HAVE YOU LOOKED AT OUR NATIONAL FLAG LATELY?

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

When last did you take note of a flying Nigeria national flag?. The one you took note of, how was it looking? I am almost certain that there must have been something wrong with the flag. It is either it is tattered almost in rags, discoloured as a result of continuous exposure to the elements of the weather, flying at night in the dark, wrongly flown with the green and white laying horizontally, perpetually flying at half (or even quarter) mast when the nation wasn’t mourning, very tiny in comparison to other flags flying beside it or looking so funny like an article just out of an apprentice tailors shop with the green and whites sewn together and so poorly done.

These are the much I can remember of the very sorry states the Nigerian national flag is commonly seen. I guess you might have seen and in a better position to describe even worst forms of flying Nigerian flags as you must have observed in you own vicinity.

There is this one I see every day. The flag-if at all it qualifies to be called that- hangs miserably on a wooden pole about twelve feet long. It wasn’t even hanging as there was no rope what so ever suspending it from the top of the pole. My guess, it is nailed to the wood. But that is not even the worst part of the flag. The poor flag which from immediate observation presents the picture of a worn out piece of cotton has painfully lost the green parchment at its edge. So effectively, it is green and white only and it flies there from January to December, twenty four hours a day, in the sun and in the rain and daily –every morning- the pupils of the primary school in which it is located face and salutes it while singing the national anthem.

Each time I walk past, I feel a huge sense of shame, a mesmerizing pain in my tummy and a reminder that just like the flag, my country (which the flag represented) was also in rags. For if national symbols are important instruments for creating and sustaining a peoples national identity, then what ours shows is a country of a people who do not even –in the remotest sense- appreciate what it is to be a nation and thus practically not in a position to be one. At least, not in the true sense of the word, nation.

Abuse of our national symbols now seems a national policy. A whole lot of Nigerians have little or no regards for the Naira which over the years has been a victim of un-speak able kinds of abuse. A great percentage of our school children sing the lines of the national anthem wrongly and their teachers who don’t equally know what the right lines are do not bother to correct them. Same goes for the national pledge. A few years ago the nation was treated to drama when a ministerial nominee could not sing the National anthem before the Senators. An even greater percentage of our populace cannot recite the pledge and don’t even bother asking any one to explain the symbols of the Coat of Arms, what you will get is absolute silence.

Of all the national symbols which includes (as I was taught in Social Studies Class back in my primary school which I believe has not changed) the national flag, the coat of arms, the national anthem, the pledge, the national currency, the Nigerian passport, etc. I think the national flag suffers the severest forms of abuse.

It is disheartening to note that this abuse of the national flag is not limited to obscure institutions like the Little school with the rag I pass by every day described above, but surprisingly also perpetuated in bigger Government institutions such as the premises of the police and in federal ministries and parastatals, in private institutions especially banks and in a host of other premises occupied by people who ought to know better such as churches, party offices etc.

Some days back, I past by a party office of the ruling party in one of the Area councils in the FCT and observed that  the tiny Nigerian flag was sandwiched in between two much big and better looking flags of the party.

The flag of most corporate institutions especially banks are far bigger than the national flag that flies along side them. The national flag seems to be there only by compulsion or a need to fulfill all righteousness while theirs, which represents their corporate image flies tall and big, not only intimidating the poor green and white, but also virtually removing it from existence. How wrong this is.

And of course, the national flag all over the country perhaps with the exception of military barracks flies all day long. My elementary civic studies taught me that the flag should not fly in the dark. I wonder if the tradition has changed.

In effect, our national flag has been (and is still being) defaced, desecrated, mutilated, disrespected and abused. What is more interesting is that no one really cares. For a country like The United States where Respect and Pride in the State is a national policy, the national flag is treated with such respect that when any group of people are demonstrating against Americas foreign policy, they make a huge show of burning the American flag in front of television cameras just to hurt the Americans. If you do the same to a Nigerian flag with the hope of injuring our sensibilities, you will be simply wasting your time as we ourselves do worst things to our flag.

What is more, the man who designed our national flag is un known, unsung, and currently languishing in poverty in his old age.

The issue here is simple. We are just not proud of our country or put more appropriately, there is hardly any thing to be proud about our country or better still, the condition of the country makes it impossible for us to be proud of the country. We have too many things to worry about that remembering to honour  a piece of cloth ranks last in our line of thought.

The state of our national flag represents the state of mind of a people who have given up so to speak on the ideals on which their nation is built and are more pre occupied struggling to make ends meet.  

The solution? A massive national re-orientation. But it does not end there, we need to get the basic things such the economy, jobs, food, power, etc right. Only a man whose stomach is full remembers to respect the national symbols. Only a man whose need has been met by his nation will care to know and respect the national symbols and laws. Until our leaders begin to do what they should do, the way it should be done, we will continue to be what we currently are; a pariah state.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

www.nzesylva.wordpress.com

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PROBLEM OF ADOLESCENCE

Excerpts of a lecture delivered by Ifedigbo Nze Sylva at the 2008 Annual Knights of St. John International Cadets and Junior Auxiliaries Convention holding at the KSJI Temple, Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral Garki –Abuja on Thursday August 28, 2008.

