Our Dirty Little Circle

The signs are all there. These times trouble the conscience of our nation, a nation so at peace with its self-destruct ways it has for decades become numb to what is evil. As someone alluded to on October 1st, at 60 Nigeria should be retiring from her active labour into years of restful bliss but, alas, she never prepared for retirement! The years of planlessness and savagery have caught up with her.

By slow degrees, day by day, we all progress to the ultimate challenge of retirement, the point in time when, if we never planned, we lose the liberty to curse the past and must embrace the prospects of a cursed future.

That is the sad place Nigeria finds herself, and her children have begun to ask her leaders some tough questions, bearing placards and blocking the streets of our major cities. They ask to be confronted by hitherto trigger-happy 'law enforcement agents.' The youths have laid their lives on the line--better to die protesting your hunger than die quietly in your hunger, cowed. Death has only one definition, after all--the cessation of breath, whether via hunger or a bullet.

But the gun toters have lowered their guns. There comes a time when guns lose their effectiveness. Where is the valour in shooting an unarmed person who invites you to do so? That is the universal definition of cowardice these days. We live in times when the placard has become mightier than the gun. Yes, you point a gun when you've lost the ability to persuade.

Whether by the ubiquitous EndSARS protests or the growing calls to restructure the country, for the Nigerian leader the chickens have come home to roost. They're now under pressure to answer the tough questions they've evaded for decades. This calls to question who the Nigerian leader is, in order to properly situate the quarters from which answers are expected.

Whereas our political leaders for 60 years may bear the greater brunt for abysmally failing to point the righteous direction to move the country, we may miss the point if we latch onto them as our sole focal points for leadership.

A classic definition of a leader is someone who guides; someone who influences. I wonder whether you think that includes you, but I think so. Where do you guide or influence people, you may ask? In your LITTLE CIRCLE, that space around you where your words and actions matter; the space where, known or unknown to you, you raise copycats and followers.

If Nigeria has been badly led, it is because we all have failed woefully in managing our Little Circles. You are a vicarious accomplice in bringing Nigeria to disrepute. Yes, you! Our individual Little Circles are dirty. We should clean up or shut up! Everyone loses the right to criticisize or complain whose Little Circle is tainted by obnoxious moulds.

We are a nation of predominantly hypocritical complainers who have abandoned responsibilities in our Little Circles. The Little Circle: that is where we're called to take action daily, and it is nothing beyond our abilities but we choose to consistently fail.

Recently, I listened to a treatise by Dele Farotimi on the need to restructure Nigeria. His complex but brilliant analysis of the subject came down to one clear deduction: the urgency to serve JUSTICE and EQUITY to every citizen. As long as there is injustice in any action, someone is bound to cry for equity. In other words, the call to restructure Nigeria is actually a call to restructure our behaviours. And it is not only about how our political leaders behave, but more essentially about how WE behave--serving justice and equity to our neighbours.

The clamour for justice and equity will continue to dominate our social discourse, irrespective of what our 'leaders' may concoct, until at the personal level each of us decidedly undertakes to clean our Little Circle.

You must realize that some copycat is ready to follow your lead. Wondering how you can help to make a difference? Here's a short list to get you started.

How are you just or equitable when:

▪︎You drive against traffic because you lack the patience to get to the legitimate turning?

▪You toss waste out of your car onto the street as if you've employed your mother as the street keeper?

▪︎You secretly tamper with your metre to get free electricity and then turn around to criticize your DISCO for inefficiency? Don't they need money to function?

▪︎You rudely inject yourself in front of people and jump queues at public service points because you're in a hurry? Honestly, I've not seen a more in-a-hurry people than Nigerians. Yet their haste seldom leads to progress!

▪︎You habitually bribe your way to favours and come to church or mosque to proclaim breakthrough testimonies?

▪︎You involuntarily press your accelerator the moment someone attempts to overtake you, so you can run the fellow's car into some wreck? What arrogance is that?

▪You impatiently honk your horn and agitate the driver in front of you the very second the traffic light turns green? That is if you didn't beat the red light simply because you can?

▪You irresponsibly spray and desecrate Naira notes at parties and turn around to reject a dirty note as change? Is that just?

▪︎You hunker down for political office just so you can show up at social functions and be hailed titles you hardly deserve, and float in the air over the heads of others?

▪︎You channel sewage from your house or dump refuse into public drains?

▪︎You habitually evade paying taxes and dodge the little contributions aimed at improving living in your small community?

▪︎You think you deserve the right to cheat on your spouse and then turn around to condemn leaders who cheat on the nation?

▪︎You crook your business by lying about the prices and quality of your goods and services?

▪︎You maliciously adjust fuel-dispensing pumps to cheat?

▪︎You do everything to flaunt your delicate feminine features and then turn around to condemn men for groping you? Is that just?

▪︎You accept contracts, knowing they are criminally inflated, and walk away smiling after doling out bribes?

▪You borrow from your neighbour knowing in your heart you don't intend to pay back? Is that just?

▪︎ You surreptitiously watch your neighbour's plantain bunch ripen and climb his fence to cut it while he's away in church on a Sunday, all because the street is quiet?

▪︎You let wholesome noise from your church or mosque drive neighbourhood residents crazy, simply because you can get away with it? Is that just?

I'd better stop before someone accuses me of being unjust with my long write ups. But here's one more many of us will probably relate to.

You habitually arrive late for functions and duties and turn around to curse others for their laxity?

Last week, I was at the Ekpan General hospital to procure a medical certificate of fitness for my ward who had to start secondary school. We killed the whole day there and still didn't get what we went for because a staff who was to type the final document had closed earlier than she should. The next day, I was back there at 8 a.m. I sat for one hour at the door of Madam Document.

At 9 a.m. she strolled in. Just right behind her, one of her staffs followed. They were both late to work. Like oga like her staff! Resume late, close early.

As soon as Madam opened the office door and the two sauntered out of my sight, I overheard this exchange:

Madam: "Me wey dey stay Jeddo, I first you come."

Staff: began to give a woolly explanation.

Madam: "Shut up!"

No apology for the customer she embarrassingly met waiting at her door. That is who we are. We impose a miserly standard on ourselves and a crushing one on others. We're a people given to wanting to eat our cake and have it.

I do not suffer people like these lightly when I encounter them. I served them my mild rebuke for their tardiness. It was what I expected of myself. It is what I owe my Little Circle. Sometimes I receive insults and rudeness for doing this, but they cut no ice with me. When my message is passed, my day is made.

One problem with us is our passive culpability when we frequently turn a blind eye. We demean our Little Circle. You see, the restructuring we need is not of our polity but of our minds. When our minds are restructured, our polity will logically follow.

I saw this interesting quote over a picture of ex-governor Fashola, "If you want to find out how difficult it is to govern Nigerians, open a WhatsApp group and ask members not to post irrelevant things." Perhaps it is his quote. The man is often credited with lofty soundbites. I like him, despite his failure as a minister. At least he did well as governor, I think.

Forget about your going to church or mosque. Forget about your being anything. Simply clean up and restructure your dirty Little Circle!

STOP PRESS!

Have you ordered your copies of my first 2 novels, Godly Stranger & Not Born to Live? Hurry please!

(For more articles visit: https://www.chrisekpekurede.com/blog)