“A mere need in itself
does not cause the wheels of change to spin in a peopled society; rather, the level
of desire within that need does”
When I was
young and living in Enugu, we used to go to a catholic church; one of the
traditions of the catholic institution is the weekly or daily confessional (for
those who have sins and crimes to confess to). As children, we were never
really into confessions, though we did get into some pranks that required a
visit to the priest. However, all such pranks and nefarious behaviors were
considered forgiven without admonition, given our age. At these confessionals,
it was – and still is – always the priest and the confessor in a secluded
environment, devoid of prying ears and eyes. Though the sins and crimes being
confessed to may have been witnessed by many, the need and desire for atonement
is always personal and private – though it could be made public after the fact.
The decision
to engage in activities contrary to one’s spiritual and moral norms is always a
personal one; the decision to kill, steal or embezzle public funds, blow up a
pipeline, to cheat, deprive or deprave, assault, collude to commit a crime, to
forge official documents, or covet another’s property – human and material -
are all singularly thought through in the deepest recesses of our souls. Same
is the decision to consume illegal substances like drugs or alcohol, defraud
the government, join a cult, manipulate election results, stuff ballot boxes,
kidnap little children for domestic slavery, murder innocent people for money
ritual or to harvest their organs, or simple things as looking the other way
while a neighbor (in this case, anyone at any given time sitting, standing, or
living close to you) is in the process of committing an act contrary to
socially and morally acceptable norms. It could also be something as
religiously debasing as a pastor or imam, preaching or practicing heresy in an
attempt to impose his or her personal interpretations of a holy book on the
congregation; promoting the commission of crime against another religion,
culture, race, or ethnic group.
Though some
may claim effects of external influence, or coercion, in their decisions, the
fact remains that the final decision to engage in, or deviate from these norms,
is yours as an individual. Some have blamed peer pressure or need to belong,
long periods of unemployment, loss of employment, family responsibilities, family
traits and characteristics (my father and grandfather were drunks and smokers),
or the fact that government officials or politicians are all crooks, as reasons
for indulging in criminal and other reprehensible conducts. The struggle in
accepting these excuses lies in the fact that while everyone has been, or are
still privy to all of them, not everyone indulge in criminal activities. So,
while there are those who loot the public treasury on the assumption that some
in government are doing the same, not everyone loots the treasury. The same
applies to every criminal act in the book. If everyone who has, somehow, come
under the pressure or influence of any or all of the above succumbed, then we
all would be criminals today. So, again, the decision to succumb – and stay
under any influence – is a personal one.
The decision
to change from any or all of these evil ways is also a personal one. One may be
encouraged or swayed, just as in the initial decision to commit a crime, by
external forces like churches and other religious groups, morality police teams
as exist in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, peers, lessons learned as
consequences of criminal and immoral activities, tragic family events, and a
realization that crimes really do not pay. The role external influences play in
our decision to change our ways depends on the depth of our personal resolve to
change. In most cases, we just need a little conviction that our decision to
change direction is the right one, and beneficial to us, to our loved ones, and
the society in general. Where that personal resolve is not deep enough, or we
are just changing to please someone, get them off our back, or for the purpose
of obtaining a particular favor, that change will not last for long. That is
why we see alcoholics, drug dealers, and addicts relapse; pedophiles return to
their old ways after release from prison, abusive spouses continue the same way
with their next spouse, cigarette smokers return to their old habits after
quitting, etc.
Change is
real and effective if the decision is personal, borne out of a sincere
conviction that one’s previous behavior was injurious, unethical, immoral, and
devoid of any social benefit. That is why our prayers and confessions are in
private, our acceptance of Christ is personal, and our pleas for forgiveness
and salvation are done privately too. No one person ever goes before God to say
“we” have sinned; it is always “I”. Yes, we may hear all the preaching and
admonitions in churches and prayer houses, schools, our homes, and even from
our friends; it is still up to us to decide to change, pretend to change, or
remain the same. It is up to us as individuals to evaluate our personal lives
and ask ourselves: how does my daily conduct impact on the life and conduct of
my neighbor? How does it impact my family, village, community, state, and
nation? How does my criminal activities contribute to the overall poverty
level, social and moral decay, and political instability in the nation? It is a
question for everyone to answer on their own, from the leaders to the led.
