My Notre Dame
NOT A SCHOOL BUT A TRADITION
Text of an Address to the 2016 Founder’s Day Celebration
Looking closely around us, we see a graphic depiction of chaos, disorder, fear, hopelessness, acute deprivations, acute hunger and other events symptomatic of a godless society. You then can’t resist asking, how did we get here? You become more astonished when you, like I, long have done, learn that our country is one of the most God-endowed human societies, in the world, intellect and natural resources wise. Then you keep wondering, ruminating and these never end.
The simple and only answer is that few nations, if any, at all, have more unruly citizenry than the post-military Nigeria.
Life In our old communities
Discipline was the hallmark of community life, in our traditional societies. While growing up, in Igogo, male children, aged above 12, were not to be found within the community, by 8am, if he wasn’t in school he should be on the farm, or his parents got sanctioned by the community.
One song that was common in my community, Igogo, with mothers, as I was growing was:
Lead: Ibejide mo sole (Ibejide stole)
Chorus: ee sole e (yes he did)
Lead: uru adiye lereke rin, (the feather of fowl is on his cheek)
Chorus: e e solee (yes, indeed, he stole)
This was about one Bejide who stole a fowl, the entire community went into an uncommon frenzy as they danced round the town, Bejide himself went to into exile where he died and the family went into extinction. My people, of Orin, would use a Bejide to celebrate the Ero festival, by dancing round the town (young and old), on the eve of the festival and intermittently barricading Bejide’s family house with firewood. This was the sort of shame that went with malfeasance, in those days. The only unnatural death, I ever, knew, while growing, was of a young woman who, on her way to sell locust-beans, got knocked down by a learner-driver between Igogo and Ikosu. The entire community went into mourning and people, in transit, were messaged to avoid that road-the god of the road was angry, hungry and thirsty.Life was considered so sacred that only God could terminate it-there were yet to be political murderers/assassins or thugs to shed blood.
The turning point
The military, through the six majors, shot its way into power, terminating our short democratic experience, in 1966. The exact reason/s for doing that remain, till date, a subject of conjecture-what remains, indisputably, certain, is that, that episode opened Nigeria to a rule without consensus, the exact opposite of what democracy seeks to achieve. Nigerians had to go through this for decades, with few interruptions, up to 1999. It is pertinent to note that corruption started at this time with a code name ten percent
With the long interruption of a democratic culture, the psyches of Nigerians, (at least those who saw nothing different, on account of their ages) got, unduly, militarized. Fast life (of wild/satanic ambitions) became the order of the day and the meanings of right and wrong became reversed. It became stupid to do it right and intelligent, doing it wrong. Consequent upon this, the military, while exiting, had no one to hand over power to but this brand of humans, (many of them former military contractors,). These were business men/contractors without any particular object of trade, using generic terminologies like forwarding and backwarding agents, suppliers of nothing in particular. Their whole businesses were built around scam (419, document forgery and other illicit practices). They made fast monies and, thus, became role models to our youths, whose sense of values had become warped. It took a fool to talk about morality or conscience. With their humongous loot-wealth, it became possible do anything, including, hijacking politics, under the label of new breed politicians (as opposed to the erstwhile, coolheaded (old school) ones of the pre military era) The arena of politics became too hot for the godly; the cool headed; the calm, the serious-minded and the cerebrally-gifted as fist and brawl became the law of the arena-society went to the dogs-most unruly street gangsters on prowl. Even robbery became militarized with the emergence of armed robbers!
Rascality, Poor Governance and Acute Deprivation of the Citizenry
With this manner of human beings, dominating the political space, it is obvious that governance would be anything but good. The continuous degeneration of our public institutions and communities manifests poor governance. Governance, today, in spite of the claim of democracy, is by intimidation (militocracy). Dividends of governance are NIL and every citizen is on his/her own, providing him/herself with all the services of life, even after paying taxes to government! Common water (the most basic of human needs) is accessible, only, to the well to do, who can afford the cost boring boreholes! Others have to form queues in these few peoples’ homes, either to beg for, or to buy, water! The governor and his/her family go about, in convoys with intimidating, siren-blasting police escorts, wielding assorted brands of ammunitions-this, sure, can’t be the same democracy, defined for us in Government textbooks-this is most crude and barbaric. Our economy is in comatose because those leading us are too pedestrian to understand the rudiments of demand and supply, as obtained in basic Economics/international trade. We are insecure because our dilapidated schools lack the laboratory/workshop infrastructure to keep our youths engaged-they thus, become ready tools in the hands of ruffian-politicians who give them drugs and okada, so they can snatch ballot boxes and do fake thumb-printing. After election they are left to go into full-time okada/kidnapping business, making our communities, places where you don’t sleep with both eyes closed-the least safe communities, under the sun.
