actively help others they make demands of them sometimes even sexual demands are included in the deal apart from asking for flimsy loyalty. Many prostitution rings have been built out of patrons wanting to keep their aids active in jobs or aid. Many of such patrons are called the Godfather. Some godfather assume they have become such by merely offering official help or financial aid to their charges or wards. No contract was negotiated nor reached by the parties. This appears to be very prevalent among the Yoruba. Homage is paid to those patrons to continue the relationship that often cheats rivals of their own rights and privileges. I didn’t understand how a commandant, then a wing commander, allowed a corps member, one Nanzing Wuyep who was rumoured to be the biological son of the then Chief of Air Staff, Jonah Wuyep, the opportunity to be absent from work for nearly one year. The commandant, then Wing Commander Joshua Adetunji Ogunbiyi covered up for him and got us the peasants to do our work with little dignity of sameness accorded us. The absent corps member even was given and kept a bedroom to himself while he was away while those of us who were on ground had to live two in a bedroom for the duration of the programme even when some rooms became vacant later. Talk of sacred cow and scapegoats, all due to patronage. He probably wanted to be in good terms with Jonay Wuyep. I didn’t like to be a participant in what appeared to be some arm wringing among titans going up to the Presidency. All this happened over fifteen years ago. And the trend appears as an ordinance that must be maintained and entrenched.
I’ve been struggling to get a job since graduating the University. I don’t know Wuyep’s fate. He’s probably in some job using his father’s connection. For instance, when a man helps a lady gain admission into a higher institution and she becomes close to him, he’s likely to use her to gain official information from lecturers or non academic staff. I didn’t discuss my studies with Mr. Ajayi in UI, and never about Boston. Even when I made attempts to change to Law or combine my course, I didn’t tell him. I felt that I had bothered him with my admission trouble so I decided to go it alone afterward. He provided very useful help, akin to patriarchal one except that he never paid for me. I didn’t ask for money from him. Nowadays, everybody uses a connection to get a job. It’s prevalent even in the Southeast. Patronage is all they do. My mother came through for me to secure a job after one year a quest was initiated in Umuahia. Many who also secured the same job paid between N150, 000 to N250, 000. Senators, trying to win votes, are often the only ticket to securing a job in the federal ministries. Yoruba who got ahead of Igbos after the war man many of them. They were the principal officers in the oil industry and ensured that they got their people (family and friends) into most oil jobs. Merit was slaughtered on the altar of patronage. This vile act negated prequalification. It enthroned conspiracies and all sorts of rackets. Productivity tanked.
It won’t be surprising that the economy is in a bad place because of the support the patrons give to their charges to secure jobs and pay back in cash or kind. How can any country thrive when we deeply entrench such divisive vice as patronage? I don’t know. Unfortunately, many of the recipients of such ‘patronage’ are Igbo women, many having dropped out of school in order to ‘marry.’ Who fed them such lie, that their men would only marry them if they didn’t finish school? That must be the case as a huge prize must be hanging on my head and any man who paid pittance as bride price would be ‘onye ohi’ or ‘onye anyakwu,’ a thief or the greedy one.
During my NYSC, a very unqualified woman came to observe an exercise meant for people who were under 30 years old, conveniently leaving her family behind at Onitsha. This was before I was 25 years old. Oh, Nigerians. This is false unity. The Yoruba who saw her said nothing to her about her exceeding the age bracket to my hearing. Keeping girlfriends at work doesn’t yield the desired gain for national development. It builds entitlement in the recipients and hopelessness in those who would disagree with the arrangement. Patronage breeds envy in the workforce. Financial rewards given to people for personal relationship, while holding public trust is unforgivable. It negates national unity. What would I gain from being in such company, gossip and egusi soup? I would like to believe that they are still friends with her till date. They have shamelessly kept in touch possibly for business engagement and filial relationship. Nigerians are shameless whenever you employ world standards to their civil life and culture. Helping Mabel Nwunye Ubaka (who taught French at AFCS, Ibadan) to complete her national youth service and keep her youth as an alibi is detrimental to patriotism. I couldn’t care more that I’m Igbo too. Igbos love themselves indeed? The NYSC has been bastardized and the Yoruba continue to give illegitimate support to their baby mamas/mistresses while the country borrows money for its upkeep due to patronage.