The problem of adolescence is by no means an easy topic to discuss not withstanding that it is so to speak an every day thing. It is often said that the teenage years are the “best years of ones life”, In fact Art Linkletter a Canadian born US broadcaster in his book A Childs garden of Misinformation highlighted the beauty of the adolescent years in this famous quote; The four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence, in his opinion, life became useless after adolescence. As true as these assertions may be, it is ironic to note that this is only part of the picture. Life for many adolescents is a painful tug of war filled with mixed messages and conflicting demands from parents, teachers, friends, family and oneself. Growing up—negotiating a path between independence and reliance on others—is a tough business and that summarizes what we would be discussing here today.
Adolescence (gotten from the latin word adolescere which means; to grow) as defined by the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or physiological ones are the easiest to measure objectively.
The onset of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood vary from country to country but we can generally place adolescents to be persons within the ages of eight and eighteen. NB, Those in the period of adolescence are referred to as adolescents or teenagers or simply as teens.
The period of Adolescence is filled with intellectual and emotional changes in addition to other major biological and physical changes. It is a time of discovery of self and one’s relationship to the world around himself or herself.
Before we delve into the problems of adolescence, let us take some time to note the causes. It is important to the success of our discourse that we first understand what is happening to the teen physically, cognitively, and socially; before looking at how these affects teens.
Physical Development: During adolescence, teens experience rapid physical development at a speed unparalleled since infancy. Physical development includes; rapid increase in height and weight (seen earlier in girls than in boys), the development of secondary sexual characteristics (prominent among which is the onset of menstruation in girls and the growth of pubic hair),a continued brain development.
Cognitive Development: Adolescents usually possess greater thinking skills than infants. These advances in reasoning can be seen in the following areas;
• Developing advanced reasoning skills. These include the ability to think about multiple options and possibilities. It includes a more logical thought process and the ability to think about things hypothetically. It involves asking and answering the question, “what if…?”.
• Developing abstract thinking skills. These means thinking about things that cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Examples include things like faith, trust, beliefs and spirituality.
• Developing the ability to think about thinking in a process known as “meta-cognition.” Meta-cognition allows individuals to think about how they feel and what they are thinking. It involves being able to think about how one is perceived by others. It can also be used to develop strategies, also known as mnemonic devices, for improving learning.
Psycho-Social Development: There are five recognized psychosocial issues that teens deal with during their adolescent years. These include:
• Establishing an identity.
• Establishing autonomy.
• Establishing intimacy.
• Becoming comfortable with one’s sexuality.
• Making achievement.
These issues bring about such changes in youths as; spending more time with their friends than with their family, keeping a diary, locking up their rooms, become involved in multiple hobbies, become more argumentative, would not want to be seen with their parents in public etc.
As a result of these changes which the teen is undergoing, they become vulnerable to many forms of trouble. As adolescents try new behaviors, they become vulnerable to injury, legal consequences, and sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, traumatic injuries, particularly from car and motorcycle accidents, etc.
We shall then proceed to discuss some of these problems.
BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS
Adolescence is a time for developing independence. Typically, adolescents exercise their independence by questioning their parents’ rules, which at times leads to rule breaking. It is common for once loyal children to begin to grumble when asked to carry out some chores at home and to respond in harsh words when been rebuked by their parents. This is often a challenging time for most parents.
Some parents and their adolescents clash over almost everything. In these situations, the core issue is really control—adolescents want to feel in control of their lives and parents want adolescents to know they still make the rules.
Children occasionally engage in physical confrontation. However, during adolescence, the frequency and severity of violent interactions increase. Although episodes of violence at school are highly publicized, adolescents are much more likely to be involved with violence (or more often the threat of violence) at home and outside of school. Many factors, including developmental issues, gang membership, access to weapons, substance use, and poverty, contribute to an increased risk of violence for adolescents. Of particular concern are adolescents who, in an altercation, cause serious injury or use a weapon.
Because adolescents are much more independent and mobile than they were as children, they are often out of the direct physical control of adults. In these circumstances, adolescents’ behavior is determined by their own moral and behavioral code. The parents guide rather than directly control the adolescents’ actions. Adolescents who feel warmth and support from their parents are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. Also, parents who convey clear expectations regarding their adolescents’ behavior and who demonstrate consistent limit setting and monitoring are less likely to have adolescents who engage in risky behaviors. Authoritative parenting, as opposed to harsh or permissive parenting, is most likely to promote mature behaviors.
Substance abuse is a common trigger of behavioral problems and often requires specific therapy. Behavioral problems may be the first sign of depression or other mental health disorders. Such disorders typically require treatment with drugs as well as counseling. In extreme cases, some adolescents may also need legal intervention in the form of probation which is not so common in Nigeria.
UNWANTED PREGNANCY AND SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES (STDS)
This is as much a problem for the male adolescent as it is for the female but generally, the girls stand a greater risk of this. Due to the development of secondary sexual characteristics following adolescence, teens feel a great push to explore and experiment with their bodies. Early maturing girls are likely to start dating and a combination of the overwhelming urge to explore and peer pressure leads many into sex.
Teens often equate intimacy with sex. Rather than exploring a deep emotional attachment first, teens tend to assume that if they engage in the physical act, the emotional attachment will follow
Most sexually active adolescents are not fully informed about contraception, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. As a result, many fall victims of unwanted pregnancies as well as STD’s. This we must note has destroyed so many young promising teens even from very good homes.
Because adolescence is a transitional stage in life, pregnancy can add significant emotional stress. Pregnant adolescents and their partners tend to drop out of school or job training, thus worsening their economic status, lowering their self-esteem, and straining personal relationships. Some of them never get to fulfill their childhood dreams in life.
Pregnant adolescents, particularly the very young and those who are not receiving prenatal care, are more likely than women in their 20s to have medical problems such as anemia and toxemia. Infants of young mothers (especially mothers younger than 15 years) are more likely to be born prematurely and to have a low birth weight. Also there is the problem of Vesico vaginal fistula (VVF).
Most times, pregnant teens attempt abortion, but this does not remove the psychological problems of an unwanted pregnancy—either for the adolescent girl or her partner. Really, it leads to more psychological and medical problems and the church has very strong words against abortion.
Parents may have different reactions when their daughter says she is pregnant or their son says his girlfriend is pregnant. Emotions may range from apathy to disappointment and anger. It is important for parents to express their support and willingness to help the adolescent sort through his or her choices. Parents and adolescents need to communicate openly about sex, contraception, abortion, adoption, and parenthood which are all tough options for the adolescent to struggle with alone.
DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Substance use among adolescents occurs on a spectrum; from experimentation to dependence. Experimentation with alcohol and drugs during adolescence is common. Unfortunately, teenagers often don’t see the link between their actions today and the consequences tomorrow. They also have a tendency to feel indestructible and immune to the problems that others experience.
Alcohol is the biggest culprit in this regard. Teens have access to it at parties, can obtain it from older friends who are of legal age to buy it, or may simply raid their parents’ liquor cabinets. Moreover, unlike drug use, the moderate use of alcohol is considered perfectly acceptable in most adult social circles. Teens see their parents enjoying a cocktail after work or having a glass of wine at dinner. Drinking comes to represent a very sophisticated and adult thing to do, after all, mum and Dad do it…why shouldn’t I?
Using alcohol and tobacco at a young age has negative health effects. While some teens will experiment and stop, or continue to use occasionally, without significant problems. Others will develop a dependency, moving on to more dangerous drugs and causing significant harm to themselves and possibly others.
Teenagers at risk for developing serious alcohol and drug problems include those: with a family history of substance abuse , those who are depressed , those who have low self-esteem, and who feel like they don’t fit in or are out of the mainstream.
The majority of adults who smoke cigarettes begin smoking during adolescence. If an adolescent reaches the age of 18 to 19 years without becoming a smoker, it is highly unlikely that he will become a smoker as an adult. An estimated 20 million adults in the United States abuse alcohol. More than half of these alcoholics started drinking heavily when they were teenagers.
Teenagers abuse a variety of drugs, both legal and illegal. Legally available drugs include alcohol, prescribed medications, inhalants (fumes from glues, aerosols, and solvents) and over-the-counter cough, cold, sleep, and diet medications. The most commonly used illegal drugs are marijuana (pot), stimulants (cocaine, crack, and speed), opiates, heroin, and designer drugs (Ecstasy).
Drug use is associated with a variety of negative consequences, including increased risk of serious drug use later in life, school failure, and poor judgment which may put teens at risk for accidents, violence, unplanned and unsafe sex, crime and suicide.
Parents can prevent their children from using drugs by talking to them about drugs, open communication, role modeling, responsible behavior, and recognizing if problems are developing.
STRESS AND DEPRESSION
Stress and depression are serious problems for many teenagers. A 1986 study in High Schools in Minnesota, in the US showed that although 61 percent of the students are not depressed and seem to handle their problems in constructive ways, 39 percent suffer from mild to severe depression. These young people often rely on passive or negative behaviors in their attempts to deal with problems. (Garfinkel, et al., 1986).
Stress is characterized by feelings of tension, frustration, worry, sadness and withdrawal that commonly last from a few hours to a few days. Depression is both more severe and longer lasting. Depression is characterized by more extreme feelings of hopelessness, sadness, isolation, worry, withdrawal and worthlessness that last for two weeks or more.
Young people become stressed for many reasons. The most common of these are: Break up with boy/girl friend, Increased arguments with parents ,Trouble with brother or sister ,Increased arguments between parents , Change in parents’ financial status ,Serious illness or injury of family member , and Trouble with classmates. In addition, Children from single parents or broken homes are subjected to a near harrowing experience which brings about Stress and Depression. A classical example of what life could be for a teen from a broken home is shown in my novel Whispering Aloud published by Spectrum books Nigeria (2007), you might wish to grab a copy.
These stress inducing events are centered in the two most important domains of a teenager’s life: home and school. They relate to issues of conflict and loss. Loss can reflect the real or perceived loss of something concrete such as a friend or money, and it can mean the loss of such intrinsic things as self-worth, respect, friendship or love.
In my book Whispering Aloud, Lilian, the main character, a child from a broken home, experienced the stress of being incomplete since she grew to know only her Mother, the stress of being lonely as she had no sibling to play and share experiences with while growing up as well as the depressive feeling of being kept in the dark about her father as her mother would not even mention it. Fate however led her to eventually discovering the existence of, and meeting with her own twin sister Vivian in what can best be described as an entrapping story.
Young people respond to stress and depression by exhibiting much more anger and ventilation; being passive and aggressive. They yell, fight and complain just about every thing. Drinking, smoking and crying more often- especially the girls- are other popular signs. They are also less inclined to do things with their family or to go along with parents’ rules and requests.
Ultimately, most young people will develop and assume the responsibility for their own protection and peace of mind. But during the years of learning and practice, parents, teachers and helping adults need to be aware of the signs and patterns that signal danger. Awareness of adolescent stress and depression opens the door for adults to begin constructive interventions and stimulate emotional development.
BULLYING
This is a huge problem that exists among adolescents though it is often neglected in this part of the world. Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.
Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse.
In colloquial speech, bullying often describes a form of harassment perpetrated by an abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and dominance than the victim. The harassment can be verbal, physical and/or emotional.
Every day thousands of teens wake up afraid to go to school. Bullying is a problem that affects millions of students of all races and classes. Bullying has everyone worried, not just the kids on its receiving end. Yet because parents, teachers, and other adults don’t always see it, they may not understand how extreme bullying can get.
Studies show that people who are abused by their peers are at risk for mental health problems, such as low self-esteem, stress, depression, or anxiety. They may also think about suicide more.
Bullies are at risk for problems, too. Bullying is violence, and it often leads to more violent behavior as the bully grows up. It’s estimated that 1 out of 4 elementary-school bullies will have a criminal record by the time they are 30. Some teen bullies end up being rejected by their peers and lose friendships as they grow older. Bullies may also fail in school and not have the career or relationship success that other people enjoy. Some bullies actually have personality disorders that don’t allow them to understand normal social emotions like guilt, empathy, compassion, or remorse. Such teens need help from a mental health professional like a psychiatrist or psychologist.