To all those who knew what we were and our cultural background, these are strange moments and the questions, about the way forward, become relevant. I read, two weeks ago, precisely on the 26th of September, 2016, an article titled: A honourless and conscience-less generation, by Tony Afejuku-it caught my fancy. Hear Tony: Talk to them (Nigerians) about the question of honour or of conscience or of moral or of justice. They would answer you with mocking chuckles and laughter. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as military head of state, dwelt seriously on the subject of moral decay, at a speech, he delivered in Jaji, which, because of the strength of the facts, therein, the press people tagged Jaji declaration. Miffed by the poor dressing of a high school student, he saw, while touring a Northern state, Obasanjo, as military head of state, was forced to, in defiance of protocol, personally use cane on the boy, to demonstrate what he was preaching. I, not only, endorse that action, I commend it as an ardent admirer and believer of the book of Proverbs, 22:6 states: Train children, in the right way and when old, they will not stray, and 22:15 states Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy (and a girl, I suppose) but the rod of discipline drives it far away. This country, as it is, today, cannot afford the satanic luxury of a free-freedom society-freedom must be defined (call it curtailment, if you like), in such a way that it does not jeopardize the peace of society and its citizens. This is the exact connotation of rule of law
The Dilemma of Today’s Youths
For me, today’s youths deserve pity-here is a generation of youths that believe in duping to wealth as opposed to the working to wealth miracle centers not school notions of our days. We can’t blame them, solely. Today’s adults have lost all the ingredients of responsible adulthood. While growing up in Igogo, as in most communities, then, every adult assumed the role of parent/counselor of every youth, in the community with authority to rebuke/praise and, even, sanction-this I call community-parenting, the hallmark of African native upbringing, which produced the likes of Ojo Ugbole and Adegoke Olubunmo, (Professors of Physics and Mathematics, respectively), Chief Afe Babalola and others like them. Today’s elders lost all symptoms of integrity as they fraternize, unduly, with crooked politicians, making them to stammer, each time they need to speak the truth! They colour their acts too partisanly, to be real, in a bid to qualify for appointments as board chairmen-they, probably-may be poverty is to blame. Similarly, with parents caught up in the web of the survival-of-the-fittest economic model (with zero welfarism), we operate, the children are left in the care of no one-they grow up among their, equally, inexperienced peers. Post home-training (school) offers no respites as the teachers are frustrated, working under hopelessly-frustrating conditions of poor and irregular wages. The Nigerian politics and its associated criminality remains the only, viable means of livelihood, with its allure of free money. Politics, a legacy- calling, in other climes, had become a commercial venture, unfortunately, in our country.
Notre Dame
I, once, said, on a forum of Notre Dame Alumni, that my training in Notre Dame was no less regimental than in the military school-looks like regimentation is the culture of the Roman Catholic Church because, I learnt it’s the same in the Seminaries. So it was in my Saint Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Igogo. You must not or You must, constitute the language of the Church Catechism. The Church, unapologetically, believes in strict discipline that gives no room, whatsoever, for negotiations/compromises. Every hour of our day throughout the term was programmed, by the school. Waking up to go for morning mass, very early, followed, immediately, by morning duty (cleaning of the whole compound), next classes, and etc-there was no free period, we went to bed! Even during the bedtimes (at siesta and at night, of every day), you were bound to be in bed, by force and by tulasi. (No negotiation) Even, in the weekends-the only free time was during outing days, on a Saturday of the month! We were allowed to go and buy toiletries, for the day and thank your star if you had not, earlier, offended any senior or broken any of the school rules-then you missed that, once-in-a-month opportunity. In the evenings of outing days we had what we called social nights, during which we danced, bone-to-bone, to the tunes from a gramophone.
We learnt, early in life, through Notre Dame, that:
- Society operates on rules
- Certain individuals(the prefects, in school) are empowered to enforce the rules
- Those individuals must be obeyed, willingly
The premise of a peaceful society had, thus, been defined for us, that early. If our country would get any better, I‘ll rather a war against indiscipline and corruption, (WAIC), being fought, simultaneously with war against poverty, is the right way to go. Government, at state level, I opine, should coordinate a disciplinary body, made up of the PTAs, the Old Student Associations and the Traditional Rulers, through a directorate established in the governor’s office.
Today, fellow alumni, we are here to celebrate our life accomplishments by saying a big thank you to God Almighty and to our institution, Notre Dame Grammar School, (a tradition); to pay tribute to our former teachers-thank you for the good mentoring. We are here, to thank our current teachers, for keeping the flag flying, still, in spite of all odds. God will reward you, abundantly.
To the current students, the only languages spoken by success are discipline, perseverance, hard work, honesty and vision-the fast lane leads, only, to failure and ignominy.
I say a big thank you to the Chairman and other members of the Planning Committee.
HAPPY CELEBRATIONS AND, GOD BLESS YOU, ALL.