Last week, most Nigerians felt embarrassed watching on TV as Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi, representing Ebonyi North central senatorial district, and Dr Oby Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education, used unprintable words against each other. Because the first video that circulated did not show how the problem started, many initially condemned Nwebonyi, but when it was confirmed that Ezekwesili first told him to shut up, many turned around to blame her too. However, the incident highlighted a deep-seated problem most Nigerians have without even knowing it.
Most Nigerians have an ego problem. In street language, it can be called the do-you-know-who-I-am syndrome. It is so inherent that even those who profess the highest form of humility have it without realising it. It does not matter if one is the primate, prelate, general overseer, archbishop, chief imam, etc. It only manifests when one is triggered. The Nigerian environment does not punish people for throwing their weight around. It actually rewards it, so most Nigerians assume that it is a normal way of behaving.
The grouse of Nwebonyi is that as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is a highly placed Nigerian. Therefore, an Ezekwesili, who no longer holds a political post, is lower in political hierarchy and should not have the effrontery to tell him to shut up while he is speaking. If it were the Senate President, Vice President, or the President who said exactly what Ezekwesili said in the exact situation, Nwebonyi would not have responded in like manner.
Similarly, Ezekwesili believes that Nwebonyi is lower than her in personal achievements. She was a very bright student, graduating with a first class from the University of Nigeria, and later studying at Harvard University. She is a former vice president for the World Bank (Africa region), co-founder and founding director of Transparency International. She was appointed the first head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (aka Due Process Unit). Based on her success, she was made the Minister of Solid Minerals. Then she was made the Minister of Education. She is known globally as a fighter for human rights, especially the rights of the female gender.
In her personal life, Ezekwesili is the wife of a pastor and does not joke with her faith. Christianity emphasises humility, but hours after the altercation, while Ezekwesili was on Arise TV to explain what happened, she said she would not acknowledge Nwebonyi by name. Without saying it directly, she believed that Nwebonyi was too insignificant to be mentioned. Even after acknowledging that she told him to shut up, she still did not see anything wrong with it. She rationalised it by saying that Nwebonyi was already agitated before her comment, and that her comment was just a statement to tell him to be silent so that a headway could be agreed upon.
Most Nigerians who have lived all their life in Nigeria are so used to this way of life that they believe it is normal. They do not see anything wrong with it. The Nigerian society is stratified into the powerful (rulers) and non-powerful (the followers), the rich and the poor, the old and young, the connected and the non-connected, the educated and the non-educated, the masculine and the feminine, the North and the South, the religious (righteous) and the non-religious (doomed), etc. At every opportunity, those who feel advantaged stress their advantage by mentioning it, displaying it and implying it. They do so because it usually affects the way people are treated in Nigeria.
If a receptionist, a police officer, a religious leader, a master of ceremonies, an usher, etc., knows that you are a rich person, a political office holder, or an influential person, the way you will be treated will be completely different from the way other people who came before you were treated. Nobody sees anything wrong with it. In fact, the churches justify it with the expression: “Give honour to whom honour is due.” It does not matter that the Bible says that if you give a rich man a good seat but give a poor man something worse, you have displayed partiality and unfairness based on wealth and status and have, therefore, committed a sin.
Nigerians have not truly evolved as far as understanding what human dignity means. There is still a heavy dose of class stratification in Nigeria. People believe that those who are rich, influential, and in leadership positions deserve to be treated differently. It is seen as showing them “respect”. That is why it is not expected that a rich person or a political, religious, traditional, or social leader should do certain things like hold their umbrella under the rain or sun, carry their bag, folder or even a book, push a cart in a shopping complex, drive themselves, serve themselves food, stand in line to get attended to, etc.
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That is why leadership is not seen as service in Nigeria and most parts of Africa. The regression in Africa has its roots in it. Leaders are seen as rulers. They are served. They then dispense favours to others. These favours come in cash and kind. These favours also do not go out to everybody. They are given to only those who honour, praise or beg them. Ironically, most of the time, these favours come from the commonwealth. The commonwealth is usually misappropriated. Even when there is no misappropriation, laws are created by them to have access to humongous kinds of resources: allowances, salaries, pensions, gifts, donations, etc.
For this reason, everybody strives for the opportunity to become a leader (political, religious, traditional, social, etc.). There is also a fixation on wealth acquisition by any means possible, because it confers respect and comfort. The lines between crime and wealth have been blurred. Money can be made anyhow and then “purified” or “cleansed” through philanthropy: building churches or mosques, giving money to pastors and imams or sponsoring them on pilgrimage or buying them cars, paying the school fees of orphans, making donations to widows, construction of roads or bridges or hospitals for the people, etc. Therefore, most people do not bat an eyelid to make money through crime because they know that the moment they use it for the public good, people would not bother to ask any questions. Rather, they are honoured, making more people strive to make wealth by all means. It is not surprising that crimes like kidnapping for ransom and ritual killing have been added to the former crimes of armed robbery, drug trafficking, fraud, bribery and corruption, etc.
The irony in the egotism of Nigerians is that the moment they step out of Nigeria, they drop it and become humble. They find it normal to carry their bags, drive themselves, use the bus or train, push their carts, and treat other people with respect irrespective of their social status. When they have any disagreement with someone, they try all they can to resolve the issue. You will never hear them say, “Do you know who I am?”
It is a proof that Nigerians’ ego and class problems are environmental. It is not ingrained in the people. Since the mid-1980s, when the military introduced the get-rich-by-all-means syndrome, Nigeria has never been the same. The Nigerian system was corrupted with the virus. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened, making most people desperate to leave the poverty class and move into the rich class. Those in the rich class do not want to ever experience life in poverty. Money and power are, therefore, the most respected possessions in Nigeria.
There needs to be reorientation for all Nigerians. There is also the issue of the economy. The tougher the economy, the more desperate the people become.
By Azuka Onwuka
