Following
the return of James Ibori from the UK where he had served a jail term
for corruption, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju has expressed dismay at the
rousing welcome the man received.
James Ibori
What is shame? Shame is a painful emotion caused by the
consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. It is doing
something that brings censure or reproach. Shame is a condition of
humiliating disgrace or disrepute. Shame arises when we compare our
behaviour with the ideal social standard. That is why shame is based on
self-regard and volition. When we draw comparisons that makes us feel
shame, it is against existing standards that are primarily enabled by
socialisation. Even though shame is often considered an emotion, it is
also a state, a condition, cognition and an affect based on
philosophical and psychological considerations.
Upon deep reflection and introspection, I wrote here a few weeks
ago that what truncated Nigeria’s path to greatness was the systemic
corrosion and erosion of values. It is shameful that Nigeria has lost
its moral compass. Actions that would have brought enormous shame to an
individual, and his family, in the 1960s and 1970s are accepted as
normal these days. We no longer have a sense of wrongdoing. There is a
general acceptance of shamelessness in our day to day living.
Oh! How Nigeria has changed! In today’s Nigeria, men and women
commit crimes eagerly, aggressively, arrogantly and with impunity
without a sense of shame! The collective behaviour, attitude and
reasoning has become twisted and accepting of a corrupt way of life.
People commit crimes without fear because they are convinced that they
are authorities unto themselves. There is no hesitation in committing
crimes or engaging in disgraceful conduct because they have no fear of
being unaccountable. We live in society where the conscience no longer
condemns, where the law no longer forbids, where choices are made on the
basis of individual appetites, instead of acceptable standards of
behaviour.
The Nigerian society has lost its shame, from top to bottom. That
is why a Director of the State Security Service will meet up with an
ex-convict to celebrate his return. That is why jubilant crowds welcomed
an ex-governor who is a convicted felon back home from prison as if he
had just won a Nobel Prize, without a sense of propriety or shame.
Someone with astonishing temerity even compared the just released
ex-convict to Jesus Christ! What a shame! What a people! What a nation!
Many years ago, our people avoided shame as if it were leprosy. A
suspension or expulsion from school brought shame to the family and our
fathers meted out punishments that fit the crime and in proportion to
the shame brought on the family. It is a different ball game now.
Students belong to cults, they cheat in exams with the help of their
parents, take drugs and engage in institutionalised prostitution. No one
is alarmed because they have seen their elders do worse things. For
long, authority figures recruits students and the youth to source girls
for their orgies. They use them to fight political opponents and train
them for a life in the service of the criminal enterprise. All these are
commonplace and hardly worth a second look on the headlines. Nothing
shocks us anymore.
James Onanefe Ibori was a governor. He cheated, lied, stole and
embarrassed himself to the applause of his people. General Murtala
Mohammed wiped out a whole generation in the civil service for an
infinitesimal portion of what Ibori did. In the 1960s and 1970s, these
actions would have caused Ibori to go quietly into the sunset and no one
would have given him excuses. Oyenusi faced the firing squad for
stealing next to nothing compared to Ibori. The distinction was in the
choice of weapon; Oyenusi used the gun, Ibori used the pen. When we
elevate and celebrate the Iboris, we not only denigrate ourselves, we
stink up the present and destroy the future.
When did the rain start beating us? Some have traced it to the
military. Well, government officials bear the responsibility for
enabling and encouraging the degradation of our moral fabric. For too
long, they showed no respect for uprightness and decency. Immediately
the oil boom began, they started promoting lifestyles that are
hedonistic and inherently perverse without any sense of responsibility
for their constitutional obligation to uphold basic standards of virtue.
From the mid-70s up till date, gradations of perversity percolated our
individual and collective psyche such that we embrace, promote, and
defend that which is bad and counter-morality. We took it further by
demonising those who seek to uphold, guard and encourage good behaviour.
From the level of looting in this nation and how we celebrate our
thieves, oppressors and tormentors, disgrace no longer exists because
nothing is disgraceful anymore. Everyone does what is right in his own
eyes, not what is right by the law.
When you do the crime, you do the time. Ibori did his time for his
crimes in the United Kingdom. I heard he was a model inmate but I saw no
remorse in him when he exited the prisons. I expected him to enter
Oghara quietly and issue a trite and penitent statement as a way to
jumpstart his self-rehabilitation. He did none of these. Instead, he was
smiling for the cameras, clenching his fists at times and waving at
other times. Shame on Ibori, shame on those who hailed him and shame on
all who have raped this country. Shame on all of you who set bad
examples by taking advantage of your status and or position. Ibori has
not answered for the crimes he committed in Nigeria. He must be made to
answer. Ibori should be arrested. Nigeria must make an example of its
anointed thieves or nothing will change.
Finally and for the record, a people or a culture without shame
cannot stand. Nigeria’s shameless trajectory is a path to hell. No
nation subsists this way. We must repudiate the Iboris in our midst. We
must find our bearing and get back on track. The choice is simple and it
is ours to make. We either find our way or we are lost.
******
Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú a farmer, youth advocate and political
analyst writes this weekly column, “Bamidele Upfront” for the PREMIUM
TIMES. Follow me on Twitter @olufunmilayo
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