With the Nigerian elections just round the corner, it is very easy to see - from all the scrambling - the stuff that most Nigerians are made of. Also, the 'lords' aspiring to get into political offices know the cards they need to play in order to get their hearts' desires. After all, it has worked so many times before, why should this time be any different! The 'fathers' have experimented and achieved so much with it, and they proved the methods to be true. Now, they would expect their 'sons' whom they have carefully trained to carry on in their stead while bringing in the 'spoils of war'.
This time-tested principle of theirs would fall apart if the people on whom it is being used would wake up, of course. But it has been revealed over time that they hardly ever do. And when they do, there are a number of options open to the players of the game; one of which is the use of a few of the 'loud mouths' among the people whose price they find. Oh yes! That is another point to bear in mind: These politicians know that almost everyone has a price, and usually the highest bidder owns the lot. Once you take a leader in the opposition camp away from the scene, you automatically reap a disoriented crowd. If that approach does not produce immediate results, the players have in their kitty; the distraction principle. They have come to know that the average Nigerian is easily carried away by 'hot gist'. A new thing - product, policy, news item - in this terrain would always sway the people, at least temporarily. A master of the game knows that once you can take the people's attention of a problem, you have bought yourself enough time to work such wonders that would ensure that the people would never view that problem the same way, and that is in the event that they remember it enough to take another look!
Why would certain people always seem to have the upper hand? Why would another group of people always bow their heads and knees to others? My answer to this question is arguably an age-long phenomenon: It is the issue of class! It is perhaps stronger in the Nigerian society than it is in any other black community (where it apparently flourishes most). Every man is in a race to prove himself superior to others; to be the one others look to for stipends - the one miscreants would hail as he drives by in his 'jeep'. This trait is manifested in the tendency of 'the man' to buy drinks for everyone at a bar even if they have no idea who he is. How about the desperate attempt to differentiate between himself and 'ordinary' people who work at service jobs? He orders them around as though they were kings deposed so they could become his personal servants. I guess that explains the revolt in the 'helpless' service workers who have turned service sectors, like the police force and civil service in government parastatals, to a nightmare for everyone who cannot afford to pay their price. This is what I call superior inferiority which was birthed by the inferior superiority of the political players - no one places any value on service, let alone consider it charitable.
It may be hard to trace the source of this problem, but it is certain that there is a paucity of self-worth in the land. This deficiency is the stuff most Nigerians have proven to be made from. People who have no self-worth would definitely be lacking in self-respect; and the lack of self-respect is underlying proof that there would be no respect for others. Since every man would subject himself to a force he considers greater than he, it is to be expected that he would have a price. That price would be determined by his sense of value, but since he does not have self-worth in the first place, his sense of value would be next to nothing!
As Nigeria goes to the polls in a matter of days, self-worth is an issue that would be called to the fore again - inferior superiority and superior inferiority are already sticking their heads out - and it would reflect greatly in the choice of her next leader.
