Countermarch, By Wole Olaoye

The way forward is a backward trudge to the past. To catapult to the desired new Nigeria, we must return to the ‘old school’ values of years gone by — old-fashioned principles such as integrity, hard work, mutual respect, communal solidarity, and honour (Omolúàbí in Yoruba, Ezigbo afa in Igbo, or Mutunchi in Hausa).

Drifting

Our lives used to be value-driven until we broke loose like a ship that has disentangled from its anchor and is drifting aimlessly. As we drift, we fabricate reasons for our predicament even as we continue to monetise success to the extent of triggering economic desperation among the youths who now want to run before they can crawl in an atmosphere of unbridled corruption and leadership failure.

Decades of systemic corruption at leadership levels have sent a damaging message to younger generations: laws are for the weak, and respectability can be bought. When citizens see public funds misappropriated with impunity, it erodes their patriotism and willingness to play by the rules. Our old-fashioned Ubuntu philosophy has been replaced with the more trendy outlook of dog-eat-dog.

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With the erosion of extended family influence and close-knit community oversight, individuals are left to navigate moral choices in isolation under the influence of social media and global pop culture that has accelerated a culture of instant gratification and extreme materialism. It shouldn’t be too surprising that we are experiencing a sharp rise in crimes that were once considered taboo, such as kidnapping for ransom and ritual-related violence.

To reverse this trend, Nigeria requires a deliberate cultural and systemic shift: transforming governance so that hard work pays, enforcing the rule of law so that crime has consequences, and intentionally reintroducing value education in schools and homes. In those days, the Nigerian educational system had a subject called “Civics’; military rule and its attendant jackboot thoughtlessness removed it from the curriculum just as it did to History.

**Self-Abductions **

The assault on the established path has brought us to this pitiable juncture where terrorism has been compounded by sheer savage greed and total loss of shame, resulting in the new phenomenon of self-abduction. These hoaxes artificially inflame public anxiety and worsen the perception of insecurity in local communities.

What kind of desperation would make a highly placed public official stage his/her own abduction? Last month, the nation’s sensibilities were assailed by a case involving one Mrs Grace Ogunleye, the vice chairman of the Ilejemeje Local Government Area in Ekiti State. The woman was reported missing after her vehicle was found abandoned along the lonely Ipere–Iludun Ekiti Road. Coming shortly after a genuine, tragic mass abduction at a church in the same local government area, her disappearance sparked massive concern among residents and political stakeholders.

In a ‘rescue’ operation, a joint force comprising the police, military, and local security operatives launched a massive search operation and smoked her out of her hideout. The Ekiti State Police Command launched a deeper investigation into the matter and found out that the kidnapping was staged. The police officially charged Mrs Ogunleye and three co-defendants with conspiracy and staging her own kidnapping.

In Plateau State, a man conspired with his friends to disappear and call his family, demanding ₦5 million. After his arrest, the suspect confessed to the police that he was under immense financial pressure and owed substantial debts. He staged the kidnapping believing his family would quickly raise the money out of desperation, which he intended to use to clear his financial obligations.

In Edo State, a man reported to the police that his 45-year-old wife had been abducted on her way to her shop. The “kidnappers” demanded a ₦50 million ransom and sent distressing videos to the family showing the woman with her hands and feet bound while an accomplice pointed a pump-action gun at her head.

The police tracked down the coordinator of the ransom negotiations who confessed that the woman had hired him. The officers eventually arrested the woman at her hotel hideout in neighbouring Delta State, where she confessed to masterminding the entire plot with accomplices to extort money from her own husband and family.

Because these staged kidnappings divert elite anti-kidnapping squads, tracking technology, and tactical personnel away from genuine, life-and-death abduction cases, the authorities have openly sworn to leverage the full weight of the law to ensure that anyone found guilty of such a heist is put away for a long time.

It is clear that this new greed cannot lead the society to a happy destination. The task of retracing our steps back to the basics of Civics, History, and traditional values is no less urgent than the ongoing war against the monster of terrorism itself. It has to be a forward march to the abandoned road of Omolúàbí, Ezigbo afa, and Mutunchi.

**Feedback **

*A reader, Oladipo Olaonipekun, reacts to last week’s piece titled “Tell South Africa, Karma Is A Bitch!” *

Personally, I never buy conspiratorial theories. They are easy to hoist but are never based on facts. They provide convenient exit routes to deflect rather than confront issues. They absolve complacency and accountability.

It is always easy to blame someone else. But self-reflection is the best way to solve any problem. Don’t look at others; look first at yourself.

The deplorable xenophobic attacks on other Africans in South Africa belie an inconvenient truth: the failure of the state. Let’s call a spade a spade. Look at the failures:

• Failure to build a stable and inclusive society;
• Failure to build human capital through education and up-skilling of a still largely uneducated population;
• Failure to build liveable, safe and job-rich townships by city and municipal governments;
• Failure to wean the population from dependence on unsustainable state-perpetuated welfarism;
• Failure to teach history and inculcate national orientation.
• Failure of the State to unshackle the economy from egregious inequality.
• Failure to tackle land and economic inequalities that have persisted since the end of apartheid;
• Consider the following structural failures: after over three decades of the end of apartheid, white South Africans — who account for just 8 per cent of the population — own 72 per cent of all the agricultural lands. The blacks own just 4 per cent.
• Urban land ownership is also highly concentrated, with white South Africans owning about 50 per cent.
• Look at the ownership structure of the economy: white South Africans own and control 60-80 per cent of all the corporate wealth.
• White South Africans control 62-66 per cent of the executive positions in the corporate sector.
• 60-67 per cent of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is owned by whites.
• Is it “other Africans” that are the issue in South Africa? They are not the ones controlling the economy. Whose jobs are they taking? Whose lands are they taking? Whose businesses are they taking or controlling?

The problem in South Africa is not other Africans. It is the inability and failure of the state to address its own deep structural inequalities. The failure to deal with those structural problems is what is showing up today.

That is the inconvenient truth.

That is the real karma.

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on [email protected], Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021