Nigerian Big Men Our Daughters

Nigerian big men have been at it since 1960, systematically destroying and plundering the very country they were entrusted with when the Union Jack was lowered on October 1st 1960 and the beautiful “green-white-green” replaced it. Instead of uplifting the country which we all call home, they looted and are plundering her material possessions while collectively degrading our psyche and social fabric.

This trend hit a new height in recent weeks, when in two quick shots: one ex-governor turned undistinguished senator was caught with his pants down marrying a thirteen years old, while our senators played dumb. Thereafter, an errant old “royal father” (or “royal mess” if you ask me) was caught beating up one of his “numerous” queens and causing bodily injury. When will Nigerian big men stop assaulting our intelligence? When will they stop defiling our land, our daughters and beating up our sisters?

The royal pest of Akure is just like the rest of them. More than ninety-percent of the domestic assaults cases in Nigeria hardly make it to the police station desk talk less of the courts or pages of newspapers. As a society, we are enamored to the concept of being beaten up. The police and military men beat up the men and frequently the women (sans Naval Officer Arogundade), the men beat their wives, and these women in turn beat our children (at homes and in our schools). Beating and assault has become a national past time for which we should all be ashamed.

The seeming arrogance of the Deji was even worse. Hear him rationalize this assault on his Olori:
“The final straw was the termination of six months pregnancy as she was not sure of its paternity and that of her two other children for that matter. Consequently, she left, claiming that she wanted to live outside the palace as the rules and regulations were too stringent for her”

Really? Seriously? Why won’t she be with other men, when you the Deji have five or more Oloris? Can you satisfy one woman talk less of five? Can this Deji point to all his children that he has fathered? Even though as a concept, polygamy does not faze me; the law of unintended consequences dictates that there are consequences for every action or inaction for that matter.

The consequence of polygamy as this royal pest is unwilling to admit is that he could not in his lifetime satisfy the needs of these multiple oloris. Hence, he must either keep his anger in check or dismiss his harem. Moreover what is he doing around with a woman young enough to be his daughter anyway? Where will he get the energy to satisfy such craving or desires?

The man should be jailed. But beyond this routine punishment, we as a people need to start giving thought to the very necessity of maintaining the outdated institution he represents. Why do we still impose these failures on ourselves? The traditional institution is a failure. They failed the black race…sold us into slavery, stood by while we were colonized and thereafter sold out to the military boys and now thieving politicians. I am amazed they are still tolerated. The royal institution of Africa represents the failure of our continent, and if when compared to their European or Asian counterparts; they are simply laughable and seriously irrelevant. They refused to develop their domain, hence the disasters of the past happen, and even now they can’t save themselves from embarrassment. Shame!

May I suggest that as soon as we figure the way to correctly elect our representative leaders, that we get rid of these “royal pests” whose only claim to fame is to feast on ten percent of our local government allocation (about =N= 7.5 billion last year alone). Their most important royal duty appears to be the bestowment of honorary titles on men of questionable characters: at once murderers, thieves and rogues. These royal whatever does nothing but crawl our rural colleges of education & polytechnics (in their government issued luxury vehicles), crawling for daughters the age of their grandchildren and surveying such citadels of learning for potential girls they would defile.

Speaking about defiling young women, I bet the remaining 108 Senators of the Federal Republic are yet to discover the little honor left in them to condemn one of their own for his serial of pedophilia. Hearing the mullah of Zamfara proclaim his disdain for the constitution of the country, and the law of the land which he swore to uphold and no consequent reprisal from the Senate as a body reminds one of the tale of “No Honor among thieves”.

Truly, given the well worn reputation of our legislators for frequenting University of Abuja campus as well as the bevy of groupies and daughters of Jezebels (often times young enough to be their grandchildren) that surround the National Assembly in the evenings of a working day, the condemnation of Governor Yerima seemingly becomes a near fantasy. Who is David Mark to condemn Yerima for tasting the forbidden fruit of a thirteen year old? He might not have a thing for thirteen years old, but one cannot put eighteen or twenty past him. Filthy men presiding over a perfidious oddity!

While the Nigerian big men are collectively at it assaulting our women folk (an ex-President is reputedly the best at it, heck his daughter-in-law could testify), can we miss the larger ploy to continue the predation? The more they loot the country dry, the poorer we all generally are; the poorer we become, the more desperate our daughters become for the crumbs that fall from their table. Basically, it is not in their self interest to stop the looting and predation on our collective psyche if we don’t make them stop.

Certainly, the recent assault by the royal pest of Akure on the Olori and the actions of the pedophile of Zamfara highlighted the sufferings of our daughters in the hands of Nigeria big men. However, I implore my fellow countrymen not to lose sight of the big picture: our daughters, our sisters, our mothers have been cyclical victims of Nigerian big men since 1960. Freeing them will not just require a localized response in Zamfara or Ondo States; it will require both a collective and sustained response.

That begins in 2011, when we must as a people insist that every vote must count. If we don’t, then your daughter- my sisters – our mothers, are doomed!

Postscript: “Forty (now fifty) years after the collapse of colonialism, it is empirical that the black middle class (i.e. its ruling class) is parasitic on the African economy. They took over the baton of the economic leadership and also decided to take over the opulence that was left behind the white ruling class. Their only claim was that they went to school. They said they wanted a better taste of what their colonial masters were tasting.” – Chika Onyeani (Author, Capitalist Nigger- 2000)