SCHOOL PROBLEMS
The School constitutes a large part of an adolescent’s existence. Difficulties in almost any area of life often manifest as school problems.
School problems during the adolescent years may be the result of rebellion and a need for independence. Less commonly, they may be caused by mental health disorders, such as anxiety or depression. Substance use, abuse, and family conflict also are common contributors to school problems. Sometimes, inappropriate academic placement—particularly in adolescents with a learning disability or mild mental retardation that was not recognized early in life—causes school problems.
Particular school problems include fear of going to school, truancy, dropping out, and academic underachievement. Problems that developed earlier in childhood, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disorders, may continue to cause school problems for adolescents.
Between 1% and 5% of adolescents develop fear of going to school. This fear may be generalized or related to a particular person (a teacher or another student) or event at school (such as physical education class or bullying). The adolescent may develop physical symptoms, such as abdominal pain, or may simply refuse to go to school. School personnel and family members should identify the reason, if any, for the fear and encourage the adolescent to attend school.
Adolescents experience many more problems which I have not discussed here due to time constraints. However, it is important we highlight two major factors that are central to the orchestration or otherwise of these problems of adolescence. These two factors are: Peer pressure and the Media.
Peer-Pressure is a term describing the pressure exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change their attitude, behavior and/or morals, to conform to, for example, the group’s actions, fashion sense, taste in music and television, or outlook on life. Peer pressure can also cause people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, e.g. take drugs, smoke etc.
As you grow older, you’ll be faced with some challenging decisions. Some don’t have a clear right or wrong answer – like should you play soccer or become a muscian? Other decisions involve serious moral questions, like whether to cut class, try cigarettes, or lie to your parents.
Peers influence your life, even if you don’t realize it, just by spending time with you. You learn from them, and they learn from you. It’s only human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group. While peers can be of positive influence in many ways, they could also be very negative and in fact are responsible for a great deal of the problems teens experience.
Some kids give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other kids may make fun of them if they don’t go along with the group. Others may go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that “everyone’s doing it” may influence some kids to leave their better judgment, or their common sense, behind.
The second issue is the Media. Some years ago, all I could watch was the black and white ‘wooden’ television in my Dads sitting room which showed only NTA from 4.00pm to 12 mid night. Today however, we can now watch whatever we want to, from whatever part of the world and at whatever time of the day. The local television, cable television, the satellite, the internet, the 3G technology in handsets, Video, CD and DVD players, name it, are all now at our very disposal and with the press of a button, we are availed of all sorts of motion pictures on our screens providing high level entertainment and relaxation.
Beyond the entertainment and the feeling of being up to date which these sophisticated gadgets give us; they are also a potent means for self destruction. Unfortunately, there is often no restriction to the content of what is on our screens. While they are all often pooled together under the umbrella of “Entertainment”, it is common knowledge that the content often varies ranging from the very critical and educative to the obscene and downright immoral. (See an article by me “What are Your Children Watching” at my blog site www.nzesylva.wordpress.com ).
Adolescents have a delicate innocence that can be easily influenced, traumatized and subsequently destroyed by what they watch on the screen. Once they have imbibed something negative, it becomes almost impossible to change them and they don’t just imbibe, they often also go ahead to ‘innocently’ practicalise, destroying their lives and those of their friends in the process.
Most parents are often too busy or rather feign to be busy to monitor and show some extra interest in what their children are watching. Such parents must note that they would have failed in their parental duties if that child (or children) of theirs ends up a junky, a prostitute or a sexual pervert because of what they freely let them watch. The implication of having a media induced, morally deranged generation can best be imagined.
Having dwelt so much on the problems, every one would expect to hear me give the solutions. If you’ve listened attentively, you would have noticed that have consciously put in some points on how parents can handle the discussed problems. I am not a parent yet, so I in a way consider my self not too fit to advice them. However, it suffices to say that in dealing with adolescents as a parent, one has to be more patient and understanding, Strict but not firm, persuasive but not authoritarian and best of all very prayerful.
On the part of the teens, I wish to state that there is simply no excuse for letting the physical and psycho-social changes of adolescence overwhelm you so much as making you begin to take part in antisocial behaviours. As a Catholic teen, you have a responsibility to your self, your parents as well as the Church to live lives worthy of emulation by your peers.
Adolescence or no adolescence, the bible is quite clear on our conduct as individuals. For example, It says “Honour your father and your mother”. Honouring your parents does not include quarreling with them and being disobedient. Ephesians 6:1 is even more explicit on our duty to our parents, “Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents, for this is the right thing to do”. Our Lord Jesus Christ who was also an adolescent at a time gives us a good example of how to be a good adolescent. Despite being God, Jesus was very obedient Luke’s Gospel 2:51-52.
The bible also says “Thou shall not commit adultery”. 1st Thessalonians 4:7 says “God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness”. Titus 2:11-14 admonishes us to do away with all ungodly living and worldly passions. Participation in sex before marriage is not just a sin but could ruin your life. Same goes to using drugs and alcohol.
Psalm 119:9 summarizes the need for adolescents to remain very close to the word of Gods in these words “How can young people keep their lives pure? By obeying your commands” and the only way we can know of these commands is by being close to God, attending Masses and Catechism classes, participating in the Sacraments, reading the Bible and obeying our parents and teachers.
This paper is by no means exhaustive on the topic. We can actually go on and on but in these few pages, I hope that I have made good use of the privilege of talking to us today and that we all have learnt something new on our topic of discourse.
Once again, let me thank the organizers for the invitation to do this and the KSJI Abuja for her sustained efforts in raising future soldiers of the Church through the Cadets and Junior Auxiliaries.

Thank you all for listening. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.
It has been my pleasure.
Dr Ifedigbo Nze Sylva (DVM)

WHAT ARE YOUR CHILDREN WATHCHING?

