THIS BABY IS TEN YEARS OLD!

Have you noticed these days that there is a somewhat increasing intelligence in children, and their rate of apprehension seems to be ever expanding in a very complex and diversifying world? True. I have suddenly developed an interest in the developmental stages of children and wonder how their plain and simple minds comprehend and retain information. From age one through age five, you will marvel at what your baby knows already. Even without a deliberate attempt to teach the child, there is a natural desire to learn and to explore and experiment with something new.

In fact nowadays, what we learnt in secondary school a while ago, is being moved down to primary school level, and what our first year classes were like in University, is being passed over to higher secondary teaching. This is simply because more and more information is emerging and the world is getting more complicated. Children nowadays are born into a generation of unrestricted flow of information and a young child is saddled with the ability to do so much more than playing mere police and thief, or the famous hide and seek. The other day I heard of a 13 year old having an associate degree while still in high school.

Things are changing fast, and there’s a growing urgency for the individual to become more open minded and hungry for learning, as this distinguishes between the man living now and the man living in the past. What baffles me however is the fact that despite the rate of change and how people are taking advantage of what is at their disposal globally, some people are dying of lethargy, while others simply refuse to come to terms that things have changed and that many things have become obsolete. I laugh today when I see people carrying maps all around the streets of New York when GPS devices are all about at very cheap prices. You can even load your smart phones now with voice enabled maps that give your real time location and tell you every move that even a blind man can accurately follow. Yet some are stuck in the past.

My interest here is not on how we individually respond to these global changes, but on how Nigeria has responded to the available opportunities these past ten years. May I remind us that this baby is ten years old! This means that a child who was born on the 29^th of May 1999 is exactly ten years of age today, and in the world we exist in today, a ten year old can become totally responsible for his life and choices. While it may not be appropriate to compare Nigeria’s ten years of democracy to the developmental stages of a child, as this is way too simplistic, there are certain background principles we cannot afford to overlook, as it applies to our country. Let me consider a few of the democratic ideals which Nigeria should by now possess.

After ten years of democracy, Nigeria should by now deliver the benefits of the system to its people. Democracy is simply the government of the majority, establishing the will of the people and ensuring the greater good for the greater number of people. This means that whatever the people want is the sovereign and overarching responsibility of the government. In ten years, how much of the desire of Nigerians have been fulfilled by its leaders? Rather, we consistently see a shoving aside of the greater good for the pursuit of personal ambitions. No one deems it necessary to determine and report the state of the country, so Nigerians know what we are up against. There is a silent assumption that anything goes and people will put up with anything that they are confronted with. For instance, why has the government not explained in details to us what happened to 16 Billion dollars or naira (irrespective, it’s still a mouth gaping sum) meant for the power sector in the last eight years? By this time we expect a clearly articulated path towards a recovery of the power sector, but we are still at a point where very few know what’s happening. Nigerians have a right to know, and it is the will of the people that the benefits of this system begin to deliver value. Ten years is way too much time for a baby to crawl and it seems that we still have an attraction to keeping our motion gravitated towards the dust.

Second, accountability is now a buzz word that flies around with no substance in our democratic system. So much talk began with this dispensation, yet we are still harassed by the superfluous display of corruption reborn. It seems public officials are getting more daring in their acts of unaccountability and there is a growing comfort with the fact that nothing can happen to them. We have heard of the many cases of corrupt practices and the many names that have been named, yet how many of such have we celebrated their jail sentences? The very same ones indicted for the otiose bastardization of the vehicles of public utility are gracing the pages of our glossy magazines and shoving on our faces their pin-headed conceptions of the good life. And worse still is that the nature of our corruption has morphed into prebendalism, where government officials now feel a sense of entitlement to the revenues of the Nigerian state.

A bigger problem is that while we are preoccupied addressing these manifest practices at the top of the structure, the base is being wasted away by petty thieves who call themselves councilors and local officials. Even those who exercise some form of bureaucratic discretion at the community level, use that as an occasion to extract profits for their miserable living at the expense of petty services that will make life a little bit more comfortable for their denizens. The baby is ten years old and still grappling with the basics of structural and economic locomotion. What even worries me most is how much effect this has on the ordinary person who tries to survive in the midst of all this. Many now accept corruption as an incurable sickness that one has to live and manage with. The result is that prudence and excellence have been sacrificed on the altar of the convenient, and creativity and innovation have been wacked to the barest minimum in society.