4) Insolence: This means the act of being ‘extremely rude and showing a lack of respect.’ The Yoruba have a way of showing insolence that can rattle just about anybody. They feel very upset whenever they have a visitor around. They feel used whenever they have proffered any help to another no matter how insignificant. They place a price tag on anybody or anything just because they are in authority or known to you. I didn’t know this about Nigerians. They appear to still prefer slavery to comradeship from one Nigerian to another. They hardly see other Nigerians as compatriots. Who feed them that amala, I wouldn’t know. They are always cursing somebody under their breath, sometimes audibly. I find them cantankerous. I learnt all this, while attending school and at Ile Igbon working among them. They are kind but it must always come back with some annoyance that makes the aid you received irresponsible. When I got accommodation in Idia Hall, during my first year, I was forced to accommodate another student, a diploma student who became a pain in the butt. They make you feel like you have no right to your own property for the fact that you had shown them some respect. Even at Ile Igbon, the corps members posted to Air Force Comprehensive School, were treated like school children, forced to live two per room, probably a spy ploy. This was even a truce after we were asked to leave. I didn’t want to have gone round looking for a place to redeploy in Ibadan, which was probably not an easy feat. That group has continued to look like school children because they paid obeisance to the commandant and to other officers of the Air Force. They are either bona fide graduates or a gang known to the leaders who needed them for their selfish deeds. Nobody knows the prognosis of the terrorist problems in Nigeria but there’s no telling how a small compound had insulted people who had ties to men of the underworld.
There was one Mr. Olufemi who was probably whom everybody had to befriend before tbey would have access to any useful information that the entity had to offer to Nigerian graduates. Nigeria didn’t have to have run clandestinely but she chose to do so. And we are in trouble for the patronage and insolence of the past. I believe that many have benefited from this form of pipeline government but it leaves wealth in the wrong hands. It destroys confidence and everybody loses faith in the country. Don’t go thinking I’m trying to tear anybody down. They have many virtues, believe me. But this piece isn’t about their goodness and mercy, which are many when counted. I think they should watch out for possible ways to eradicate insolence from the communication and interaction with other people. I had endured any seemingly annoying interference with Mr. Michael Ajayi, but I never liked that he opened my mail when I got a mission call. I had never heard that it was anybody’s right to open mail because you used him as a care. Their insolence cost them their land.
5) Indolence: This is ‘refusal to work.’ Many Yoruba didn’t want to work preferring to tell stories all day. During my NYSC, it was customary for many of the teaching staff to stand under a tree and gist nearly all day. It was interesting how they were still able to teach the children. I knew one of my batch mates (one Theresa/Tessy Agbugui) who sat all day and told stories at work. This probably has entrenched the culture of indolence even among the Igbo of nowadays. The work at the Local Governments was the same; not much work was done in the offices yet much time was spent telling stories in such places. How would story telling feed the nation, bikonu? Who are the slaves? The men and women at Alaba Suru? Or Idumota, Balogun and Dugbe markets while the civil servants had a field day telling stories. O di egwu. The University of Ibadan (which should have been the University of Nigeria Ibadan to put the Yoruba in their place) was an exception here as my entire lecturers taught their classes except for those who engaged student tutors as then Mr. Demola Lewis.
6) Wickedness: The act/state of being morally bad, evil. It also means being ‘dangerous, harmful or powerful.’ Do you remember Shylock, the Merchant of Venice who wanted a pound of flesh as payback for what he was owed? Many a Yoruba man typifies that Shakespearean character. Having said that, it’s fair to say the Yoruba have formed a very dangerous patronage system that has negated their patriotism in Nigeria. They hardly tell you that you owe them or what you owe them. They hold on to grudges forever preferring personal vendetta than reconciliation. They turn your friends against you even when it’s clear they aren’t their friends either paying them with silly patronage for their support. They make demands of your sexual life and get broke fighting you if you refuse. Mr. Olufemi of Air Force Comprehensive School, became friends with the other Ijeoma (Iwuchukwu whose presence in that school was probably rogue), another corps member because I refused his overtures. Patrons work well with harlots and prostitutes. I had no idea why those women were not called to order. Many people have gone home since the NYSC but not the group that served at AFCS, Ibadan. They are still leaching onto the Yoruba patronage.
