Something devastating happened to the psyche of Nigerians in the mid-1980s from which they have not recovered. A culture change occurred. That period coincided with the entry of General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) in August 1985 as the head of state of Nigeria.
Concepts like advance-fee fraud and drug trafficking became widely known. Drug trafficking had come into the consciousness of Nigerians in 1984 when the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) enacted the death penalty as the punishment for drug trafficking and used that law retroactively to execute three Nigerians. Until then, most Nigerians had not heard of cocaine and heroin.
Beyond the issue of permissibility that crept into Nigeria in the mid-1980s, the change in the economy was also a strong contributor. Within a couple of years, the Peugeot 504 saloon car that used to sell for between N5,000 and N7,000 from the mid-1970s to early 80s suddenly shot up in price to about N16,000 in the mid-1980s.
But the biggest blow was the notion of right and wrong among Nigerians. A few examples will suffice. Growing up in Nnewi, Anambra State in the 70s and early 80s, one thing people hated to be associated with was crime. Even though many families were not rich, they were careful not to be associated with any form of wealth whose source was not clear or clean.
Many children got punished for something as little as a pen or pencil that was found in their schoolbag. Parents believed that it was from little things like taking someone’s pen or pencil that a child would progress to taking other people’s money and then graduating to armed robbery proper.
A friend narrated how his parents reacted when he bought his first car. He was working in a city in northern Nigeria. Some weeks after buying the car, he travelled to his hometown in the South-East to see his parents and show them the car. He gave his father a bottle of Schnapps for the usual prayers done for a new car, but his father told him to keep the drink, that he would do that later. They discussed many things before bedtime, but he saw that his father and mother were not excited about his new car and homecoming.
While he was enjoying his sleep, his father came to his room, woke him up and invited him to the sitting room. He knew there was trouble. Then his father gave a few proverbs before asking him directly how he got the car. He excused himself, went into his room and returned with a folder, opened it and brought out documents which showed that his company gave him a car loan. He added some money from his savings to buy the car.
His father’s countenance changed. He shook the son’s hand, congratulated him and told him that in the morning he would call his kinsmen to join him in “washing” the car: a term that means using a hot drink to pray and sprinkle some on a new car. Today, if a child in the university buys a new car or is building a house, the parents are excited. Nobody asks any question. Anybody who asks questions is blackmailed as jealous and evil-hearted.
Something else happened when I was little. We had an ukwa tree (sometimes called African breadfruit) behind our compound. Unlike the breadfruit, the ukwa has seeds, which are eaten. These seeds are hard to bring out from the ball of ukwa which can be as big as a medium-sized watermelon.
I was behind our house one day when an ukwa fell with a loud noise from our tree. One of our neighbours went into the farm, picked up the ukwa tree and went away with it. I watched in shock as this woman I respected stole what belonged to us in broad daylight. But given the type of training we were given about elders, I couldn’t confront her from where I stood.
I ran home and excitedly reported to my mother that the mother of XYZ stole our ukwa. I thought my mother would exclaim and rush to her house to confront her. But she calmly told me that she would bring it back. I was wondering how she would bring it back when she did not even tell my mother that she was taking the ukwa in the first place.
But three days later, the same woman came to our house with a bowl filled with ukwa seeds and presented it to my mother. My mother gave her some from it and she left after some minutes of chit-chat. Later my mother lectured me on what happened. The flesh of the ukwa fruit is used as goat feed. Because it is hard to bring out the seeds, owners of ukwa would not mind if someone took the ukwa fruit and did the arduous work of peeling the flesh off and bringing out the seeds.
Now the curious part was how everybody believed that whoever took someone’s ukwa home would be honest to peel the flesh off without pinching the ukwa seeds. What if the person took the ukwa ball away but didn’t bother to return the ukwa seeds? But that was how honest and trusting these people who were not even rich were. It is said that integrity is what you do when nobody is watching.
But from the mid-80s, all that began to change. A new philosophy came out with the principle that has its roots in the Ovid saying that the end justifies the means. It has become acceptable for someone to wake up one morning and become extremely rich. Even when if it is suspected that the person made the money through illegal means, it pales into insignificance if he spends some of the money on the community by giving scholarships to indigent children, giving money to widows, donating money to the church or even building a new church, constructing roads, schools or clinics.
Today, even politicians known to have embezzled public funds are defended by their people. People are respected based on the amount of money they have and share, the type of car they ride or the house they have. Pastors are seen as blessed depending on where they are posted and how much money they have. A friend told me he was called by some friends to advise his brother who returned from Europe to stop walking along the road because it portrays him as unsuccessful. He uses that as his daily exercise routine. Even Nigerians who live abroad still size one another up based on where they live and the type of cars they bring to church. These days, when most female celebrities talk, including very successful ones, the emphasis is on how much they will receive from a man before they can see the person as serious.
Some people may say that Nigeria transformed into what it is because of modernity. No. Nigeria was corrupted in the mid-1980s. If you cross the Nigerian border into the Republic of Benin, you will drive for many kilometres through lonely roads without any fear. When you get into Cotonou, the commercial city, you will still see the same lifestyle of trust, honesty and contentment. Japan is one of the richest and most modern countries in the world. It is a capitalist country. But the Japanese culture is so high on integrity that if someone is accused of dishonesty, the person would commit suicide. If a minister is shown on TV or social media sleeping at a public event, the minister resigns. That is why Japan can have three prime ministers in a year. They prefer their name not to be stained than to be in power.
Nigeria can still return to the way it was before the mid-80s. But it will require a culture change. Note that culture does not mean living in mud houses, and singing and dancing. Culture is the set of values, beliefs, practices, and objects that people have which also define them as a group. When you think of culture, think of “values.” The Nigerian value system has been bastardised. To get the old Nigeria back, there is a need for a total overhaul in orientation and values.
Credit: Azuka Onwuka