Culture and Psychology
The culture of big man thrives on selfishness. It draws a line between the liberated rich; the rich at heart and the shackled poor. The liberated rich are stupendously rich. Most often, their sources of wealth are shrouded in mysteries. A typical Nigerian big man is fabulously rich without corresponding work. “Wealth without work”
The rich at heart are not rich in terms of having material possessions to show, but, as result of inferiority complex, occasioned by the ravaging big man culture, the rich at heart, want to be seen and be adored like the stupendously rich. They live in the utopia of “bigmanism” and share the same world view with the big man. Those in this fool’s paradise derive a lot of pleasures, telling stories of how connected they are to the real rich in town. They lie to themselves and can go to any extent to prove that they are big men.
The shackled poor do not need to be defined. Over 70 % of the country’s population falls within this category. People here are like refugees in their own country. Food and other basic essentials are luxuries, for this class. Poverty has almost stripped them of all dignity. They know their source of oppression, but lack the courage and leadership to confront the oppressor.
It is important and interesting to note, that some, who ordinarily would have fallen in the priority divide of ‘rich and liberated” are poor at heart. These are big men that have refused to imbibe the big man culture. They are not easily seen. They talk less and are concerned about the cycle of poverty in the country. They are value-conscious. They show commitment and leadership to work many people out of poverty. For them, the opportunity to be rich is a call to service; a call to invest in the society. The problem at hand is that the numerical strength of the rich-poor is weak and diminishing by day. In fact, this class of people is rapidly going into extinction as the big man’s culture ravages the land.
I am intrigued by the psychology of the Nigerian big man. He is driven by greed and power. Nothing demonstrates this greed more than his unquenchable desire for wealth and pleasures. He is in love with power, which he sees as an instrument of coercion and suppression. He is politically aware. His primary political motive is to wield power and use same as an instrument of oppression and personal enlargement, call it aggrandizement. A typical Nigerian big man has successfully killed the still voice of conscience. He does not care that those around him are dying. He dismisses the poor as incurable lazy people. He possesses an astonishing foresight and can smell pound sterling where others are seeing naira. When he makes deals of any kind, he goes for the kill. It is immaterial that the interest of the society is involved in such deals. For him, his interests supersede that of his society and he interprets this as being clever.
“Bigmanism” and political power are in hot romance. But curiously, the big man does not believe in the institution of government. Neither does he believe in the potency of the Law. For him, the wealthy individual is a government unto himself. He builds empires around himself and compels the poor to owe allegiance to him as they would have the government. On the issue of Rule of Law, incorporating equality of all human beings, the big man dismisses it as “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. The Nigerian big man is an embodiment of human rights abuses. When he employs you in his company, he will make you to work like a jackal and pay you peanuts. If you are a woman, your case is different. Your growth in the establishment will be dependent, not on what you can offer, but on how willing you are to compromise your dignity and give in to his unreasonable demands. He does not take ‘no’ for answer and the fact of marriage, means nothing. After all, he has the cash and for him, it is “cash and carry” It should be noted that those I have earlier described as the rich-poor do not have this type of sordid view of entrepreneurship. They are gentlemen, but they are few, very few.
How the culture affects the society
A culture that thrives on the superiority complex and other negative vices as described above affects the society in several ways.
First, it kills the spirit of hard work and removes the focus from collective growth to selective individual growth. As a result of the onslaught on hard work, many now believe that hard work does not pay again. What matters for these people is whom do you know. Many rural farmers have abandoned their farms in the villages and are rushing to the cities, hoping to “hit it big”.
The big man culture promotes crimes, especially violent crimes. Because of the wall erected between the rich and the poor, many a poor wants to shoot themselves to the priority divide of rich and liberated leading to violent crimes. The rich themselves, in order to maintain their status, engage in unthinkable white collar crimes.
The culture encourages corruption and in fact is the main cause of corruption in Nigeria. The rich and liberated who more often not, find themselves in positions of trust have made feast of the commonwealth in order to maintain their status. Politics for them has become a do or die affair. This is the main reason for violence and election malpractices. The ballot, which should be used to elect people to occupy positions of trust have been hijacked by the rich. The votes of the shackled poor no longer matters. That is, if they are allowed to vote at all. The big man has come up with new ballot system that precludes voting; yet results emerge. This distorted big man’s notion of electoral democracy was amply demonstrated in the just concluded local government elections, where “the devil came to the polls”.
