A sociological enquiry I
carried out last year, yielded
evidential truths about the origin of
Nigeria’s condition of anomie and
intractable problems of its social
maladies and decay.
Before colonial rule was ruthlessly
imposed on Nigeria, there existed a
strong bond among village people, who
lived modestly, honestly and people
forged bonds of altruism and solidarity.
The village chief or district head
enforced law and order, assisted by
village elders. There was order and the
power of shame was all-pervading.
Colonial rule uprooted the public order
of village life and replaced it with a
rapacious materialistic culture, an
alien legal and political public order,
which promoted a crude capitalist
economic system, based on material
acquisition, greed and avariciousness.
The village boy, who was sent off to
study in England acquitted himself
creditably in the materialistic
tendencies and culture of the British
ruling class. Having mastered the
English language, with its ruling class
assent, he came to occupy one of the
vacant posts, which were left by the
displaced colonial officers.
This new office, conferred on the
graduate privileges and advantages of
immense proportions. He or she was given
a British-made car. The popular brands
were Morris Minor, Austin, Vauxhall, the
American Cadillac and the Chevrolet
while the new Governors used the Rolls
Royce.
A few commercial trading post agents
also acquired the Rolls Royce and later
the German Mercedes Benz became a status
symbol.
The University of Ibadan produced
well-trained and very articulate crop of
Nigerian graduates, who played very
important roles in the political and
literary sensitization of many
Nigerians. They still do.
Amongst this progressive group, were
people, who have occupied juicy
political offices, with insatiable
appetites for more appointments in every
military and civilian dispensations.
The materialist culture gained
ascendancy during military rule, when
those, who occupied military/civilian
offices treated the treasuries of
Nigeria, as military booties.
Up till date, these individuals are
still prominent in Nigeria’s material
and political life. Having tasted
political power, they declared the
struggle for political office a “do or
die” affair.
As a result of this brutal mind-set,
every tout, every failure in their
chosen fields borrowed, stole or engaged
in duping people in order to come up
with the astronomically electoral funds
recommended by the cabal to get into
high office.
By some magical conjuration, the
village, uncouth, unsophisticated
urchins of yester-years, have
unsuccessfully tried to transmute into
statesmen. No matter how much they have
all pretended to so be, their
deficiencies are plain both in speeches
and mannerisms.
In the past twelve years, we have been
assailed by futuristic promises that
never materialized. Yet, we are again
called upon to hope. Nothing has been
done to put in place a social justice
system that can permit hopes of a future
national assurance. The avowed promises
of 1980, 2000, 2010, the seven-point
agenda and the inaugural speech
exaltations of 2011, have all ended in
the wilderness.
In Nigeria, only politics guarantees
social climbing and material wealth. So,
caution is thrown to the winds as every
public servant allocates to himself or
herself the material resources that are
meant to create opportunities for all.
We are not fools and we do remember!!!
Since “no one can deceived all the
people all the time”, the prostate
nature of a corrupt state has been laid
bare and the people are saying that they
have been lied to enough.
The level of social consciousness in
Nigeria has been reduced to how much
material wealth a family or social group
have managed to cut from the national
cake, from the material gains from
democratic rule.
Every social event is an opportunity to
show how well the celebrant’s father or
other kiths and kin have reaped off the
nation.
Undeniably, there are successful
professionals, who have gained from
their hard work, but again some of these
professionals work hand in glove, with
those in the bedroom of power, to milk
the nation. We have seen this in the
last twelve years.
Fellow Countrymen and women, we chant
hypocritically, condemning those
political miscreants, without equally
condemning the Nigerian social misfit,
who overtakes on the wrong side of the
road, as a matter of routine, the
policeman, who collects police-tax from
erring drivers, the judge, who turns his
learnedness into the hallucination of
justice, the contractor, who
over-invoices his bill, the kidnapper,
who turns a human beings into bargaining
chips, the under-paid Senator and
Members of the House of Representative,
as well as the speech-writer and
advisers, who proffer wrong, suicidal
precepts that cause social discontent.