Lastly, we still have not come to the point where we clearly understand what the rights of the Nigerian are. Having a constitutional document with statements mean nothing until it is translated from paper to action. There is still an undervaluation of the Nigerian person, hence when decisions are made; it is without regard for the dignity of the citizens. I heard there was a rebranding of late, and I cared to pry into the nature of the efforts and found that it was devoid of a people centered approach. Rubbing grease on the skin doesn’t guarantee that people will appreciate its beauty. Feeding the stomach however will of necessity manifest on the outer covering, and no one needs to be convinced to see the changes. Whatever our rebranding, if the rights of the Nigerian is not clearly put first, then we risk the make-the-mockery-of-me-joke again. Because I am a Nigerian, I am entitled to a good life and I am entitled to certain basic services like security, and should be free from all forms of harassment, whether by the breakers of the law, the long arm of the law, or by even the law itself. I should be free to enjoy what power my vote carries, and to demand for what my tax can pay for. We all know what these rights are, and it cannot be overemphasized. My point is that at ten years of democracy, our political system is mature enough to accord us these privileges and there is no excuse why it hasn’t at this time.

So while we are in an age where many countries are using the available opportunities and tools to give their citizens a better life and to foster the environment necessary for the burgeoning of a next generation of global interactions, we are still slow to learn and slow to walk. This is so reminiscent of those kids in your class who just couldn’t take anything into their brains. What was left was for their craniums to be cracked open and literally purged of excess puss and infused with all the textbooks. While several countries are unlearning the art of physical or human based warfare, we are still confronted with a case in our Niger-Delta that seems to be a training ground for a guerilla movement. Religious crisis is still driving our peace from us and uncertainty surrounds the state of our ethnic marriage. I sometimes begin to wonder if Nigeria’s case is as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

Time is passing by and this baby is slow to grow. But grow it must. I have resolved to do my part and hope it strengthens one part of the whole. I write to discover myself and to hold myself responsible for the things I must do as time goes by. Our country is not a closed case as long as I live, perchance my very loyalty maybe the needed vitamin this baby needs to get up and run as others are. So as I wonder if there’s anything to celebrate, I am suddenly reminded that I am one reason to celebrate why my country will be great. As long as I am determined and open to learning and to improving myself daily, this will translate into the national good I so desire. I will not subscribe to faineance or allow me become hopeless in a time when hope screams out from every corner. But my greatest joy is that there are much more people like me who are greatly impassioned for the Nigerian state and are laying down their lives for the love of it. It is their course I have chosen to follow and in a little while, we will take back our beloved from them that have no dream, vision, mission, and passion. Else, this baby will crawl for the next ten years. But God forbid!

THE ‘DEMIGODIFICATION’ OF PUBLIC SERVICE

I promise this wont be long. Let me start by explaining what public service means. From there you can extrapolate what it is not, as these days I spend little time dealing with negatives. Public service is a service that is performed for the benefit of the public or its institutions. And a public servant is someone who performs such service. So in deconstructing these words I find that the public comes first before the nature of the service.

But let me ask. Have you ever been to an office which is supposed to be rendering public service, and the people there act as though they were servicing the public? This is fast becoming the definition of public service; a service by high-minded individuals, who display unauthorized power over a given setting to frustrate the public. Somehow the service has become of more importance than the recipient and the public servant has suddenly become the public master.

Today in Nigeria, it’s as though any opportunity people get to assume a position, no matter how little, they become power drunk. Even the very security at the gate of a rich man, can display amazing levels of arrogance, not to talk about the cashier at the teller, or even the customer service person waiting to help you. Even taxi drivers, who depend on your change for survival, tend to throw their services at your face. I once went to a bank to do some transaction and some well dressed lady saw me standing in front of her. Yet she received a personal call and talked for some minutes before turning to me without a word of courtesy. I felt like slapping her, except for the fact that would have reduced me to her standard as well.

Everywhere you go people seem to become demigods with the little in their hands. And I ask what then it is with the highest public officials in the land? Little wonder we have the quality of life we do. People don’t care about serving others, but to lord it over them. You walk into an immigration office to get your passport; you are literally crawling on your knees begging to be attended to. What about the airport, the custom officials treat you as though you were a petty thief (because they surely worship the bigger ones), and ruffle and shuffle you as though a piece of thrash. Policemen are the worst. Having a baton or a pistol in their hands automatically transmogrifies them into tin gods itching to snap a finger at you. The men who are meant to protect us have become the greatest threats to our lives on the road. Our public servants have become the broken spokes in the wheels of governance that a simple process has become an excruciating wait for hours. 