Another evil effect of this culture is that it obfuscates the greatness in all of us. We undervalue people, just because they look poor or because they are poor. By doing this we deplete the development energy in our country and raise serious question about our understanding of citizenship. This uncalled divide between the liberated and the shackled has made some people to believe that we do not have equal stake in the country. This is a dangerous situation.
Remedy
The critical question, to ask is; do we have to remedy to this malady? Do we have the will to confront this indefensible culture of big man that is impeding development in Africa? My answer is yes.
We have to start from the point of reason. I think it was Socrates that said that an unexamined life is not worth living. This is true for both the individual and to the society. How committed are we to the Nigerian dream? The Nigerian dream thrives in collectivity and not individualism. How do we solve the embarrassing problem of poverty in Africa and save countless number of people from early deaths? We must agree to give meaning and content to the notion of citizenship. We must treasure rights and duties of every Nigerian. “All human beings are born equal and imbued by their creator with inalienable rights”. Our constitution reaffirms this equality. We should be seen to be acting this out. Let’s resolve to break the shell of ego and join hands to realize the Nigerian dream/vision.
There is an urgent need to re-order our value system. We must resolve to judge people not by what they have in terms of ephemeral matter but what they can offer in terms of values they can add to the collective growth. Wealth, mere wealth should no longer be the measure of a person’s worth.
African government must wake up to their sworn duties to their citizens. It is encouraging that there are several mechanisms in place that can promote well being and minimize ill-being. The big man culture thrives on ill-being. Hence once ill-being is minimized, ‘bigmanism” as a philosophy of suppression will choke. The big man has become a government. He lords it over others for the simple reason that he can afford a balanced diet where millions are cap in hand begging for food. The big man triumphs because he can afford mansions, in a country like ours where countless people are homeless, sick and naked. And there is no form of social security to cater for unemployment, old age or ill health. A caring government can do so much by creating enabling environment to work a majority of our people out of want and by so doing melt the chasm between the uncaring rich and the shackled poor.
Law, I mean, the Rule of Law is a potent antidote to the excesses of the conscienceless rich. If we can strengthen the legal and judicial system and solve the problem of judicial corruption, we will be doing a lot of good to Africa’s development. We need to demonstrate on a consistent basis, that one’s wealth or poverty means nothing to the law. I am sure that is why justice is represented by a beautiful woman in blindfolds, holding a sword in one hand and a balance on the other. In Nigeria, and many African countries, people are in real doubts, whether mother justice is not faking ‘blindness” The liberated rich exudes confidence that the law will be silenced, some how. If they suspect that the courts will be difficult to get at they start from the police. There is currently a clamour and even commitment for justice reform. If these are sustained, and they pan out results, it will be very good antidote to the evils of “bigmanism”.
Knowledge is power. Everybody needs to pursue knowledge with energy. It liberates and tears throw the cloak of irrational and repressive “bigmanism”. Nigerians should know their rights and know how to engage the legal process. We need to take a second look at taxation. Those who have access to wealth must be made to contribute to collective growth through an effective and corrupt-free taxation system. Whilst people are free, for instance, to buy as many prestigious cars as they want, society needs to ensure that those who have the access to procure cars, that they and their generation do not need, should pay some form of tax, to be ploughed into the development efforts.
Finally, I think it is crucial we look at other countries, especially in the West, who are regarded as developed countries and understudy how they were able to conscript the gap between the rich and poor. Each time I travel to the Western world, I am stunned by the way government functions; the way people respect the law and the way human dignity is treasured. When I enter the train or walk in the streets, I always look out for the big man as we know him here in Nigeria, but I see none. Everybody is accorded due respects. The big man culture seems swallowed by the collective will to promote collective well-being. Everybody is a big man in his own house. Nobody cares to know or so it seems, who is big and who is not big. Once you do not run fowl of the law, you are a big man. Here the reverse is painfully the case. I think we should promote the western model of ‘bigmanism”. If you are a big man, let us know by your commitment; your sacrifices to the collective growth/vision; by your handiwork and work ethic; by your integrity; selflessness and demonstrated love for your country. In absence of these values, your ‘bigmanism” means nothing but folly.
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