RULES OF THE GAME

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Today is the fourth day of February, 2013. I can’t thank Good enough for His mercies and blessings on us. On three occasions, I started writing this article but the idea didn’t just flow as it used to so I dumped the idea. Someday, I thought, the idea will flow like an African spring and never stop.

Many things have happened in the last 34 days; some good, some bad. So as I sit and reflect on the past happenings, I only recollect one thing; to be a man is not a day’s job. It is a process. Like an iron in fire, you are tested on many situations. Temptations come from left, right and centre. Even your endurance, maturity, sense of understanding and patience are tested. When you come out of it stronger and better, from within you, you know the sky is your starting point.

I came back from work, took my bath and sat back in thought of what I would eat and I dozed off. When I woke up after a while, I saw that I had no fewer than 14 messages on my phone. I quickly checked all of them, replied them and the hunger pangs gnawed me. I looked at the time, it was 11 pm! I had slept for 3 hours! On my way to the kitchen, I had a flash back of all my clients I had advised not to eat late at night. I also recalled the many mails of clients I had replied telling them if you want to stay trim and healthy always, one of the things you need to is not to eat late at night. But that African spirit urged me on telling me to go and satisfy my hunger least I dream about eating with ghosts and spirits. In that instance, a thought flashed through my mind. Eat a fruit based meal. That will do. The fridge, I thought. I rushed to the fridge, opened it and pulled out a king sized water melon. I washed it thoroughly with salt and cut out three small slices to devour. As I was doing all these, I kept hearing the beep of my phone indicating that I either had a text message, an email or a ping from my friends on my BBM. The phone has to wait till I finish eating, I said to myself.

I turned on the television to watch the news. The headlines bored me even more.  It only showed how insensitive the authorities were to the plight of the masses. A petty thief who stole N23.3bilion sentenced to 6 years imprisonment with an option of N750, 000 fine and forfeiture of all his known (mark “known”) properties. It reminded me of the welcome party that was thrown in honour of the ex convict and thief Olabode George which had ex President Olusegun Obasanjo in attendance. It also reminded me of the ex jailbird Igbenedion’s case who stole his state blind only to be given a fine of 1.5 million.  I am not going to mention Ibori’s case because the London metropolitan police did justice to that. In this line, the much talked about Halliburton scam comes into play. I am of the view that Nigeria and Nigerians will be haunted by the activities of our corrupt leaders, friends and associates till we learn to look into their face and tell them ‘look you are a petty thief, I can’t associate with you.’

A writer Jeffery Archer in his book (actually a collection of short stories), A twist in the tail, told a story titled Clean Sweep Ignatius. In the story, Ignatius, a Nigerian minister of finance had tightened all loopholes where the treasury could be looted. The president happy with the development instructed him to head to Swiss bank and collect a list of Nigerian public officials who are accountholders in the bank. Ignatius arrived the Executive Director’s office with only a rickety big box. He informed the Ed of his intention but his offer was declined owing to the bank’s policies. Minister Ignatius threatened diplomatic action again Switzerland insisting that the Swiss ambassador in Nigeria would be expelled and that Nigeria will severe all diplomatic and business ties with the country. But the man did not bulge with the names. They argued back and forth for a while with the ED turning down all Ignatius’ advances to release the names. It was at this point that the Ignatius brought out a pistol, pointed it on the ED and instructed him to give him the names. The ED agreed to give him the names. All of a sudden, Ignatius smiled, opened the rickety box and handed it to the ED to open an account for him! The ED was shocked at the neat piles of crispy dollars in it. According to Archer, the ED made calculations in his head and came to the conclusion that the money in the box would be roughly $5 million dollars.

Now all I am saying is that our leaders and many of us through our actions and inactions have made Nigeria a looter’s haven and corruption capital of the world. No kidding, check Nigeria’s corruption index.

I was eating the water melon mid way, when I checked my phone. It was a lady that had stayed with us when I was a kid. We reunited on a social networking site and in one of our discussions, she told me that she was married with 5 kids! This time, she was accusing me of not coming to see her during the Christmas festivities. I replied her telling her that I was busy with Umunumo Platform working for my community alongside some well meaning professionals. She informed me that I missed her wedding on the 29^th of December, 2013. I asked her “after 5 kids?” In my reply, I teased her that her husband was ‘enjoying her illegal’ all the while. She was upset and threatened to slap me. I smiled and continued teasing her. 

This is not our culture to give birth to children before doing the traditional and religious rites.  People out of either desperation or lack of focus turn our culture upside down to suit their selfish purpose. But we know the rules of the game.

Another lady, I met her on my way to my house after a hectic day at the Health Fair organised by Umunumo Platform last year, informed me that her traditional wedding was the next day being 30^th December. This is a lady, I heard from grapevine that she has two kids. I also heard that her supposed husband was yet to do his Iwa akwa festival (a festival that indicates that you are man enough to build a house and marry a wife.) Now as she was talking, I noticed she was looking unkempt and tacky. I had to send her back to her house to go wear a slippers or sandals. These people are eroding our culture in more ways than one. This is not the typical Igbo culture. Even in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we were not taught so. There is something called courtship. In Igbo it is called Iru mgbede.  It is a period that gives the girl in question ample time to be groomed and taught how to take care of her husband and home. In courtship, the man and woman learn each other with a view to knowing their compatibility level among other things. Anything short of this amounts to raping our cultural heritage and foisting on the generation to come a culture that is foreign to them.

Talking about this generation, I strongly think that this generation of Super eagles should be commended and congratulated. Their game against Cote d’Ivoire was just top of the class and commendable.  For the first time in so many years, I felt so proud being a Nigerian. I salute their confidence, their zeal and their ability to head into the semi final of the ongoing African Cup of Nations. I also salute the zeal of league leaders and 19 times Barclays Premier League Champions, Manchester United as they edge on unbeaten towards their 20^th title race. Well done guys.

As I reflected more, the only worry I had was the unending news about President Jonathan’s rift with his godfather Obasanjo. It gave me cause to ask myself how we got here. The bottom line is our culture is our culture.