These are the days of advanced media technology. Some years back, when I was much younger, the only thing one could watch was the wooden box-like black and white television in my Dads sitting room.
That television came alive only at 4.00pm on weekdays with a rendition of the national anthem and was dead again at eleven or there about after the network news with the national pledge. On Saturdays, it started much earlier at 10.00am with Sasame Street and God, I never missed an edition. There were very few viewing options and then any one who owned a video player in a neighbourhood was sure to play host to all the children in the neighbourhood either littered on the floor inside the sitting room or peeping from the windows, each time the video was playing
But today, we can now watch whatever we want to, from whatever part of the world and at whatever time of the day. The local television, cable television, the satellite, the internet, the 3G technology in handsets, Video, CD and DVD players, name it, are all now at our very disposal and with the press of a button, we are availed of all sorts of motion pictures on our screens providing high level entertainment and relaxation.
Beyond the entertainment and the feeling of being up to date which these sophisticated gadgets give us; they are also a potent means for self destruction. Unfortunately, there is often no restriction to the content of what is on our screens. While they are all often pooled together under the umbrella of “Entertainment”, it is common knowledge that the content often varies ranging from the very critical and educative to the obscene and downright immoral.
Most parents in line with the times provide these viewing gadgets at home but very few, a negligible percentage I believe care to monitor and know exactly what their kids are watching. Many research reports have it that what is picked up from the media is responsible for a great percentage of delinquent behaviour and anti social tendencies among teenagers worldwide. I strongly agree.
Parents must note that for example, movies are graded for a reason and it is their responsibility to make sure their children do not see movies graded above their age so that they do not see what they rather shouldn’t see. A child who is exposed to films with violence and strong language will naturally tend in that direction and it is not unusual to observe such a child beating up other kids and freely using the F-word as well as other abusive foul languages in his/her vocabulary. Such a child is not very far from gangsterism and cultism later in life. Campus cultism in Nigeria for example was promoted and sustained to a large extent in the 90’s by the explosion of hip-hop music in the country and then prevailing East side West side (Tu-pac-BIG) dichotomy.
In the same vain, a child exposed to films with nudity and sex often tends to want to experiment with his/her own body or any available body. The end result of such tendencies is better imagined. There are so many American high school movies with kissing and sex scenes and it is not so difficult for your teenage kids who are usually in the same age bracket as those on the screen to feel that “oh, I too should be doing this”.
The latest and perhaps most dangerous and threatening of them all is the Internet. I say it is the most dangerous because not too many homes in Nigeria currently have access to it, thus, most kids go out to the cyber cafes to access it and there, they are out of the reach and control of their parents.
Recently, I was shocked and visibly angered when I noticed that two little boys (not quite 10 or 11) browsing just beside me in a café were actually viewing pornography. Usually in a café, I mind my business but it must have been their repeated excited giggle that had drawn my attention to peep at their screen and what I saw was both nauseating and appalling.
For a while I was speechless, perhaps too shocked to speak. The boys had this look of a Lion just distracted from hunting down its prey. A kind of ehem, can we help you? They weren’t just watching, they were downloading into a removable storage gadget plugged to the system for perhaps, continued viewing at home. Beyond my rebuking the kids and getting the cyber attendant to send them out was the ominous question…, Are the parents aware of their children’s where about?, Are they aware of what they are watching?
Chasing them out that day was one thing, stopping them from viewing pornography was another as they could have as well just walked down the road to another cyber café and continued from where they stopped. In Nigerian cyber cafes, any thing goes. Not withstanding the bold notices such as “No 419 Mails” and “No Pornography” users still do just those things without hindrance. The cyber attendants’ are privy of this but turn the other way as soon as they collect their money.
Unlike internet fraud which recently got a law and an agency enforcing it, I am not aware of any law against viewing of internet pornography especially by minors in Nigeria and if there is, no one is bothering about enforcing it.
Children have a delicate innocence that can be easily influenced, traumatized and subsequently destroyed by what they watch on the screen. Once they have imbibed something negative, it becomes almost impossible to change them and they don’t just imbibe, they often also go ahead to ‘innocently’ practicalise, destroying their lives and those of their friends in the process.
Most parents are often too busy or rather feign to be busy to monitor and show some extra interest in what their children are watching. Such parents must note that they would have failed in their parental duties if that child (or children) of theirs ends up a junky, a prostitute or a sexual pervert because of what they freely let them watch. The implication of having a media induced, morally deranged generation can best be imagined.

Ifedigbo Nze Sylva
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com www.nzesylva.wordpress.com 08063767306

THANK GOD WE LOST

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

Before you attack me for being unpatriotic like the title of this piece would suggest, I am one very sad man this morning. I was quite confident that given the impressive run by the Samson Siasia tutored Dream Team IV, they would crown it all with a Gold medal. That would have like I had written some days ago been an overall victory for Nigeria at the Beijing Olympics for as far as Nigerians are concerned, football means every thing.

But we filed out today under a scotching Beijing sun against Argentina, played our lives out but lost by a lone goal. The streets were silent with every one wearing long faces as though some one of high standing had just kicked the bucket. It’s always so bad losing in the finals. It makes one hiss, curse and bicker. When I was younger, I would refuse my meals and for days to come, I would be moody.

Today, I am moody, but in my moodiness I find some thing positive about our loss. If we had won Gold, the hawks in The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) would have -like always- claimed the victory and we wouldn’t have heard nor made efforts whatsoever to correct all the many wrongs that happened with that team.

Losing is nature’s way of telling us to our faces that we’ve not done every thing necessary to win. Losing gives us the chance to look back at the nature of preparation of the Siasia led side. Losing reminds us that the NFF could not secure one single sponsorship from any corporate body for the team. Losing reminds us that Siasia’s preparations were delayed because of the usual complain: funds. Not too many Nigerians know that Siasia left to Portugal empty handed and with the help of his own personal contacts went ahead to eat “book me down” in Portugal just so that he could get ahead with his plans in the face of frustrating delays from our football mangers the NFF.

The team was without the services of some of her key players just because the NFF failed to deliver letters to the clubs of the affected players on time to secure their release.

Losing reminds us that while all the NFF officials including the Special Assistant of the Chairman were accredited, Best Ogedengbe the team’s goal keeper trainer was not accredited. Can you imagine that?. While all those men were gracing the beds in five star Beijing hotel rooms-possibly with women of easy virtue- and raking incredible amounts as estacodes, the man who should be training our goal keeper was back home in Nigeria. Now how do you go blaming the goal keeper for any errors?

Not just the goal keeper trainer, two other assistant coaches were sent back home leaving only Samson Siasia and Henry Nwosu and two medics as officials. Why? The Nigerian delegation was so much such that even a special assistant could be accredited but our coaches, those who have a business in Beijing were sent back home. What technical input were the NFF officials making to the team in Beijing? Would it have made any difference if they were back here watching on TV like the rest of us? How could we go to battle leaving our war boots at home?

Our team had no psychologist. In the 21^st century, who doesn’t know the importance of a psychologist in a football team? Perhaps, just our NFF. Siasia and Nwosu were expected to co-ordinate the team, train the players, train the goal keeper, define the team tactics, think for the team and work on the boy’s psychology while our NFF officials shopped and visited choice sites in China. What do you call that?

We only go back to these issues when we lose. Let’s ask the questions no body would have asked if we had won.

Now, you don’t win the Olympic Gold just by luck. Very serious preparations and efforts have to go into it. Siasia and the boys put in the efforts, but the NFF continued to do the very wrong things at every turn. Losing the finals today gives us the opportunity to ask questions.

The Dream Team IV did marvelously well. Falling by a lone goal to a side that walloped Brazil 3-0 is no small feat. I dough my hat for the gallant boys and their gallant coaches. It was a silver medal well deserved but it would have been Gold if those whose business it is to manage our football did what they should have done, well.

We still have a chance to get it right before the world and nations cup in 2010.

Congratulations Nigeria, our boys did great jare.

