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Things That Make Me Think…Hmmn- Bad Followership- (Ii) By Chigbu, Uchendu Eugen
It is appalling to hear majority of our masses express their disdain for politics. This makes one really wonder the true meaning of politics. CIVICS GLOSSARY considers it to be ‘methods by which individuals and groups try to influence operations of government.’ It has been variously described by many from different angles some have defined it to be ‘The science and methods of government derived from the Greek word "Polis" which means community’. It most popularly the act of positioning for power and influence for the provision of adequate leadership and followership. These are simple definitions devoid of complexities. They may not be the best of definitions, but they do capture the core elements of the meanings and musings of politics.
In Nigeria the word ‘politics’ got twisted from its normal meaning several years ago. It is now more of semantics of deception than a word associated with the guidance and guard of a State and its people, sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is more of a term used to suit the interest of its players than the interest of the people. In the DEVIL’S DICTIONARY, Bierce (1881) captured the true meaning of ‘politics’ in Nigeria when it defines it as ‘strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles and the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.’ It probably can best be defined now as ‘a game you play if you have nothing else to play’ or directly put as the ‘art or science of exploitation, extortion, oppression and suppression of the people by their own people.’ This practically the interpretation of Nigerian politics or ‘democracy’ as it is today. The image of our politics in the words of Onikulapo-Kuti (1979, 1975 and 1989) is simply an ‘expensive shit’; he called our ‘politicians’ ‘vagabonds in power’ who are there to steal from the people; masquerading in a humans skins but harbour the hearts of ‘beasts’ who enjoy to make their own masses suffer. Ndubisi (1991) hit the points clearly when he described Nigeria as a ‘giant zoo’ describing the corruption glut as the greatest set-back of the country. The style of politics being played in Nigeria is directly related to the political health of Nigeria today.
As a Nigerian youth, I am beginning to understand the Nigerian concept of ‘democracy’ and I am not happy with it. The ‘idea of systemised corruption’ being regarded as democracy in our country jeers my nerves and makes me cough blood whenever I see and feel the hell it has brought us today. Having to be associated with a country where leaders are shut out from power while ‘misleaders’ lead is never a ‘good-luck’ to any youth anywhere on the face of the world. As a youth, I am sad that my ‘misleaders’ lead. They are no leaders from every standard of the ‘word’, but how they have held the majority of us Nigerians spell-bound with ‘bad leadership’ still remains a wonder. I cannot really deduce why this bad leadership exists in our country today without necessarily connecting it to the overwhelming practice of bad followership.
Bad leadership - the only reason many are good at rendering criticisms, but practically lack the will-power to change things when called upon to lead. The only reason why many can lick the boots of a cow in order to keep their mouths shut or praise politicians when they should condemn and condemn when they should actually praise. We come face to face with followership challenges everyday, but prefer to stay living and paddling on the waters of fate and ‘feeble faith’ - sometimes under the auspices of intellectualism and most times in the eyes of open cowardice. The masses seem more like a very ‘funny’ followership, that lack ‘common sense.’ we lack common sense because we lack the knack of seeing things, as they ought to be seen and doing things, as they ought to be done. We are very ‘funny’ because we know the right things to do for ourselves and the wrong things to do for our nation - as though we are different from our nation, Nigeria. We tend to always harbour fear; and the maxim that the ‘fear of death is the beginning of wisdom’ seem to be our guiding followership principle. We have become a nonsensical followership and have converted our revered country into a nonsensical habitation by living our nonsensical lives - we make ‘gods’ out of ‘crass objects’ like most of our wicked politicians. We are afraid of poverty, yet we are in poverty; and prefer to ‘exist’ rather than ‘live or die.’ That is the way I view us (the Nigerian masses of today) - a followership filled with the ‘talents of cowardice,’ therefore have allowed bad leadership to germinate and grow branches.
Our bad-followership character is what has taken us far into today’s horizon of political, social and economic gloom. We dance to the tunes of bad-leadership so easily that we are used by the politicians. We have endured costly nonsense from various leaders, but we pretend to smile even though we suffer. Of course it is our bad followership that has produced plethora of bad rulers (misleaders) in the history of our great nation - we have produced and manufactured sadistic rulers like Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, General Yakubu Gowon, General Murtala Mohammed, General Olusegun Obasanjo (popularly known as OBJ), General Mohammed Buhari, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (popularly known as IBB) and General Sani Abacha. In fact, we recycled Obasanjo and have been re-manufaturing some other officials and politicians of bad faith from the past to present. We may even recylcle Babangida or re-manufacture him and his likes in 2007; after all we have turned to become a followership addicted to military rule - that is why the leading People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is now being headed by retired military personnel while our Nation is also being lead by retired military personnel. Is this a coincidence or is it planned? Whose fault is it? It seems in our country, the masses have come to believe all political goodies and expertise are located in the ‘fast-brain’ of the retired military personnels. What about the ‘youth’ arm of the followership that is always being used by our diabolic dictators as ladders for climbing into the belly of the nation to ravage our national intestine? Let us not forget the ‘million-man match’ and ‘youth earnestly ask for Abacha’, the youths’ role in Obasanjo/Atiku campaign and the ‘youths’ being rallied by Babangida today. Something is wrong with the Nigerian followership and the earlier we understand this, the faster our national development.