The Yoruba patronage was ‘helping’ Igbo women who didn’t graduate higher institution to welfare and such was believed to not be tribally motivated. The NYSC and the Yoruba patronage are making graduates of people by often asking people fake identities in order to win jobs. The Yoruba and the Igbo have formed a wicked alliance allowing syndicates to run people through the NYSC with the identities of people who graduated higher institution before the age of 30. Many people have had to observe the NYSC twice causing government waste because there’s no government accountability. The Yoruba think they are victims of national unity and not users of patronage. That’s wickedness. They don’t have the right to institute graduate establishment scheme through the NYSC to anybody who wasn’t given that right by school. Today, they are asking support from their vendors in ways that are probably preposterous. The NYSC, in my view, wasn’t a degree awarding endeavour. It appears that the Yoruba are trying to change the system. They peg witches to corps members who would jinx their career forever. Why do people do that? One came with cocoyam. Another came with itchy palms. I knew not how such was relevant to national development or national unity. The GSM has provided the patrons and their prostitutes tools for evil doing. Even the military equipment and gadgets have been used to initiate spying syndicates. How would anybody tolerate such of a nation that fakes its innocence and hides its culpability? They form evil alliances often behind your back to tell lies against, you, their enemy. They feed their lie forever. Trust me; you are their enemy even without them telling you so. They tell and repeat stories without verifying their source and veracity. The Yoruba keep thieves and other criminals on the payroll for what they stand to gain from offering such assistance.
These days, many people prefer the back door in giving contracts and jobs than using merit and good conscience. Double standard appears to be the order of the day. It takes forever for any policy hindering progress to be changed because vendors are afraid of shaming the godfather. They don’t give any aid without expecting kickback or support in return. The Igbo are such the copycat. What is Nigeria turning into, a nation of thieves? The support they required was often not negotiated in the beginning and will almost always lead to confusion and conflict. But many people have stayed in such patronage because of the situation of the country as well paid jobs are scarce. They employ what is called ‘juju’ to make victim of their rival. They lie maliciously in order to cause trouble for others. They allow their vendors to do same. They allow people to get away with vices because they have ‘helped’ somebody who should be corrected or taught a lesson instead. They introduce nuisance into one’s life and cause them to spy on you and spoil the show for you. Yes, they are spoiler.
They use decoy to detract from the work and make it appear that merit isn’t necessary. They embellish the truth and keep a lie going for as long as they need the malice to grow. You cannot call covering up for a thief, ‘help.’ What sort of help allows for indolence, insolence, pride and prejudice to be paid for by tax payers? I’m talking about the whole gamut of a country’s civil service being recruited on patronage. No work is done because everybody is connected to the ‘Oga at the Top.’ They are ever the busybody because they didn’t merit the job they got. Something tells me Theresa Agbugui Ameh is known to this administration because much of the decay in the country runs like her style. Everything is F and G – French (F#ck) and Gossip. For several years the country hasn’t conducted interviews from the Federal Civil Service Commission, Abuja. I had applied for work since 2011, yet no day did I learn that anybody shortlisted or was shortlisted let alone got employed by the Commission. Yet new graduates are being employed without announcement and advertisement. I’ve had to be employed without such announcement but it was because only one slot was needed for a project and the employer had limited funds to advertise and recruit candidates. So, I was invited, interview and got employed. This was in the USA. This wasn’t to set the pace for a country’s mode of employment. I don’t know why personal business affects public policy. The Yoruba would take the heat because they are mostly those who have taken up key positions in government till date. We can’t turn a blind eye to such utter wickedness. Even the woman Mabel Ezeobi wasn’t a friend although I had tried to let peace reign. I asked her in private why she chose to observe the NYSC even though she had passed the age bracket. She replied that she needed a federal job. While Mrs Ezeobi (Nwunye Ubaka) Yet a Yoruba man, Mr. Olufemi kept calling her ‘my mother’ because we walked to school together. In the same vein, Ijeoma Iwuchukwu and Uchenna Ohagwu would be called ‘spouses’ because they walked everywhere together. Why would the Yoruba turn a one year transient programme into a life calling? Who affords people such luxury? Only the Yoruba know how to make a mountain out of any mole hill and stir up storms in tea cups. I never learnt that the NYSC was going to come with a life sentence judged by every cough, decision, intention, action and inaction of one fiscal year.
No comments:
Post a Comment