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

IF WE WIN GOLD…

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
As far as I am concerned and I am sure many Nigerians will share this opinion, if the Samson Siasia led Dream Team IV beats Argentina in the finals of the men’s football event at the ongoing Olympics on Saturday and win Gold, Nigeria would have emerged ‘overall’ winner of the Beijing Olympics.
For many Nigerians, China, America and the likes could rake in all the medals there is to win in all other sports but give us the football Gold and we are satisfied. Victory at the Saturday finals will be the only good thing to remember about the 29th Olympiad and would serve to if nothing else raise the spirit of a heart-broken nation.
Yesterday’s victory over the surprise semi-finalists Belgium was celebrated all over the country as though we had won the Gold. At 11.00am, Government business paused and even after the match the joy the goal margin brought to the heart of the people made it impossible for any thing meaningful official activity to hold. Taxi drivers, okada men discussed the match and though I didn’t visit any, I was sure there would have been free drinks in some beer parlours around town.
Foot ball Gold on Saturday will serve to wipe our tears of what has been without mincing words a disaster. It was something we all saw coming with the very poor preparation of athletes’, the continuous rancor and bickering, the stories of all sorts of scandals and even the rather funny tale of non release of branded kits to the athletes. We watched as our boxers were beaten blue and Black with some barely surviving their bouts without as much as scoring a point. Our female soccer teams the not so Super Falcons slumped on three occasions, scoring one goal (a penalty) and leaving the Olympics without a single point. Our table tennis players shared a similar fate and we all some how kept believing that some thing good will come out of the tack and field events.
When the track and field events started, we watched as our very best sprinters struggled to the finish line long after the likes of Usain Bolt of Jamaica were already walking off the tracks. The athlete in the green kit was always sixth seventh or last. At a point it became not just shameful but also irritating. Personally, I began to wonder if this our athletes had in them the remotest zeal to win.
I often take few moments to wonder how our large (very large) delegation of estacode hunting Government and party men feel being in Beijing with the lack luster outing of our athletes and the fact that even by a miracle they would have no eight Gold medals to hand over to the guy in Aso Rock like they had promised when they were leaving. Surely, they wouldn’t be feeling as bad as we are because, the trip had nothing in the first place to do with the success of the Team Nigeria but as scramble to increase the value of their bank accounts.
But why should this be so? Why should Nigeria, so large a country go to the Olympics and fail to win a medal when other African countries including her tiny neighbor Togo had? Why should it just be foot ball that we are hoping will salvage our image?
We seem not to be aware of the existence of many other Olympic games like kayak, rowing, shooting, fencing and the likes which I am confident our people can perform well in. We don’t even hear of these games in Nigeria talk more of knowing how to play them. Yet, it is someone’s responsibility to supervise sports development in Nigeria. I know of one popular name-Amos Adamu- whose responsibility I think this is. I wish to ask, what sports have we developed in the last twenty years?
There are obviously many questions that might never find answers until we began to have a different idea of sports management and do away with unproductive elements around our sports industry. Until then-which doesn’t seem like any time soon-let us console our selves with the exploits of the Siasia boys and pray that they repeat yesterdays outstanding performance on Saturday so that our National anthem can at least rent the Beijing air. That would be to me and a whole lot of others an ‘overall’ victory at the games.
One big lesson to draw from this however is that; if you fail to prepare, you should prepare to fail. Full stop.
Go Eagles.
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

HOW TO BE A NIGERIAN

By Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

Let me attempt here what the musician will call a remix or should I rather say a summarized update or a sequel of Peter Enahoro’s book published under the same title.

My objective?

Since every one, ourselves inclusive seem to be in agreement with the fact that we-Nigerians- are a unique (not necessarily in the positive sense) group of people, it has become imperative especially in our globalized world for us to begin to share with our selves and more importantly, the rest of the world-especially those who are still amazed about our uniqueness- just what it takes to be a Nigerian.

Interestingly, it’s so simple.

First and foremost, you must be very religious. This has absolutely nothing to do with the ease with which you tell lies or your willingness to short change the very next person at the slightest opportunity. What is important here is that a bible/prayer bead is always part of your personal effects at every instance and that you are willing and indeed very quick to declare your faith but orally or in writing especially in your Curriculum vitae even without being prompted. You must also either join in closing up streets and causing hold ups on Friday afternoons or be found well dressed on Sundays heading in a particular direction.

As an extension of your religiousness, you must believe strongly that every thing that happens, from the late arrival of the rains in a rainy season to the collapse of a poorly constructed building has a spiritual explanation and thus can only be handled spiritually. An infant who dies shortly after birth is nothing but an ogbanje or an ibiku whether or not the child had received all the necessary medical attention before and after birth. You must also learn to place the responsibility for your woes on some body. It’s either a neigbhour who doesn’t like your face, an envious relation who doesn’t want your progress or simply put, some kind of demon which no body ever sees. That way they don’t get to weigh you down and you get to save your self the depressing feeling of being a failure.

As a Nigerian, you must hold fanatically to the e go beta theory which in effect is an empty belief- a psychological opium- that things which are awfully wrong now will miraculously turn around in due course. However you must be prepared to be patient and wait endlessly for that time to come. To help keep you resilient in your wait, you must always remind your self that your country was “the most populous black nation in the world” and the “sixth largest oil producer in the world”. If nothing else, it provided a mental satisfaction that, since your country was Great, you too were great. Potentially.

To save your self from the prospects of an early death from high BP or brief illness, don’t ever go worrying yourself about the actions or inactions of Government. In Nigeria, siren blaring, tinted glass, dangerously driving, fast moving vehicles were the symbol of Government. You should be happy and contented each time you encountered them. It was a reminder that even though it doesn’t seem apparent, a Government existed. What they do (or don’t do) should be none of your business.

If however you feel some Marxist push-the type undergraduates call aluta- to ask questions, why not?, go ahead and ask but be rest assured that you will get no reply. If you cant live with that, then I advice you either join the queue in front of the United States embassy for a visa or buy your self an Ak47 and go join the militants in the Niger Delta. If you don’t feel up to both then just keep quiet or be prepared to be liquidated by the system. Your opinion was not worth the value of used tissue paper.

If by luck, fate, criminality or a combination of these you find your self in public office in Nigeria, rejoice and be glad for you are already in your own heaven. Aside consciously mistaking the public vault for your trouser pocket, you must make continuous and determined effort to estrange yourself from the people you are leading. Reaching you must be impossible or else you will be belittling the status of your exulted office.

Besides, why go to bed with the many problems of a traumatized people on your mind? Did you cause the problem? Why should any one expect you to solve them?. Moreover, did they-the people- even elect you?. It was wiser and way more sensible to busy your self with how to recoup election expenses and to ensure that the unborn members of your fifth generation had wealth starched out for them.

One word you must be very familiar with is NEPA. Like it or not, it will be an important part of your vocabulary. It’s not even actually a word but an acronym for the now defunct National Electrical Power Authority. Its overwhelming importance lies in the fact that it is a synonym for two other important words: Light and darkness. Once your bulb goes out, you shout “NEPA”. Whenever it came back on, you again shout “NEPA”. You won’t need a reminder. Soon it would become part of you.

And talking about darkness, as a Nigerian, you must see and appreciate its beauty. After all,. Didn’t God create it? Being in darkness was a natural state. Anything other wise amounted to tampering with nature. Now you will understand why billion of US Dollars couldn’t give us light. However if you insist on tampering with nature, you must go buy yourself a generator. If the heavy duty sound proof ones are too expensive, why not go for the noisy toys from Asia. They served just the same purpose.

As a Nigerian, you must perfect the art of not lying and not telling the truth all the same. Just talk your way through every situation. The more ambiguous you sound the better. Flaunting your ability to speak the queen’s language is a rule and your children must not learn to speak their native tongue. What?, not in this civilized age.

It is important to you survival that you changed or rather updated your understanding of the word ‘brother’. In Nigeria it doesn’t just mean your male sibling from the same parent. No, it meant much more. Every one who spoke your dialect or who hailed from your part of our large country was your brother and only to such a person did you owe any form of allegiance and vice versa. So before you treat any file in the office, you look up the name of the owner. If it was for a ‘brother’ it got speedy attention. If it wasn’t, you were free to throw it into the nearest waste bin.

Being elaborate was to say the least a civic duty as a Nigerian. If you have to throw a party, it must be a very big one or else you’ve not made a point. And of course, we party just about every thing- Child naming, House warming, Birthdays, weddings, Anniversaries, Promotions and even death. Funerals must be such that a fortune is spent to execute it. It didn’t matter if you ended up in debts. The important thing was that the people who came went home drunk and happy.

