IRREVERENT PERSONALITY VS NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai The grand passion of Nigeria’s under-class and marginalised under-achievers is to talk familiarly with ‘exalted personages’ and entertain them with buffooneries. Little do grovellers care whether the big man is laughing at their tinselled erudition or mocking at their lowly status. ‘Bigmanship’ by affiliation tickles the opportunist who would endlessly crave the indulgence of the personality cultists for material advancement. Among personality cultists are politicians in high offices, chief executives, top government officials and other movers and shakers of the society who can link one to power blocs. Governors’ convoys speed away in top gear with gun-toting junior military cadre, excitedly clearing the crowded traffic jams for them to pass the people they are supposed to govern. The urchin from the remote village, now His Excellency, cannot but be thrilled by his status. This beclouds his vision, like looking at the Bay of Naples and he does not become oblivious of danger that lurks at the corners of our ill-maintained roads. Either the convoy suffers damage, or the personality cultist gets hurt. The big man walks into a bank and goes straight to the counter, pushing past lesser compatriots and dares anyone to challenge him. The big man borrows money from a bank and does not pay back. The fund is written off as bad debt. The senator breezes into the director’s office, causes all those being attended to go out and wait. The senator spends leisurely hours after he had been served with beverages and shown other courtesies. He later emerges without apologising to the people he kept waiting for hours. Contracts are routinely awarded to personality cultists who would then sell the contract papers to the highest bidder, preferably foreigners. Registered Nigerian business people have to accept sub-contracts. What a nation! The big man’s son or daughter never fails examinations, even if they, like their fathers are block-heads. The personality cultist who never entered the four walls of a university parades a string of doctorate degrees, Honorius causa, but yanks off the Honorius causa and deceives himself and the people by walking around in borrowed titles and adorns himself with unearned appellations in undignified way, ignoring those who scoff at him. His instinct of buffoonery is usually so strong in him that he seeks a self-conferred professorial title into the bargain. Nobody dares call his attention to his malfeasance because, along the line, he may have an advantage to confer on the critic. Nigeria is full of all sorts of dishonest men and women who cover themselves with influence peddling, mesmerisation of the marginalised, under-achievers and the feral under-class. The personality cultist does not want to be in the company of academics, thinkers, honest men and women and people who see through their ignoble chicaneries. This tactical avoidance is common among frenzied personality cultists. This pen portrait of the Nigerian big man and political personality cultists is to hold up the mirror for them to see the emptiness they represent. Hopefully, this unmasking of the irreverent personality cultists and arrant ‘bigmanism’ will block the life-giving arteries of our mangled societal ethos. There is only one God, the creator of the universe. Every man-made god is a counterfeit. You should never worship man-made gods!!! Do not marvel at them until you have known their pedigree. At the Abuja airport on New Year day, I was in conversation with a newly elected councillor from one of the northern states. I asked him by what magical conjuration those who occupy state houses buy jet planes, houses in Dubai and London? He jokingly told me that now that he was in the corridors of power, he would investigate and report back. I thanked him for his anticipated cooperation. I saw many top government officials, senators and their families jetting to faraway places. As of now, they enjoy the sublime and graceful prospects of grandeur, until 2015. Professor Esiemokhai wrote from the Bay of Naples. Paffcomm paffcomm
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 10:52:57 +0000
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