If we were to quantify in figures what waste we experience due to sloppy public service and high-minded exertion of personal incompetence in our public institutions and even the private enterprises, we would be staggered at the huge cost of inefficiency. In every hour of service, we probably lose 30 minutes due to people trying first to show themselves as demigods and impress you beyond measure, while for the remaining part one is till subjected to unsatisfactory service. 

We need to rid our system of such nonfeasance and malfeasance or even ‘over-feasance’. We need to come to a point where we know that we are first responsible to the person standing in front us and do everything within our capacity to help. This is what creates an efficient system, when public servants become responsible to the public and know that their role is to enhance the quality of people’s lives and play down their personal deficiencies.

IS THERE HOPE FOR THE REST OF US?

You may wonder who the rest of us are and who in particular I am referring to. Well, I am one of those who stubbornly refuse to append derogatory terms such as Third World, Underdeveloped Countries, Developing Countries, or Poor Nations, on those countries that do not fall into the exclusive club of ‘Big Boy’ nations. The rest of us are a collection of those who are wondering what to do to escape the crippling implications of a global financial game gone sour. As it was in the beginning, when we rarely had a voice in deciding how global business was done, so it is now that we seem not to have a voice in how we can protect ourselves from the current meltdown in the system.

A few weeks ago, the world gathered at Davos World Economic Forum to discuss and determine the shaping of a post crisis world.  I previewed some of the events and was particularly drawn to the comments of the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown who observed that the crisis is going to hit the Third World countries real hard. Of course in the light of the current global situation, all other discussions bordering around developments in our part of the world was flickering in the background, as more pressing concerns about financial cooperation between big nations were dominant. However, his statement was one that shuddered me a bit to the realization that we stand again on the threshold of history to strongly negotiate benefits for our common destinies or trade it away for continued beggarly policies.

Clearly, no one seems to be telling us in plain terms, what this worldwide clutter spells for us. We have been a people termed as the periphery, in other words, those who sit at the sidelines or watch global events from the stands and have no meaningful inputs, while the center determines the rules and allocation of profits to everyone. But in the words of Chinua Achebe, all we see today is “Things fall apart and the center cannot hold”, therefore creating much despair regarding the future of the economies of developing nations. Some ask the question what the heck is our business with the American financial collapse? We are not in America and our money is not controlled by them so what concerns us? Really! What concerns the edge of the water with where the stone is cast? It is called ripples. That is what the edge of the water feels as a result of where the stone is cast. The point is this water has been troubled, and we will of necessity feel the ripples in our part of the world.

A major consequence for us is that being primarily an exporter of raw materials, we are hard hit by the fact there is a growing less demand for our produce. China that emerged as an economic savior of late is presently crawling with a clog to their manufacturing wheels due to fewer demands for their goods from the West. China has had to call of the execution of some projects in different locations in Africa and all such countries looking up to such benefits will have to rethink how to survive the downturn of events. Also the prices of these exports have also dropped as a consequence of falling demand, meaning less and less profit for countries dependent of such export for income. Who knows, we may soon return to the age of protectionism as even the advocates for this who are usually protesting at Davos, where somehow nowhere to be found. Probably because every country was going to act as their advocates

Secondly, I am wondering how much aid money will be drafted to help out with our development process. Many of our leaders are used to going cap-in-hand seeking for support to deal with their local problems. While I do not question the effectiveness of aid money when used properly, It is however reliant on the goodwill of the provider and of course the capacity of the giver for continued giving. I don’t have to explain much as now “charity begins at home” has become a watchword for developed nations who are struggling to meet the need of their internal needs. The US at the moment is looking at over a trillion dollar deficit, and their national debt is screaming in the ten trillion dollar range. Do we expect that it will still be gracious in committing its scarce resource to help developing countries? That may amount to political suicide for any administration. Even Non-Profit organizations like the Clinton Foundation are already trying to cut back on their activities due to shortfalls in their budgets. Similarly, the United Nations and its subsidiaries, which carry out most of their activities in Third World countries, depend on dues from these large economies and of course there will be cut backs in such functions.