A society that has been so putrefied by
such indubitable wrongs that are
manifestly and inscrutably prevalent in
Nigeria, cannot call on God, who looks
down with displeasure on the ritualistic
practices of the so-called “Men of God”,
who hobnob with the rulers, who do evil.
The role of fear in corrupt societies is
very real. Those, who have axes to grind
with their consciences, and their
societies, are afraid to speak out
because the kettle cannot call the
charcoal black.
There is a recording of the status of
those, who are adjudged unfaithful to
the people and the Republic in the
hearts of Nigerians. Their legacies are
well-documented in the hearts of their
compatriots forever.
The disastrous consequences of
materialism in Nigeria are so manifestly
written in marble and will be read by
our children and those unborn till time
indefinite.
Nigerian Sons and Daughters of God
understand the work of the agents of the
anti-christ.
So, they should not be distracted by the
nefarious activities of foreign demons,
whose assignment in the Age of Aquarius
and especially in the Era of the
Gentiles, Atonement and the Brotherhood
of man, is to cause human sufferings and
deaths, under the shibboleths of
promoting “demoncrazy “.
A weird civilization that has lost its
refinement is being promoted. A
hedonistic culture, cultural debauchery,
mass culture, hip hop and pontifications
by agents of the anti-christ, have
debased human civilization.
Nudity as fashion, murders and misery
now occupy the headline news of major
television stations. The objective is to
diminish the value of human life in
preparation for the days of the anti-christ,
during which period, millions of human
lives will be slain.
Unknown to many Christians, the plea by
advanced nations that we should not pray
, the spread of blasphemous literature
that question the existence of JESUS the
CHRIST is a satanic and demonic
enterprise to raise doubt and unbelief,
in order to weaken faith in the TRINITY,
in God’s love and power over all people
and all things.
The effect of this satanic campaign is
to affect the Christian’s faith, so that
he will no longer submit to God’s will
and obedience. He is then made to
philosophize, rationalize and engage in
vain disputations about matters long
established and accepted.
The disastrous consequences of
materialism in Nigeria can be seen in
the diversion of youth energy, not in
the sphere of acquisition of knowledge,
but in the hip hop culture of “Big
Brother Africa”, “Talent hunt” and
acting in films that propagate satanism
and debauchery. These negative
activities yield quick financial results
and “fame to the detriment of the race.”
The youth are very deficient in
knowledge about our history, social
conditions and political misgovernment.
They applaud wealth, shiny posh cars,
gorgeously furnished homes, with an
increase in divorce as their partners
cannot afford that material comfort they
see around them elsewhere.
This is the beginning of our descent
into decay and disintegration, as our
predators have predicted, even before
2015.
The militancy of the thinking youth is
bound to clash with the soft lives of
those, whose parents embezzled or
misused state funds to promote the
latter’s false and decadent life’s
styles.
It was disturbing, though not surprising
that the angry people in Nigeria are now
going after those, they rightly or wrong
accuse of their present plight. If this
tendency continues, there will be wanton
destruction of the property of whose,
who may have acquired their wealth, in
circumstance of hard-work.
The sociological and human intelligence
studies about Nigeria and its people
show how resilient and ebullient the
people are. They need knowledgeable,
experienced, honest and dedicated
leaders to pilot them to the Nirvana of
Amen.
Those, who have been irremediably
afflicted by the materialist habits of
mind, are obviously not the type of
leaders we are talking about.
We must apply civility in our discourses
, rather use the butcher’s solution.
This is why the Sovereign National
Conference or a Conference of the
Confederacy must be supported because
they create the fora for intelligent
search for our way forward.
Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai
is from ADACHI Kingdom, Fugar in Edo
State. He is the Academic Chancellor of
BOSAS INTERNATIONAL LAW BUREAU, ABUJA/FUGAR,
Nigeria.
Published
January 15th, 2012
