First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
It suddenly dawned on me that we are living not just in the information age but in the era of diminished responsibility.
Michael Jackson sang it eloquently in the song penned by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett
thus:
I’m starting with the Man in the mirror
I’m asking him to Change his ways
No message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and make that Change
Everyone is talking about making their lives better and some go further than that; they wish for a better world. The problem is that the elusive being whose responsibility it is to fulfil this lofty dreams in the hearts of people is either permanently off-sick or has left the planet without telling anyone.
The topic of who it is that makes our ambitions transform into our reality was brought to my consciousness after a discussion with a lady who wanted to lose weight. As we talked I noticed that she had an answer to everything I said. It was a consistent answer. ‘I don’t know’.
‘How did you gain weight?’
‘Why did you gain weight?’
‘Why and how did you maintain this undesirable weight?’
‘What do you weigh?’
‘What is your ideal weight?’
All questions were met with the same, ‘I don’t know’ response.
I decided to change tactics and asked if there was anyone close to her who had the kind of weight she would like to have?
‘No’ came the reply.
‘So who are the fittest people in the city that you are aware of?’
‘I don’t know’
‘What about the athletes on telly?’ I asked.
‘They are fit, yes’ she responded.
‘Why are they fit?’
‘I don’t know’
At this stage I thought to myself, what a strange world we now live in. Surely the first step in wanting a change of any kind is to know a bit about how others have made a similar change in their lives.
‘So what do you expect I can do for you?’
‘I don’t know. You are the Doctor. You tell me. I didn’t go to Med School’ she said. At this stage I perceived that this was the kind of lady you caught red-handed eating all the pies next door, and yet she insists, ‘it wasn’t me’.
The Doctor might be a change agent when it comes to improved fitness and nutrition but the patient is always in the driving seat. What ever happened to being the master or captain of one’s destiny?
Once personal responsibility is diminished people begin to look for magicians to aid the impossible but sadly end up with charlatans. Change for the better is an endeavour best dealt with personally.
Apart from personal change, there is also the small problem of changing a nation. Being Nigerian these days is all about Change. Some seek the Change they voted for and lament that the country is not yet a First World super power. Social media is awash with those clamouring for change.
Words like Cabals, Oligarchies, Elites and Principalities are used to describe the powerful people who must change to make Nigeria better. The noise is loud about corruption. Bribes, kickbacks , abuse of power etc. Most names mentioned are men with titles of honour from their communities. They are usually referred to as sons and daughters who have brought pride to their home towns. Chief, Otunba etc are titles used once conferment has taken place. Now if the elders confer titles of honour on men who are also deemed to be looters of the national wealth, does it not imply that communities have no particular problem with financial crime so long as it is their ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ benefitting from such?
Since I have lived in the UK, I have never seen a convicted criminal named in the Queen’s honours list. People would actually have their titles revoked if they are found guilty of crimes.
In Nigeria where communities want ‘change’ I have never heard of a Chieftaincy title being revoked even when the titled people have brought shame to their names.
I see Nigerian glossy magazines full of people who flash wealth that cannot really be explained in simple English (e.g Bill Gates made his money through Microsoft). Ask them how they made their wealth and if you get an answer it is, ‘I am into various high level deals’ or ‘You are jealous of my good fortune’. When looters are celebrated, how can those who celebrate them say they want change?
The Nigerian Police is one organisation that Nigerians claim needs to change. Now, do the Police bribe themselves or do the citizens bribe them? People say that the Police demand bribes but does this really mean that people should give them bribes on demand?
There are more lay citizens than Politicians or Policemen so that means the people have the power to get the kind of government and police that they deserve. It is all well and good to criticise a politician for going on the campaign trail with tubers of yams instead of well thought out policies, but the person running for office is just one person and he bought two thousand tubers. He committed fraud for offering yams to bribe voters but two thousand people took yams. Both the giver and the recipient of the yams are all corrupt. That means the number of corrupt citizens far out numbers the number of politicians in these ‘democratic transactions’. If most people look at themselves and make adjustments, the Politicians and Policemen are bound to change.
Another problem of complaining daily about the society the way the arm chair social media critics do is that they soon slip into being habitual scorners of anything that moves. With time they don’t even remember that the aim of high lighting ills in society is not just to vent frustration but to proffer solutions.
Let everyman face his mirror abeg.
