Fri May 18, 2012
Cheta Nwanze
Seizing the Moment
By Cheta Nwanze, Nigeria- April 2010
No one ever forgets their Road to Damascus moment – a moment when something cataclysmic happens that alters you, forever changing your outlook on life. Deriving from the Bible story (Luke 24:13-35) when two of Jesus’ disciples meet a ’stranger’ but do not recognize Him as Jesus, a Road to Damascus moment refers to a person’s inability to see truth.
Being blinded from seeing the truth happens quite a lot in Nigeria. Nigerians seem to have gotten used to doing things so wrong and typically people do not recognize when precious moments occur – moments that are intended to show us the folly of our ways.
I have been fortunate to have had three such moments in my three decades of life – moments that have had an important impact on me. One such moment occurred in 2006 while I was a Masters student in the UK. I was returning home from class one evening and as I approached the Hendon underpass I saw a man whip out his privates in full view and urinate on a wall.
This came as a bit of a shock. I had only been in the UK a few months and it seemed as though my preconception that the British people were neater and more civilized than my Nigerian compatriots was mistaken. The man did what he did because he thought he would not be seen, and as a result, would not be punished.
A more recent defining moment occurred last December when I was home in Nigeria for the Christmas holidays and had gone to pick up a friend at the airport. When we returned to the car park, we were surprised to see that someone had parked a car laterally behind my car – successfully blocking any chance I had of moving out of my space.
The car also blocked the two cars on either side of me. What made this scenario worse was the fact that there were a lot of unused parking spaces available in the garage. Doing what I considered to be the right thing I called the parking attendants who, along with Airport Security towed the vehicle. It would cost the driver N25 000 to have the car released.
Preconceptions were jolted once again with reactions to the incident from bystanders who had witnessed this event. “Why can you not wait for him to come back and move his car,” one asked. “You are wicked,” said another – accusing me of not being my brother’s keeper.
Did it not occur to them that the “wicked” one was the inconsiderate person who unnecessarily inconvenienced at least three other people by not properly parking in the designated areas? If I waited for the driver to return – essentially forgiving him for his inconsideration – would he not pull this prank again knowing that he would go unpunished?
These incidents left me thinking that people don’t seem to recognize proper rules of law and order. Indeed far too many people seem absolutely blinded to morality and rules.
This kind of blind forgiveness amazingly extends to how Nigerians view corrupt political leaders. A few weeks ago, a friend told me that the notorious DSP Alams (erstwhile Alamieseigha, the former governor of Bayelsa state in Nigeria) had gone into a Chinese restaurant in Ikeja with a young girl on his arm. The girl was neither his wife nor his daughter. What shocked my friend was not who he was with but rather the reception this man received from patrons in the restaurant.
People stood up for him when he walked in – they bowed to him and were generally extremely nice – even knowing that this man was jailed for stealing money from the state he governed. If society overlooks wrongdoing and gives respect to this kind of a person, then what kind of message is being sent to those who are the leaders and future leaders of our country?
French philosopher Michel Foucault once said that Western societies became ‘disciplined societies’ through modernity – that the development of schools, hospitals and other institutions helped impose a recognition and respect for rules.
Although discipline and respect for rules and regulations is taught in many Nigerian schools, these attributes are somehow forgotten and not enforced by other institutions. In fact, it seems that many levels of punishment tend to disappear after one is schooled and too many people begin to think they are above the law.
If Nigeria is to become a modern society it can neither forgive nor forget a crime. In order to succeed, a civilized society must punish those who offend it as a deterrent to future offenders.
Nigeria has had many Road to Emmaus moments that could have contributed to the betterment of our democracy over the last 10 years. Sadly the people have let them slip away, unnoticed. As long as our society remains blind to the need to punish those who deserve punishment and continues to overlook the truth we will remain backward.
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