A MOMENT WITH MAZI CHINEDU
Ibrahim Mohammed Funsho
mdfunsho@gmail.com
08062284284
Mr Chinedu is an Igbo man from Bende, Abia State, he has been residing in Lagos state for over twenty years. If my age calculator is near accurate, Chine as he is fondly called by his close ranks should be in his early or mid forties.
He is a man who has keen romance with multifarious experiences and cultures-by the virtue of his age and other influential factors. One of those points of dissonance between Mazi Chinedu and me is my gauzelike hatred for the United States of America – he felt like a gored ox each time I vented my vituperation against Mr. Trump’s country. He knows the US doesn’t catch my fancy at all. In fact, Mazi Chinedu is a seeming American being trapped in Nigeria by some preponderant forces that are far beyond his manipulation – he is a Nigerian man – an illustrious Igbo man who has outrightly cultivated every recipe of the American culture. The wall of his salon interior bears the picture of a renowned black-American rapper, Rick Ross. Nothing interests his mind like a soothing balm than listening to American rap music, his dress sense is modelled after the Americans’. He loves to wear biggish clothes like his role model, Rick Ross, Mr Chinedu enjoys a striking physical semblance with the affluent rapper.
I believe that would do, as a brief explanation of the persona of Mr. Chinedu- he loves talking politics especially when it has to do with dragging Buhari’s laps(es) out.
So, few days back Mr. Chinedu and I were having a chitchat about the predicaments that have been impeding the growth and development of the nation like pituitary dwarfism. Before I knew it, my elderly friend had started lauching diatribes against the administration of President Buhari saying people voted out Goodluck Jonathan from office citing corruption, insurgency and financial misappropriation, has Buhari done better? At this juncture, I cut in like Arjen Robben, I gave him an affirmative answer citing my cogent reasons. But he is a self-opinionated man who will never open his eyes to see the good sides of the present administration.
I bought his attention, “bro, did you know that Jonathan or Buhari is not our major problem in this country?” He queried, “how did you mean” I replied him “our system of operating” is the arch-bane of the country. He sought clarifications, which I did not hesitate to do, I asked him “Chine the last time you drank a sachet of pure water how and where did you discard the nylon?” “I disposed it off in my dustbin, I don’t litter the environment” he replied. His response gladdened me to the marrow.
To further accentuate his stance against environmental littering, he chronicled how he was involved in a verbal brawl with one of my neighbours when the latter dumped wastes swept from his room into the drainage which runs through the frontage of my compound, “me and your guy, Moses digga am this morning as the bobo dey pour dirty wey him sweep comot from him room inside gutter wey me sey pack every day, the guy yab me sef yab am no be small oo,” he narrated.
“Bro, na wetin I dey yan you about our system of operating for this country be that.” I quickly retorted. Enough of this melodrama, my apt definition of the Nigerian System of Operating (NSO) is better illustrated in the way and manner we, Nigerians keenly relegated normalcy for abnormalities to take the centre stage in every facet of our national life as citizens.
It is not a Shakespearean farce, but a common knowledge that our current retinue of leaders are bunch of marauding monsters who voraciously plunder our commonwealth. Truth be told, They have traded and robbed us of our future and fortune. But, we, the masses have dealt ourselves a huge blow by being so indisciplined in every aspect of national existence.
Who, in this homeland could be bold enough to claim that he has after guzzling a bottle of Pepsi or Eva water not thrown the empty bottle through window of the bus or car conveying him?
I pray you to visit Orile or Alaba Suru here in Lagos, you would evidently see how people have discourteously turned expensive infrastructures implanted by Fashola’s administration into Second world war relics – those projects have been turned to dump sites, some have been ruined with faceces and urine of destructive toxic materials. This uncivil behavior demonstrates the degree to which we abet our leaders to dump us in abject retrogression and under-development.
I averred that leadership and discipline (which in my own parlance means ‘good system’) are conjoined twins which could proof a hard nut to crack. Nigeria as an entity, is being plagued by two major diseases – bad leadership and indiscipline.
We crave a better country, yet our level of indiscipline and unpatriotic dealings are second to none. We treat our national symbols with arrant disinterestedness – we need to inculcate the principle of discipline at/in the motor park, banking hall, school, family, in our various homes, church, mosque and other public spaces. Let us as citizens of this great country purge ourselves of the excruciating malaise of indiscipline before we charge despots and purloiners who call themselves leaders with good governance. A man cannot feed his friend when his own belly is tormented with hunger. Never.
Barack Obama, with his barrage of intellectual resources will find impossible to bail Nigeria out of the political impasse in which we are enmeshed.
Late Michael Jackson in one of his songs titled ‘Man in the Mirror’ said: ”
“I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change.”
Discipline is a virtue we all must imbibe to push the nation to an enviable height among comity of nations.