That the Nigerian masses have grown to swallow all the political rubbish being presented to them hook, linker and sinker is the real problem of today. Leadership can only exist because there is a followership. Where there is no followership, there will be no leadership. Until the Nigerian followership follows right, the leadership of Nigeria will always do wrong. It is the mass-silence to issues like bribery and corruption that made it found a happy home on our land. The mass-silence of Nigerians was what aided Chief Obafemi Awolowo to seize the leadership of Western Nigeria from Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in broad daylight on the floor of the Western House of Assembly in 1951. It was mass-silence that aided Dr. Azikiwe to pack back home to Eastern Nigeria and push Eyo Ita and his team out of office and occupied the government house with his own men. Mass-silence has allowed tribal politics to take hold because the masses have resorted to voting their leaders on tribal bases. Today, every patriotic-thinking Nigerian seems to be fighting hard to quail tribal politics and do their best to ignore our plethora of tribal leaders in all the geopolitical zones of the country. Now let us face the crux of the matter. The truth, which I strongly believe in, is that whatever we do in our daily lives creates an impression in the history of our lives. When put in the case of this Nation, you will know that the case of all the issues mentioned before hand have proved that a day in the life of this country is a page in her history. What our masses have created is what is haunting us. Bad leaders emerged from us and we failed to fight them off. Today, we are still in fear to hold our face up and tell the government to do right. Every highly placed politician in our country relishes on the popular observation that Nigerians are cowards and therefore can never collective revolt against the bad governance of today.
Nigeria today, is a country of much webbed repute. Nigeria is entwined in great controversies of all kinds – our country is inhabited by a lot of controversial ‘men of God’, controversial rogues, controversial politicians (especially the Presidencies), controversial musicians, controversial academics, controversial sane men, controversial insane men; and controversial statesmen, controversial touts and controversial oil and gas. This web of controversies dwelling together in this geopolitical entity called Nigeria has formed a socio-geopolitical equation that has threatened to tear the nation apart before; and the threat is still looming. How can we solve this? Every effort made by great men like Fela Onikulapo-Kuti to correct or at least enlighten our highly educated ignorant masses on the need to brace up to the challenges of good nation-building was at best ignored and viewed as mere entertainment. Always, there are big and shocking news filtering out of our great country Nigeria. At times they shoot out like active volcanic eruptions covering and staining our country’s big image in International circles; at other times they may just drop like dripping rains, quietly ranting and disturbing the Nigerian atmosphere with deadening silence. But the surprising thing is that we are yet to live up to our followership obligations. The failure of followership is what gave birth to the presence of most full of men of dishonourable character and backgrounds reigning there in our legislative chambers as ‘lords’. That we are rated as one of the poorest countries in the world as well as the happiest people on planet earth should send us a message. It simply has created a shift in the paradigm of our popular maxim that says ‘a hungry man is an angry man’. These reports sum up that the Nigerian case shows that ‘a hungry man is a joyful man.’ Are we really joyful? If we are not, then we are pretending to be - that means we are pretending because we are afraid of showing our anger to our leaders. If we had showed our true anger in the past, our country would not parade political god-father investors (like Chris Uba and Emeka Offor) who are obsessed with taking over our “peoples’ job” of enthroning leaders - forcing their states’ masses watch from the galleries like spectators. This select group of people constitute political omnipotent forces whose monetary blessings must be sough for by any political aspirants in their states in order to ascend. These men are crisis entrepreneurs who end up trading trouble in out of government houses by harassing elected officials to dance to their music. Actually what makes this whole scenario ‘funny’ is that most of men like these (political unelected men) use official government facilities and security network to carry out their bitter-sweet works. Bad governance creates chaos, but it is usually bad followership that sustains bad governance and that is where the Nigerian masses can be held responsible. For things to be right we all must follow the right and by so doing, we will directly or indirectly oust bad leadership in Nigeria. To form a good followership, the masses must learn to: To listen and understand the language of our leaders. To follow the right with confidence and without fear. To denounce the wrong without fear and with confidence By fighting suppression and oppression wherever it exists. To take the risk to protect our children’s future By fighting for justice to prevail at all times. To uphold loyalty and honesty in all our dealings in our country. To vote leaders based on their merit, not ethnicity. To set aside personal agenda and focus on national results. To stay in touch with our environment and government And insist our collective contribution germinate into reality. To hold our leaders responsible when they err or cheat And make them stand only on the path of justice.
REFERENCES
Bierce, A (1881).The Devil's Dictionary. URL: http://richardgingras.com/devilsdictionary/p.html
Civics Glossaries. URL: http://infoweb.newsbank.com/correlationbank/StateCorrelations/CO/civics/civi gloss.htm
Ndubisi, A. F. (1991). Nigeria what hope? CECTA (Nig.) Ltd Publishers.
Political Definitions. URL: http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/hancock/pol204/definitions.htm
Onikulapo-Kuti, F. (1975). Expensive Shit. Tiger Sushi, 2004. URL: http://www.tigersushi.com/site/frameset.jsp?page=Rcd.jsp&RcdId=516
Onikulapo-Kuti, F. (1979). VIP - Vagabonds in power/Authority stealing. WRasse Records, 2002. URL: http://www.wrasserecords.com/albums/69.html
Onikulapo-Kuti, F. (1989). Beast of no Nation. Eurobond Records. URL: http://www.cdandlp.com/item/2/0-1805-0-1-0/28190365_FELA.html
By CHIGBU, UCHENDU E
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