Take note however when inviting people for any function that Nigerians arrived at occasions two hours after the scheduled time. We call it African time. Why should one be the first to arrive? It would seem like he was the hungriest of the lot. No, the place should be full before he arrived. So learn to push back the time on your invitation so that after two hours – just when you really want them-, they will begin to arrive and for your own good too, take two whole hours before leaving for any occasion.

Just in case there is a robbery around your neighbourhood, don’t bother calling 911. It was either the sleepy officer who answers the call (if it ever gets through) is not very familiar with your part of town and so can not trace the place or there would be no fuel in the police van. If however they are so touched to respond, they will turn up thirty minutes after the robbers had left, jumping about and asking wia dem, wia dem?. If time is not taken, you could end up being picked as a suspect just because, you made the call.

You must be smart enough to get away with little offences. Put on your seat belt only when you sight the Road safety men ahead and unhook as soon as you pass them. Even when the traffic light has shown RED, drive on, the car approaching from the other direction will stop for you. If it doesn’t, you are on your own. Form the 3^rd, 4^th even 5^th lane on a two lane road just so that you can be ahead. Come to work at 11.00am and fill in 8.01am in the time book, no body checks. Smuggle in just one extra zero to the figure of any contract you were awarding, if it goes unnoticed, you become a big man.

Very importantly, as a big man in Nigeria, you must go to great lengths to maintain a larger than life image. You have to carry around three big handsets, one each for the three major networks. Your car should be American spec so that it intimidated others in a parking lot. You must tell every one who cares to listen that you bought it tear leather of chassis. Your out fit must be over starched so that it took up more than your fair share of a sitting space. Your plate number should bear your name and a number which signified the position that particular car occupied in your fleet of cars and when you are introduced at an occasion, the MC must take time to include all your many titles and designations (both bought and earned) or else you wouldn’t acknowledge. Was it easy to be Chief, Engr, Dr somebody somebody, the Ochili ozua one of somewhere and the Chairman Chief executive of an endless list of companies both limited and unlimited?

Now, don’t attempt becoming a Nigerian if you are new to embarrassments. Anything happens around here and you should be prepared for it. You must get use to things like the National Television going off in the middle of the network news making an annoying noisy sound and returning five minutes later with a visibly perplexed newscaster offering an obviously well rehearsed line of apology. At the parks, you must elbow your way to a seat on a taxi. You must be prepared to wait long hours – most likely in the Sun- to pay for public utilities like your electricity bill. It was better you looked the other way, a hanky over your nose when walking past a refuse dump right in the middle of the highway and God, you must be ready to freely and willingly give and receive abuses at the slightest provocation. You might wish to begin to learn some of the easier ones like “your Father”.

Less I forget, you must be very patriotic. You must be an unflinching supporter of the national foot ball team when they were victorious. If however they are out of luck and were not performing well in a match, you were free not only to begin cheering their opponents, but to also – still as a mark of patriotism-, call for their heads and that of their coach after the match.

Finally, more of a caveat emptor, if you are a frequent traveler-abroad I mean-, you must get use to being treated like a lesser being by the air line officials. You might wish to fly British Airways for a first hand taste of this. Your green passport must be wrapped in a brown jacket just so that you don’t give away your identity cheaply. When eventually your identity is known, be ready to have gloved fingers straying even into the private recesses of your anus because you are most often than not expected to be travelling with banned substances. Don’t feel bad about this; it was only one of the many dividends of being Nigerian.

You see, like I told you earlier, it’s so simple to be a Nigerian. In case you wish to learn more, just buy your self some CD tapes of our Nollywood films. I am sure that before you are through with watching five (I mean both the part ones and two’s), you might just have become more Nigerian than I am. I can also swear however that the CDs you will buy will be pirated. You will be lucky if they all play to the end.

Now, I expect to get a few knocks for this piece. Not too many people fancy being reminded what they looked like. They –we- generally prefer to feel we were something else. Something good, excellent and desirable. It was a Nigerian attribute which deludes some of us into declaring that we were a great nation or that we were proud of our country. Honestly, there is nothing to be proud of except perhaps the thoughts of what we could be as a nation, like a poet once wrote,

