Are We All For Sale By Ayobami Oyalowo

Adversity is the trial of principle.
Without it, a man hardly knows
whether he is honest or not.
~ Henry Fielding
A people who value privileges above
principles soon lose both.
~ Dwight Eisenhower
Dr. Reuben Abati, the erstwhile
chairman of the editorial board of
the Guardian newspapers was a
powerful columnist. A man behind
the reason many purchased The
Guardian, just to have a peek into
his powerful mind. A panelist on
Patito’s gang, a television program
that had many idealistic youths
glued to their TV sets( where they
got informed and were able to form
different perspectives on
government, governance and public
service), Abati was almost too good
to be true.
Labaran Maku, a once powerful
student union activist, who once led
thousands of students on a
demonstration to protest against
what he termed “a mindless”
increase in fuel (PMS)price by the
ruling military junta in Nigeria in the
middle 80s, also comes to mind. He
was a no nonsense, straight talker;
shooting from the hip, student
union leader back in the University
of Jos.
What do these two men have in
common? Many refer to them as
turncoats, sellouts, betrayers etc. I
didn’t mention Reno and Okupe,
because both of them have no
antecedents. They are therefore
inconsequential men seeking for
daily bread at any cost, even at the
risk of being called attack lions,
dogs or whatever they deem fit. The
focus is on the two gentlemen
earlier introduced above, who at one
time or the other rattled various
governments, opposed policies that
they considered anti-people or anti-
masses and had been seen as
defenders of the common man or
“activists”.
Why am I focusing on Reuben Abati
and Labaran Maku? It is simple: I
have seen various characters
mushrooming as activists, many are
either jobless or underemployed
and therefore find in activism a
pastime. I have also seen others
who take what they themselves
term a “moderate” position and
daily attack their fellow “activists”.
And as the race towards 2015 heats
up, many will surface as we go
along. My concern in this write up is
to try to argue for activists who
have either turned “turncoats” or
will later become turncoats.
What makes a man suddenly turn
around to embrace a life he once
derided? How can a man who once
wrote or spoke in a manner that
sent jitters down the Government’s
spine, turn around to suddenly
become a sissy? How can a man
who criticized the government and
called the president names
suddenly turn around to not only
work for the same president, but lie,
fight dirty, lose every sense of
decorum and engage in
mudslinging just to curry favour
and remain relevant in the kitchen
cabinet of the same man he once
derided as “inadequate” and
incapable of leading the country?
Successive rulers had done nothing
but pauperize the Nigerian masses.
Most Nigerians (70% of them
according to the national bureau of
statistics) live below the poverty
line. There is a saying that a hungry
man is an angry man. No matter
your ethos, principles or personal
ethics, most (not all) people will
sacrifice belly for principle. No man
can think well on an empty tummy.
Our despotic rulers know this. No
wonder, Ibrahim “Maradona”
Babangida set about his task of
impoverishing the vast majority of
Nigerians during his inglorious 8
year rule. He did a wonderful job of
wiping out the middle class in
Nigeria. He laid the foundation for
“cash and carry” activism, soiled
many and destroyed a lot too. He
ensured, during his time that “man
must live by bread and bread
alone”
Let us reason together here. A
professor who is supposedly on the
highest social strata, lives in a
ramshackle government building,
with a wife and maybe 4 children,
who earns about N400,000
monthly, depending on the
discipline or school, will gladly throw
away the chalk and grab any
political appointment to earn extra
pay. Consider a journalist or some
other professional who earns even
less. These people are expected to
feed a family, clothe them, pay
school fees and other living
expenses, yet they must live like
respectable members of the society.
I am aware that most journalists
don’t earn up to N100,000 monthly,
while a barely literate ward
councillor and the Local Government
Chairman are busy building houses
like birds, riding exotic cars and
living large.
Take a look at the State and
National levels, where both elected
and appointed office holders live like
feudal lords. Briefcase business
men; men of shifting personality
and all manner of shady
characteristics and low integrity,
bestride our political space like
colossi, making the rest of us, mere
mortals, wish for a life our honest
livelihoods cannot bestow. Truth be
told, our sense of value has been
distorted. Gone are the days a
family can gladly live in a three
bedroom bungalow, with a
Volkswagen beetle and another
Peugeot 504 and they would be
considered a model family. Today,
with our warped sense of prosperity,
to be considered lucky, you must
live in a walled mansion, with
uncountable number of SUVs, a
string of domestic guards… all of
these with no visible means of
livelihood, but your closeness to the
government of the day as your only
source of hope to the good life.
No wonder principled and seemingly
intelligent journalists are happy to
ditch their professions and become
press secretaries , special assistants
on media and the likes to riff raffs in
government just to have a taste of
the good life. Same way retired old
men whom we assumed to be men
of integrity will abandon retirement
to run mundane and useless
“SURE” errands for a shady and
unfocused government so that they
can “leave something” for their
children and great grand children.
No wonder Ayourb said, in “every
battle of survival versus principle,
survival mostly wins.” Man’s instinct
is to always survive and keep his
head above the water.
The great Dwight Eisenhower
warned people against valuing
privilege over principles, as there is
a clear danger of losing both. It is
clear that we have lost our sense of
value as a people. Most times you
are judged by the type of car you
drive, the clothes you wear or the
kind of place your house is located. I
have witnessed several situations,
first hand, where I was allowed into
some places because I drove a “big
car”, whereas I had been denied
same privilege in the past, when I
came on foot. Our sense of value is
warped.
Also as a people, our warped sense
of value leads us to berate any of
“our sons”, or daughters, “stupid”
enough to leave a government
appointment without amassing
enough wealth for the “future”. We
deride such people who either by
virtue of principle or religious
zealotry, refused to dip their hands
into the cookie jar; calling them
names.
It is a lot easier to stand afar and
throw stones at Reuben Abati and
his co travelers in the present
malady we erroneously refer to as a
government, but the truth be told,
what was Abati’s financial worth
before supposed hunger pushed
him to seek crumbs from his
master’s table? What were his
economic and financial woes? Same
goes for Maku, Reno and the
shameless attack dog turned lion,
Okupe. In a society where privileges
are valued above principles, where
men are judged by the quality of
their earnings above the depth of
their mind, we will keep losing our
best to the dark side.
Recently the world went mad after
the emergence of TV footage of the
“pen” we called the police college
Ikeja. How do you train a man in
such deplorable conditions, then
hand him an AK47 rifle? Do not be
alarmed, same goes for our various
government universities and other
public institutions. We are raising a
set of survivalists– people who will
do anything just to make ends
meet. You don’t preach morality
and ethics to an empty tummy.
Even the Lord Jesus Christ had to
feed his listeners at a time when he
observed they were too hungry to
concentrate on heavenly messages.
Until we have a honest government
that sincerely works towards
reducing the inherent soaring
poverty instead of bandying some
useless statistics garnered inside
some air-conditioned offices,
survival remains the game. Nigeria
has now effectively been turned into
an animal farm, where all seven
laws have disappeared only to be
replaced by the inequality law. Yes,
some are more equal than the
others.
This is not a hopeless treatise, as I
continually hope against hope. Like
the People of Georgia, I earnestly
pray for the Nigerian version of
Mikheil Saakashvili. I have heard it
whispered and I have seen it said
openly, that most people who either
write or criticize the government do
so either to be noticed or to get
some crumbs. While I won’t hold
brief for anyone, I have reached the
conclusion that, every man has a
price but not every conscience is for
sale.
I am @Ayourb on twitter