I don’t know whether you have noticed that in today’s Nigeria ordinary Nigerians hardly easily mix up or socially interact with Nigerian public office holders, big men, big women, legislators, elites and those who believe they have arrived with their material wealth and those with acquired and borrowed titles.
Nigerian public office holders, big men and women, legislators and big politicians have serious hubris problems that constitute serious obstacles to national development.
I have just returned from Uganda. That wasn’t my first time in Uganda. I have been to Uganda several times. I have also travelled widely to other African countries.
I have observed as much as you do that many African countries apart from Nigeria still have intact or , better put, still easily live intact, the Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Africanist spirit of communalism, simplicity, let-the-eagle perch-and-let-the-kite perch nzogbu nzogbu co-existence, the spirit of humility, amiability and self-effacevism. For example. I am nobody. I am not a big man in the Nigerian sense but I easily interact, socialize with the Ugandan, Kenyan, Ethiopian etc parliamentarians, Ministers and Ambassadors and big politicians . No hubris on their part. No airs. No Nigerian bigmanity. We addressed ourselves using our first names. They simply address me as Sonnie and I simply addressed them by their first names. For example during my last trip to Uganda, I spoke with Hon. Speakers of the Ugandan Parliament and Kenyan Parliament and Ethiopian Parliament one-on-one. We ate the same meal sitting together, rode in the same bus sitting together and walked together the pathways rubbing shoulders. No policeman guarding the Hon Speakers or shielding them from public view.
In Uganda, we easily accessed and held conversations with the Ugandan President and First Lady without any hitches. In Uganda, I met my good friend from Zambia who used to be an Ambassador. He was the same humble creature. In Uganda, I met a former Justice in the International Court at the Hague. In Uganda, I met an Ugandan Parliamentarian who has has been in the Ugandan Parliament for close to 23 years. No showing off on their part. No pride. No hubris.By the way, Uganda has plenty of food, vegetables and fruits. You can be unemployed in Uganda but you can never lack food, vegetables and fruits.
In contrast, I find it difficult, if not impossible to access or interact with many Nigerian public office holders or those Nigerians who have acquired titles.
I remember a few years ago I telephoned a Senator representing my Senatorial District to inform him about an important issue. You can’t believe what he did to me. He answered the call and quelled me: “but who gave you my phone number?”. That was the end. He dropped the phone on me. At first I felt sad but on a second thought I accepted my fate. I knew Nigeria had happened to me. May Nigeria never happen to you. One day at a Lagos social gathering I addressed an Otunba without prefacing his name with the Otunba title. He almost killed me. Later he called me aside and said to me: “you should learn manners”. I apologized to him before he could leave hold on me.
In Nigeria, we don’t joke with titles. Anyone who has N1 million in his bank account wants to be regarded as a millionaire, even if the Naira currency has lost value. The moment your friend gets a public office or acquires a big title, he will stop talking to you or answering your phone calls as in the past. Big Nigerians are so full of themselves, yes, so puffed off with pride in this earthly life that is passing away.
I may be exaggerating. Certainly there are many exceptions. Of course, there are many big Nigerians who are very very humble
It amazes me how someone can shun his old friends even former school mates, simply because he now holds a title which his friends do not hold. Is this not egoistic stupidity? What is a title compared to associating with old friends or old friendships?
May I never look down on my friends. May I never hold myself aloof from my old friends and colleagues. May I never become a big man in the Nigerian sense.
Development, real development of a country goes beyond infrastructural development, acquisition of material things. Real development or real integral development is human development or cultural development. If we must develop in Nigeria we must begin by changing our bad attitude. We must learn to recognise the intrinsic dignity in our fellow human beings. Nobody is a single verse. We all need our different verses and stanzas to form an exotic readable prose. We are members of the same human family. The day we treat our fellow human being with contempt we have killed our existence.