Recently,
the National Orientation Agency in Nigeria launched a campaign termed “Change
Begins with me”; the idea was to get Nigerians to rethink their actions,
especially how it impacts the Nigerian nation socially, economically, and
politically. The reaction from the citizenry was more of comical ridicule and
disdain. In a nation where the leadership is seen as pathologically corrupt,
visionless, clueless, and working against the overall interest of the citizens,
this reaction was largely expected. Many suggested that change must begin with the leadership, and referred
to stories of alleged looting of public funds running into billions of dollars
over many decades as evidence; others lamented about a nation ran down to a
Third World status by series of inefficient and ineffective leaders and
politicians since independence.
While all
these may be true – and, in some case, they
really are in Nigeria – a few things remain indisputable: the leaders are
selected from among the Nigerian populace; the people are complicit in the conduct
of their leaders, either by their silence, acquiescence, or by their inactive
participation in the selection process; also, given that the decision to engage
in any activity, criminal or otherwise, is a personal one, Nigerians who have
chosen to engage in immoral or criminal behavior of any kind cannot honestly point
to their leaders as a reason. In the same vein, the leadership cannot
justifiably blame their behavior on the nonchalance or criminal conducts of the
citizenry.
So, to say
that change must begin with the leadership is a misnomer; because, within the
leadership, there are those who have not been corrupted or influenced by the
moral bankruptcy of their colleagues. The same also applies among the
citizenry, thereby reinforcing the theme of this essay that the decision to
choose one way as against the other is a personal one. The fact that all 180
million Nigerians are neither criminals nor morally debased lends credibility to
the argument that choices are individualistic in nature. If you steal because
someone is said to have stolen, would you kill for the same reason? Will you
offer human sacrifice to ritualists, inflate your company’s payroll, blow up
oil wells, or tap into your neighbor’s electric or cable supply just because
someone you knew or heard of did the same thing? If you have no moral or
spiritual principle, you might. The instructions in the Ten Commandments is to
be applied on individual basis, not collectively, that is why some kill and
steal and others don’t.
If the
leadership is to blame for the lack of principle, good character, spiritual
conviction, and morality that currently pervade the Nigerian society, one would
ask why the same accusation is not leveled against countries like America, UK,
Germany, Canada, and The Netherlands, just to mention a few, where the
leadership is exemplary but, still, have differing levels of criminal behavior
among its political, religious, and social class. Not one criminal of any class
in these countries has ever claimed they were emulating the leadership, even
though there might be some in political leadership positions who have been
caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.
A tale is
always told of a housewife who, lacking the strength to push out her child,
blamed it on the presence of her mother in-law in the delivery room. In
Nigeria, we either lack the moral strength or are afraid to look inwards for
solutions to our problems; we find a general excuse in the government. A
ritualist, rapist, kidnaper, 419-er, armed and pen robbers, cultist, oil thieves,
lecturers who prey on innocent students, economic saboteurs, office secretary
who sells government properties, and medical staff who sell off hospital
equipment to private clinics, all find it easily convenient to blame the
leadership for their personal conducts and social problems; we refuse to
acknowledge a correlation between their activities and the general social,
political, and economic degradation of the Nigerian nation. We perceive every
economic downturn as an opportunity to further bleed the country dry; every
election cycle is presented as an avenue to loot the treasury, settle old
scores with an enemy, and every contract is seen as a conduit to personal
wealth.
Charity,
they say, begins at home. If that holds true, and Nigerians want a better
country, we must be the change we desire; and that change must come from us as
individuals. Little drops of water make oceans, just as a collection of
individual trees make a forest. When change starts with us individually, collectively
the nation will change for the better.
Arlington,
Texas
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