Different aesthetics with Tope Babayemi
Twitter: afinjuadaba
We’ll fight for the right to be free
We’ll build our own society
We’ll sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song
The above is the chorus of the song ‘Sing Our Own Song’ by the world renowned reggae band, UB40, featuring the ANC rallying cry of Amandla Awethu, published at the end of the apartheid era just after the lifting of the cultural boycott imposed on South Africa. At the time of its release, I found the lyrics, especially the chorus very poignant. I also felt that the lyrics were relevant, not just to the situation in South Africa, but also to our situation in Nigeria at the time. More than two decades later, I have come to see those words as even more pertinent to our situation in Nigeria than I first thought or imagined.
What is the Nigerian song? Ethnic intolerance, religious bigotry, moral decadence, poor governance, a gullible followership and pervasive corruption of our value systems and moral paradigms that all combine to threaten national cohesion and development?
Many years ago, a serving Nigerian governor was arrested in London for money laundering and corruption related offences and put under house arrest. The fellow, disguised as a woman, escaped from house arrest and made his way home to Nigeria. On arrival, he was hailed and celebrated by “his people” who are Nigerians of a particular ethnic stock.
I was on an excursion of Yorubaland with a valued expatriate friend, David Rhys Jones, who was then on posting to Nigeria from the British Foreign Service. As we drove towards Ile Ife, David told me, “Tope, na wah for your country o. We, the British caught a man who had been stealing his people’s money, and while trying to bring him to book, he escapes and runs back to Nigeria and you people are holding parties in his honour and celebrating him. What is wrong with your people?” Believe me, I had never felt so un-Nigerian.
I felt the same way when a former chieftain of a ruling party was jailed in Nigeria on corruption related charges. On his release, he went to church for thanksgiving. His family, friends and supporters dressed in specially made aso ebi loudly celebrated his release. That display of bad taste and low morality stood against every tenet of the Yoruba concept of Omoluabi in which pilfering of public funds is abhorred, but then this is our Nigeria where it appears as if anything goes.
A few days ago, another former governor was released from jail in the United Kingdom after serving his term for money laundering and corruption related offences. Again, “his people” are celebrating and readying him for possible future political responsibility.
When the famous author and politician Jeffery Archer was jailed for perjury in the UK, it ended his relevance in public life and reaffirmed public trust in the British judiciary. He had at the time been made a ‘Lord’ by the Queen and was chairman of the ruling Conservative Party but all of these accounted for naught. The law had to take its course and society had to be protected from those citizens, however powerful, whose actions may be detrimental to the common good.
The question for me is, what examples of the Nigerian song are we singing to the world and what foundation are we laying for future generations of our people? It appears to me that shamelessness has become a national virtue, and that does not augur well for meaningful and sustainable development. We need to invest, heavily, in national orientation of the masses and human capital development especially in the public sector of Nigerian life. The Change Begins With Me initiative of the Federal Government will have minimal effect if the stumbling blocks to development are not tackled effectively. For example, government is considered to be the largest employer of labour in Nigeria. As I have said often, the general quality of the workforce in the Nigerian civil service is nothing to write home about. Consequently, productivity does not measure up to public investment in salaries, pensions and other emoluments. Worse, corruption in Nigeria is more pervasive in the civil service than in any other sector. Quota system, ethnicity and religion in the workplace have combined to make the workforce a toothless, inefficient and ineffective bulldog.
We must recompose the Nigerian Song. As I proffered in a previous article in this column, the major purpose must be to create a basis for mutual understanding of socio economic and political values, approaches and customs by promoting and celebrating our common humanity. To achieve this, we must begin to approximate and promote the best in and of us; start to actively discourage negative Nigerian stereotypes that promote international perception of corruption as pervasive and endemic in Nigeria.
In finding common ground for national development, our song should not just be religious, economic, imperial but cultural in the broadest sense of the word, presenting us to the world and ourselves as a strong, confident and welcoming people.
I conclude with a question I asked in a previous article because it is pertinent to the issue in discussion: What moral paradigm underpins the conduct and ethics of our business, political, and religious leaders in Nigeria? What about our and traditional rulers and the professionals such as lawyers, doctors, teachers and artistes? Our song must be a blending of different exciting harmonies into one beautiful song. When are we going to start singing that song?
Have a merry Christmas and God bless Nigeria.