We are still at the early stages of the effects of this crunch on developing nations. Maybe this is why our leaders seem not to be progressive and proactive in extracting oil from these hard rocks of time. I am yet to hear of continent wide efforts at dealing with the implications of the crisis on Africans. What is African Development bank, African Union, ECOWAS, SADC, NEPAD, e.t.c doing? African leaders were not even present at the Davos forum except for a few African Development Bank officials and South African representatives. I wonder what in the world we hope to benefit by staying back and watching things spiral out of control without an attempt to seek out solutions for our local economies from such gatherings. In fact, our Mayors, Businessmen, Financial officials and even the Central Bank Governors should have been present to gather technical information to map out indigenous solutions to protect their people from the dire consequences of a collapsing system. We have been at the receiving end of the present system. If we are not careful, we will fall behind again if new systems birth or evolve from the present one. We must be actively engaged in any negotiation for a global financial mechanism to ensure that we our interests are considered and provided for. So I ask this question: Is there hope for the rest of us?

ON THE TED HAGGARD ISSUE: A FEW THINGS TO THINK ABOUT.

I haven’t met Ted, but I have heard him speak live back at my school in Nigeria and like many others I had great respect for the man who led many Christians in their profession of faith. He sounded simple, without the high sounding rhetoric that accompanies pentecostal messages, and made himself very clear in his moral assertions. He moved me with the fact that he wasn’t obviously trying to impress his listeners with a well researched faith message coloured by much scriptures and anecdotes. That is my closest memory of Mr. Haggard. I was still in Nigeria when I heard of the messy details that came to the limelight and his subsequent confession, which caused even the churches in Nigeria to wriggle in distress like someone with stomach trouble. The disdain that filled the mouth of many Christians was enough to deny the knowledge of Ted’s existence and for a while we may even want to claim he wasn’t a Christian at all. Many people labeled him as a hypocrite and a disgrace to the faith, while others crucified him with much blasphemy and such vitriol that I wonder if this is the same man they, only moments before, had quoted and referenced as an example of a great mentor. How are the mighty fallen! I must confess that I was also taken aback by the news and trust me, I kinda wanted to pass my own comments, but I held back.

A question that arises from all this is if it happened to Ted, who is next? For a man that rose to such status and power in society, yet could have such a free fall from that point gives us a hunch that there could much more of such men and women walking the corridors of our history even now. But a stronger point to be made is that we seem to be transfixed on those personalities who command a lot of public attention now and forget those who will walk into fame tomorrow. Famous men were once not famous, and who cared about them then? No one! If Ted had confessed to his weakness when he was pastoring a 20 man congregation, will it be a subject of national disdain? Of course not! So there is beauty in being small and unknown, for then are the greatest opportunities to make your life better, for fame weakens your frame. A friend once said to me “Reginald, celebrate now that you are small and seemingly inconsequential.” And in my quiet meditation of this matter, my Father asked me take those words to heart because the more influential you become, the greater the penalty for your misconduct, the higher you get, the more dire the recompense for sin. Now see what Haggard is going through for issues unsettled in his small days. 

It is very easy to run commentaries and create a concept out of Haggards’ story and forgetting that each one of us has an opportunity to learn from what he gives to us. He is not presenting to us a topic for endless debate, nor a chapter in history to paint black a people in society, but a chance to look at the path we tread and alter our course or end up in the same destination. Many of those who point fingers, hiss make him a byword have messier lives that are unimaginable. I was once with a guy that I knew of his personal story of sexual struggles, yet he referred to Ted as a disgrace to Christianity. He suddenly was blind to his own devils and celebrated the global renown of Ted’s own devils, forgetting that devils grow and outgrow their hosts. What it is for Ted today, maybe my turn tomorrow, if I willingly trudge the same road as Ted did. Now tell me who doesn’t have issue to deal with? What man is there who doesn’t undergo sexual pressures and temptation? If everyman’s heart were like a logo on their t-shirts, who will walk freely around? I have repeatedly said if our hearts were like a cloth we could wash daily and hang on the ropes to dry, many will only dry or pick theirs up when no one is watching because of how ugly it looks. There is a Ted in every one of us. Any time we think of Ted, it should be a reminder that no one is exempt from life’s laws, and there will never be any secret that goes unrevealed, not matter how skillful at concealing issues a person may be. One day, your secrets shall be made known. It’s just a matter of time. 