I admire a girl with make up

For what she is

And the one without

For what she could be…

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

THE CHECK POINT

Short Story by Ifedigbo Nze Sylva

I re-entered the conversation with the utmost reluctance after minutes of silence during which I fought hard to control the rising rage in me. The grounds for rational exchange had long been polluted by the frailest, almost banal and unintelligent discussion I have had since my return to the country just over a month ago. When I touched down at the airport in Lagos after twelve years in the United States, I was aware that I had just re-entered-like the western media would say-, one of the most disorganized societies under the sun which unfortunately happened to be my father land and I had consciously prepared my senses for whatever will come up, but I was in no way prepared for the rather discourteous level of conduct to such extents I never thought possible, at least not in an acclaimed democracy as ours, by persons who according to the constitution are saddled with the responsibility of protecting my rights as a citizen.
It might fall within the duty schedule of a police officer-a Corporal- to stop cars for checking on the highway for whatever security reasons the Police hierarchy can think up, but it was another matter entirely to attempt to intimidate or drag me into such below ground zero exchange all with the aim of squeezing out some naira from me. In Corporal Benson, it for the first time actually became abundantly clear to me that we have -as a nation- finally plumbed the abyss of permissiveness and that the popular cliché: police is your friend which the police chief’s keep talking about even so boldly on their website was nothing but mere wishful thinking. My encounter with the corporal that sunny Saturday afternoon no doubt did an irreparable damage to whatever regards I hitherto had for our police and in all sincerity deserved nothing but outright contemptuous condemnation.
My disappointment started from the way he stood at the middle of the road to flag me down when I was just few meters away from him. I reached for my brakes like a formular-one race driver and no sooner had the car halted that he with the wave of his hands motioned me to the side of the road seeming so unconcerned about the fact that I could have just hit him. When it became obvious that I didn’t understand his sign language, or that I simply wasn’t just prepared to obey, he barked out that I should clear well. The way he said it showed clearly that it was an order, not a suggestion. I did as he said, cursing silently under my breath. The Police in the States would not shout like that even to a criminal whose skin color was black.
He walked over to my side his index finger dangerously caressing the trigger of the dusty pistol he had in his right hand. He said no word of greeting; honestly I didn’t expect him to, giving what I had heard of the Nigerian police. Greeting was not one of their strong ethics. I was eager to rebuke him for almost committing suicide some minutes ago.
“Oga” he began, “I said clear well, don’t you understand that? When another car hits you from behind now, they will say police has done this, police has done that”.
“Is this place not alright?” I asked, certain I was sufficiently off the road.
“Oga, I said clear well, shift inside more”.
The stench of alcohol and hemp which came with each statement of his was most irritating. Having had enough of it, I decided against further argument. Quickly, I engaged my clutch and pulled deeper off the road actually entering the bush beyond.
“Is it alright now? “ I asked, trying to be sarcastic.
“Can I see your particulars?” was what I got as reply.
I knew where this was leading. I could imagine. The normal drama with the police was my least interest at that time as I was actually running late for an important meeting. I had two options, to play along acting my own part in the ensuing drama or to wiggle my way through, some how. I chose the latter.
“Look officer” I began a smile playing on my lips. “Without sounding out right disrespectful and without prejudice to the fact that you are supposedly doing your job, I am compelled to ask that you please let me go as I am trying to meet up with an emergency situation here”. I really hoped my American accent would do the magic, but it didn’t.
“Oga, you are speaking big grammar. I said I want your particulars”
I actually had all that he wanted, my younger brother who bought me the car had made sure all the papers were intact as though he foresaw situations like this, so why give this jerk something to lot about? I thought. Reaching out to my pigeon hole, I produced all the papers I knew he would ask for. Dropping the bunch of papers on my bonnet he began to flip through them, making as though he was searching for something in particular. I could swear those blood shot eyes, were merely running through the papers. The expression on his face made it adequately clear that he wasn’t reading any thing. Better put, he couldn’t read any thing.
“Vehicle Insurance?” he asked not lifting his eyes from the bunch of papers.
“It is there” I replied
“Driver’s license?”
“It is also there”
“Certificate of road worthiness?”
“They are all there”. I was beginning to wonder if the corporals reading ability was worse than I thought.
For a brief moment, he seemed at a loss of what more to ask for then suddenly he demanded for my I.D card. I told him I had none since I just returned to the country. I wondered if my driver’s license was not enough identity.
“You think I don’t have eyes? I have seen your license but I want to also see an I.D card. I know what I am doing. You don’t have an I.D card, how do I know that you are who you say you are?”
“Well I have an international passport if that would be of use to you”
He barely opened the green passport before returning it. My time was running out and I was getting impatient.
“Open your bonnet” he demanded.
For what again? I wondered in my mind, why on earth was this jerk just wasting my time?
“Officer” I tried sounding polite but the anger was welling up in me, “is there any problem?”.
“I want to see your engine number”
I pulled the bonnet open. All this while, I remained inside the car. He busied himself around the open bonnet for some time, I couldn’t quit see what he was doing. At the end, he returned to my side and handed back the bunch of papers to me. That afforded me the opportunity of taking a good look at his ugly black face which had two guiles of tribal marks running across it that made him look more like some kind of ape just out of the zoo. His green beret was faded, now almost white in colour while his khaki uniform on which his name tag hung precariously was in dare need of a change having seen better days or just a good wash. He would have passed more for a rebel soldier deep in the Sudan deserts than a law enforcement officer in the most populous Black nation in the world. As I looked at him I couldn’t help but feel less of contempt and more of pity for him.
He was staring back as though expecting me to say or do some thing. It was time for “any thing for the boys?”, but some how he didn’t ask, couldn’t get himself to and I kept staring back.
“What is in your boot?” he inquired.
“Nothing serious” I replied shocked he wasn’t yet through with me.
“What do you mean by nothing serious?”
“I mean that the boot is empty, the only things there are my jack and a spare wheel”.
“Open it”
“What?”
“I said open your boot”
“Look officer I told you nothing is there. Why do you just insist on wasting my time? You’ve already kept me here for almost twenty minutes”. I was now visibly irritated.
“Oga , are you now questioning me?, I said come out and open the boot before I change my mind.”
That was not polite at all.
“For Christ sake, this is not how the police should treat innocent citizens in a civilized society”
“You think this is America?”
“Must it be America before you do what you are supposed to do the way you are supposed to do it?”
“So you are now teaching me my job?”
Obviously you don’t know your job?”
“oh!, you are insulting me?”
“ I have not insulted any body, i am just trying to put things right here”
“The only thing to put right here, is for you to come out and open your boot now”
“What do you hope to find there? Do I look like a criminal?”
“Yes, you look like one of these small boys that carry cocaine in America that come here to speak big grammar for us. I know your type and I know how to handle your type. If you don’t want to reach our station, come out now and open the boot.
I felt insulted. In the US, I enjoyed quite a great deal of respect as a senior Professor my colour not withstanding. In my fatherland, a common police corporal has the effrontery to call me a criminal. I had no problems opening the boot as i had nothing to hide but at that point, I felt it was best to let him do his worst. My tongue went to work.
“Am amazed at your very shabby level of intelligence” I began, “I don’t have time to be arguing with a scumbag like you. I wonder how nit wits and simpletons like you find yourself into the Police Force. I don’t even think its worth imagining. If you feel like arresting me for…. for whatever, then go ahead”.
“Oga, I have been trying to treat you like a gentleman but I can see you are very stubborn. You think this is America where you can say any nonsense you like and go free. This place na Nigeria. If you insult me again, I will just waste you here and no body will ask any question”. He moved the pistol in my direction.
I had heard and read so many sad stories about accidental discharges. I took that threat very seriously but did not betray my fears. America taught one to refuse to be intimidated. I remained firm.
“Of course you are joking. You can’t try such a thing even in your widest dreams”
“Come out of the car now”
“For what?”
“You are under arrest”
“What have I done?
“When we get to the station, you will understand”
“I am going no where”
Before I could say any other thing, he deflated one of my tyres by loosening the air nozzle. I sat there almost petrified. I simply couldn’t comprehend such level of recklessness. It was at that point that I decided to stop talking, I was too angry to reply all the unprintable words that were gushing out from his gut as he swung from side to side like a mating gorilla. I only re-entered the exchange when another officer, a sergeant who had all along been sitting in the weather-beaten pickup van parked in the corner approached to find out what was wrong. Corporal Benson was quick to report to his superior officer what a stubborn criminal I was, and in a twinkle had raised all sorts of allegation against me from criminal assault to possession of a suspected stolen vehicle. He even said I was reluctant to stop when he flagged me down which was what fueled his suspicion. The sergeant looked in my direction, his expression seeking my own side of the story which I reluctantly told. I also added that I was going to take the matter up to the highest quarters and to sue if need be as I considered the incidence a flagrant abuse of my rights.
“Em sir, take it easy” the sergeant pleaded, my threat obviously getting the better of him. “We don’t have to take it that far. This is a very simple matter that we can settle here. You see my officer must have made a mistake, you know this job can be very stressful a times that some times we tend to do what might not be so right, but then, we always settle it….
My anger was melting. It felt good to know some sense was still left in the police.
…. Corporal! Apologize immediately and get the spare tyre to change this one” turning back to me he continued, “Oga please I am very sorry. We would see how to fix your deflated tyre.”
The visibly perplexed corporal stiffened up at attention and gave his superior officer a salute. What a difficult customer I was, he must have thought. I wished I could read his mind, to see how disappointed he was but I couldn’t tell between the two of us who was more disappointed.

Ifedigbo Nze Sylva
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com

AUGUST MEETING JAMBOREE ‘08

 

By Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

It’s August again and in Nigeria women from the Southeastern parts of the country resident in various parts of the country and indeed abroad are preparing for one particular annual ritual, the August Meeting.

Let me attempt here for the benefit of those who might not be very familiar with this all important annual ritual a brief description of what it is all about.  Its been the practice since God knows when for Igbo speaking women (who hail predominantly from the Southeastern part of the Country) to gather once a year in a grand meeting that lasts for days to discuss and deliberate on issues that affect them commonly and bring up suggestions/ ideas on how to tackle their problems and help the advancement of the entire community in general.  Participation is the exclusive reserve of married women from the community and it is compulsory (or so their constitution says) for every one to attend. The period for this meeting is usually the month of August.

Various communities, villages and towns as the case may be usually fix the dates for their meeting at their own convenience and for varying durations such that usually the whole month of August is a beehive of activity for women in the entire eastern region of Nigeria.

The aim of the annual gathering as stated above is for the good of the women folk and the community. The idea behind this concept is superb and indeed, this would have been a lesson for the rest of the world in the participation of women in the stimulation of communal growth which is a veritable aspect of the Millennium Development Goals.

I say “would have been” because these days it is clear that the annual gathering no more achieves any of its aims as emphasis has shifted from it being a conscious effort at community building to it assuming the status of a very big jamboree.

In writing this piece, I cannot deny my silent fears that I am about courting some kind of trouble with our dear Mothers who might not take lightly with my calling their big gathering a Jamboree. Sincerely, I offer my deepest apologies. I had thought about writing this a couple of times but had not managed to get my self to. The push to finally put pen on paper came yesterday following a discussion I over heard between some women at the office where I am carrying out my national youth service.

One of the ladies had mentioned that she was taking a whole week off so as to be able to attend these years August Meeting. Whether or not she was giving permission to leave by the boss, she made it clear she was going to be away as she had made up her mind to be at this years gathering having missed the last five gatherings.  Why must she be there one of the other ladies who is not Igbo asked. Her mother in-law had decreed that she must be there so that she-the mother in-law-can also feel and show that she also has some one abroad. 