On The Oprah Winfrey show today, Ted declares that he is a free man. He shares that he had asked God to do whatever it takes to set him free from the inner ugliness, and part of him knew that the process may be one that will break him totally. And yes it did; big time!!! As I watched Oprah throw questions at him that sometimes appeared cynical, and listened to Anderson Cooper emphasize his disgrace, and hear Rick Sanchez gleefully raising the story, as well as Alexandra Pelosi feeling satisfied in creating a documentary from his story, I smile to myself. Little do they know that they are mere instruments of time in creating a law that they must also be accountable to. Most of them in their attempts to find a story to report have made a shear mockery of the whole incidence. His church also did not help matters by addressing it the way they did. I leave that matter for those with better judgment. 

My whole interest in this dialogue is to raise a few issues to think about. For everyone I have met (I must state here that I have met so many) and talked with on their same sex passions, I found out that they have had a history of sexual abuse from an older person of a same sex. For those who have the problem of nymphomania (women) or satyriasis (men), which are forms of extreme sexual desires, I find that they were also sexually abused when very young. Ted also reveals that he was abused by an older man when younger, as well as having some boy play at a younger age. If in almost all cases as I have witnessed, there is a link between early abuse to older struggles, then we cannot just ignore our past experiences as a mere instance. Most of you reading this now can seriously relate to what I am talking about, and what you are going through is traceable to some past happening when you were very young or even at an older age. I once spoke with a friend who was dealing with pornographic issues. He shared with me that he became suddenly drawn to pornographic materials a few years after he had stumbled upon his older cousins’ adult magazines. Certain images stuck to his head, and he later began to explore and process those things he had seen in there. This I also found out is not just limited to sexual habits, but in almost all areas of character deficiency. For some it has to do with the inability to control their temper, while for others, it is a strong compulsion to lie when there is even no reason to. It really has nothing to do with who people know you to be, and the image you have built for yourself. It happens because you are still as mortal as any living man. Becoming a divine personality does not in any way unclothe you of your mortality.

Therefore irrespective of your personality and your attainments in life, you have and are fighting your own battles. This should humble you and give you a sense of delayed judgment towards others. You have a right to condemn actions, but you are not qualified to condemn persons. Jesus himself said: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment that you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Even Paul in the Bible says this:“Judge nothing before the time…”. Therefore my friends, concern yourself with your judging you and not another man. There is so much going on in your life that you can’t afford to concern yourself with another persons’ shortcomings. When others fall around us, we should look at what made them stumble, so it doesn’t also make us stumble. 

Some in the US like Oprah are saying that he should stop denying his gay nature, for that is who he is. They claim his refusing to accept who he is and living that way is his real trouble. But I ask them that judge after this manner, if you have a craving to murder, should you accept it? If you have an insatiable appetite for food, must you accept that as who you are and eat yourself to death? Does not nature itself create the laws that guide its functioning? Nature even shows us that in magnets, like poles don’t attract. So if a man craves for another man, we should accept that as natural? For what I call the law of complete cases, If all men were to engage only men, and women only women, what will the world turn to? Those who face homosexual tendencies are not wicked people, neither are they unacceptable. Like others they are simply humans whose own battles are their sexuality, just like those dealing with anger in their lives. Just like we love our children, but do not approve of all they do, God also accepts everyone, but doesn’t accept every conduct. Every child who will change for the better must subject himself to the discipline of the parent. So also as we seek to get better in life, we must subject ourselves to the discipline of God and His directions for us. However there is a growing lawlessness in society that we are suddenly accepting wrong as right and claiming the individuality of morality. Yet we fail to see the downward spiral society is assuming.

Let’s think about it, are you better than Ted? Because you haven’t been subject to a public embarrassment are you more privileged? You know the answer. So while Ted again and again presents us with what history is replete of, let us not fall into the error of judging that which we have not the capacity to judge. Rather let us fix our eyes on what really matter, getting our lives thoroughly straightened out. For we do not determine how much influence we will command in life, although we have a part role to play. For when fame comes upon us, it will bring with it the Sword of Damocles and we cannot determine then what our portion will be. We had that opportunity when we were not answerable to anyone but ourselves. Now that we are answerable to everyone under our influence we have no choice the severity of of their judgment.

Part two later….if necessary.