In igbo parlance the word “abroad” stood for any one who lived out side Igbo land and such persons are often treated with respect and cordiality. The abroad women carried themselves with an air, stamping their superiority to the home-based women and it was a thing of pride for every home-based granny to have an abroad daughter in-law who she showed off at the August Meeting.

Why hasn’t she been attending the meetings? Another woman asked. The lady‘s answer was that she had simply not been ready enough. For this year’s meeting however, she said she was well prepared. Being prepared here meant that she had acquired the latest lace and Hollandis wrapper and the appropriate gold jewelries to go with them.  She had only recently bought a new car- a Honda IvTec- and no time was better to attend the meeting and let the world know that she too had arrived.

That summarized the jamboree status the August Meeting ritual now enjoys. I think I once saw a home movie on the issue. The annual gathering has in effect turned from an issue oriented one to one in which ladies from all over the world flock back home to show off how successful they were. There  is usually a conscious effort to out do each other in the kind of car you came home with, the grade of the wrapper you had around your waist, the quality of the jewelry around your neck-gold or diamond- and of course, how much you can cough out as donation when a call for it is made.

Women who did not turn out in their best or whose best was not good enough i.e. did not meet the prevailing standard were treated as second class and there opinion in the meeting was more often than not disregarded. In fact, they can be hushed up while speaking by the more richly dressed ladies who by their dressing not necessarily their intelligence are assumed to have better suggestions to make.

This phenomenon leads women to go to every length in order to prepare well for this annual gathering.  Many women have been known to go fornicating, or even steal from their husbands or from their offices to meet up. Women from lower economic backgrounds would rather save up money all year round to attend the meeting. These funds would have found better use if deployed for the payment of their children’s school fees or for placing more nutritious food on their dinner table.

Now, when the emphasis is the dressing to the event, can anything meaningful be discussed at the event?

That is why I in all honesty prefer to refer to the annual gatherings as a jamboree. For the lady in my office, she was not only going to miss work for a whole week she was going to do so with or without permission just to satisfy the need to announce to the whole world that she wasn’t living and working in Abuja for nothing.  What meaning then does the meeting now have? Is there any moral justification of the remotest form for the kind of money spent within this period?  

My opinion stated, let me wish all women travelling home from all parts of the world for this years meeting a safe trip. Ije oma nu!

Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com  08063767306

 

 

AND THE BUILDING CAME DOWN!

 Award winning writer Chimamanda Adichie- some one I have great admiration for- once wrote in the Guardian that Buildings fall down, pensions aren’t paid, politicians are murdered, riots are in the air … and yet I love Nigeria. While I very much respect her personal opinion which she is entitled to, I doubt if she would still hold that opinion after visiting the site of the recent collapsed business plaza in the Jabi area of Abuja.

The date was Tuesday 29^th July 2008. I was at the Zankli Medical Center, Utako Abuja when a noisy siren blaring police van (not an Ambulance) rushed in with the first set of rescued victims of the building collapse. Naturally, the sight caused a frenzy in the hospital premises with nurses jumping in and out-like in the movies- to give attention to the patients. It wasn’t long before words went round that a building had just come down.

The patients looked like people who just had a swim in the mud with their entire bodies covered with brown dust.  Their clothing which seemed more like rags- the normal Nigerian labourer’s look- clung miserably to their bodies barely covering up their nakedness. Their faces were expressionless and my, they were a pitiful sight.

At that point, no one could-except perhaps the police officers who brought them in- tell the magnitude of the disaster. The victims though bearing many visible injuries were still able to walk in to the hospital themselves. When later in that evening I got to see the footage of the site on television, it became obvious that those victims I saw were those who were lucky to have been only slightly harmed.  Over fifty other not too lucky ones were buried under the rubble.

Collapsed buildings have always seemed the exclusive reserve of Lagos. Now that Abuja seems to be joining in at a mind burgling magnitude, there are enough reasons to be concerned especially as Abuja is currently one huge construction site.

As usual, each time there is a building collapse, we begin to hear talks of the poor quality of building materials, the use of substandard products and the activity of half -baked site engineers. Top government officials and representatives of the Nigerian Society of Engineers take up space in the newspapers and the broadcast media to hype and hype on the problem and conveniently apportion blames in such a way that they exonerate themselves. One or two people get to be suspended like the FCT administration just did and before long, we forget it all. The dead mourn their dead and soon it is business as usual.

Since we seem quite aware that there are so many sharp practices in the building industry, and that when these sharp practices go unchecked and result in a disaster, so many Nigerian lives would be lost, why then do we appear perpetually unable to check them? Why do we wait until there is a disaster before we wake up from our trance and begin to apportion blames?

I am not a building engineer and do not lay claims to having the competence to talk on such technical issues as the right measurement of rods to be used in making a pillar and all that. But even to the most illiterate mind, it will be obvious that all is not well in Nigeria’s building spheres.

This piece is however not intended to dwell on the many questions arising as a result of the collapse-I would let the experts handle that- I will rather concern myself with our very pitifully slow and I dare say annoying response to emergency in Nigeria.

Many hours after the collapse, most of the victims were still helplessly buried under the rubble. People were just gathered around the site looking on like spectators. The police and the members of the Civil Defense corps on ground could do very little. Even when the Honourable Minister of FCT visited the site, not a single significant rescue activity had begun. Some of the trapped victims were reported to have made phone calls to their family members, a while later, they couldn’t be reached again. First their credits finished, then their batteries died and then most likely, they too died.

As usual, every one was waiting for Julius Berger (a German construction company) to come and help. Graciously, Julius Berger and another company Dantata and Sawoe turned up and to them were left the responsibility of saving whatever lives there was left to save.

There was no sight of officers of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for up to four hours after the incident. On several occasions in the past, NEMA, this bogus agency of Government, which was created to give prompt help to victims of disasters and emergencies, has been caught flat footed. The agency in my opinion is yet to neither fulfill the need for its creation nor justify its allocations in the annual budget.

 

 If NEMA cannot be at the site to mobilize and coordinate rescue operations four hours after a major incident as the one under discourse, in no less a place as the federal capital territory, Abuja, then it is practically unnecessary having the agency existing in the first instance.

Some time ago the nation was treated to a national drama when we could not locate the crash site of a passenger plane (Bellview Airline) which suddenly went out of the skies. When we finally did-through the help of AIT(a TV station)- after so many hours of running from pillar to post, not a single person could be rescued.  Shortly after, when the ill-fated Sosoliso belly landed in Portharcout, the airport fire service station had no water to quench the inferno. So many lives that could have been saved were lost. More recently, a Beech Aircraft went missing and is shamefully, still missing.

Such summarizes our level of response to emergencies in this country and sincerely if you were a relation of any one that was trapped in the collapsed plaza, and watched helplessly as precious time was lost before help could come to save that relation of your, you will definitely not agree with Chimamanda Adichie. You will curse the day you were born a Nigerian.

We all appreciate the fact that in human societies there must be accidents and disasters and it behoves on us to prepare for them. That I believe is the idea behind the establishment of Agencies like NEMA which shouldn’t-in my thinking-be just another government office with civil servants who report to work by 10am every working day, sit around doing nothing for hours and then go back home at 4.00pm and a Director General who moves around in a chauffer driven car, but a mobile, perpetually at alert body, able and ready to respond promptly to any situation wherever, whenever.

Until we learn to take emergencies seriously and respond to them with the speed and seriousness they deserve, we shall not be able to move forward as a people. Human life is extremely precious and any society-like ours- that treats human life with such an I don’t care attitude is surely not a sane society.

My heart goes out to all the victims of the Jabi collapsed building disaster as well as their friends and family.  In this confused nation of ours, I feel so strongly about the fact that we stoically await the same fate.

Ifedigbo Nze Sylva

www.nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com