‘Ti a b aka eru inu eru a baje’. (If we count the slaves the slaves would be saddened), is one of the folk tales made popular by J. F. Odunjo’s book ‘Alawiye. Most Yoruba people who attended primary schools in the nineteen seventies in the Western part of Nigeria would never forget the numerous life lessons and wisdom embedded in the Alawiye books series. The Story that instigated ‘Ti a ba ka eru inu eru a baje’ was of a wealthy man who owned a large number of slaves. Whereas the wealthy man was humble and kind to all his slaves, his only son was devoid of any iota of humility and treated the slaves with scorn. One day he went to his father requesting that they had too many slaves and that the slaves should be counted and numbered, but the man refused saying ‘if we count our slaves, the slaves would be saddened’. After several weeks of pressure from his son the wealthy man finally agreed, but he still reminded his son that counting the slaves would only make them unhappy. On the appointed day, the wealthy man’s son dressed up in a gorgeous attire roused his father up to start the count early given the large number of slaves to be counted. As the rich man’s son walked alongside his father to the front of the slave queue to begin the headcount, he was shocked to find his mum at the head of the queue waiting to be numbered.  In utter shock the son attempted to walk away from his father realizing that being the son of a slave he is equally a slave. The rich man called on his shell-shocked son and embraced him reminding him of the proverb made famous by Chinua Achebe ‘those whose palm kernels have been hatched for them by the benevolent spirits must learn to be humble.’

There are two issues arising from the Slave count story. The first is the absence of humility. Perhaps if the rich man’s son had not allowed arrogance to take over his faculty, he would not have pressurized his father into embarking on the headcount and may not have known his own humble background. This is similar to what is happening in our polity today where most of the political and sometimes religious and business leaders who were previously clothed in the garment of humility quickly yank off such humble regalia to adopt arrogant and disrespectful attitude towards their peers and other citizens in a bid to show off newly found authority. Politicians who before being thrust into public office mingle with ordinary people assume a different posture the moment they are adorned with the paraphernalia of public office, blaring sirens, police orderlies and escorts, motorcade et al. They suddenly bestride the areas where they enjoy political influence like Pompei trampling upon the low and mighty, no longer able to drive on the same roads with the electorates or sit on the same pew with the congregation that prayed them into office. The electorates are now like lepers who would infect these leaders if they sit on the same pew or are found on the same road. Our leaders become demi-gods and living deities forgetting that their so-called accomplishments are the product of collective sweat. They spread their wings like Iroko trees preferring to be surrounded by mushrooms than allowing other species of timber to gain foothold in the same forest.

But is it really entirely the fault of our new ‘gods’? My experiences within the national political space and recent political adventure in my home State make it clear that the fault is sometimes in the followership who elevate ordinary men to gods through praise singing. How else can one explain how a man who wakes up in the morning and grants two or three press interviews expressing interest to run for public office suddenly become ‘Honourable or Your Excellency’ and can no longer walk the streets without ‘boys’ and Police orderlies. If Honor and Excellence come that cheap, why wont the emergency Honourables and Excellencies assume the position of demi-gods if they eventually get into office? How about old women who kneel at the feet of girls old enough to be their grand children, whose only qualification is that they are married to their ‘Excellencies’. Within the political space it would only take one hundred thousand Naira or less to become fathers to men the age of your father or ‘Mummy’ to women the age of your grand mother. The fact is that it takes only the grace of God for a mortal not to assume super human status after receiving the honey coated praises and adulation of political jobbers. In exchange for a morsel of porridge our dignity is mortgaged for a penny and politicians price us for less. Unfortunately for every god that we create through our indiscretion a few more pseudo-gods are created. The end result is the win at all cost mentality among our politicians and propensity to demand that we be counted like slaves to feed acquired taste for novelty.

The second issue arising from our story is the unnecessary quest for differences. Numbering slaves so as to distinguish them from the royals. Rather than looking for differences why aren’t we seeking the obvious, the things that bind us together. Our humanity!  Our nation is as divided today as it has ever been in its rich history thanks to the divisive tendencies of the political class. Rather than ethnicity and religion the greatest challenge facing our nation is the political class. It is this class of people who whip up our religious and ethnic differences to gain political advantage. A case in point is playing out now in a small section of my home state where nomination of a person into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has opened up new dynamics in a state presumed to be one. Within days we now know that the Ilaje’s are not of pure Yoruba descent. We now know that Ugbo is different from Mahin, Aheri and Etikan even though they are all Ilaje communities on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.  The sad part of this conflict is that the oil wells that are the genesis of this unnecessary feud are deep inside the ocean and not on-shore. A people who have lived together for centuries as brothers are now being differentiated because of the inordinate ambition of a few individuals who are fixated on a seat of political patronage. How low can we descend as a nation? First we differentiate by ethnicity, state and communities, then we differentiate by faith, religious sects and parishes, later we will segregate by social class, educational background and areas of abode, sex and even complexion. By the time we are done seeking differences we will have nothing in common. Not even our humanity.

At what point are we going to realize that seeking differences would not make any of us better? Whereas some other nations have embraced and are celebrating their diversity, we are still fixated on winning the rat race of mediocrity through our quest to return to our individual cocoons. We should not for any reason misconstrue the Brexit votes in Great Britain or the madness that produced Donald Trump as a Presidential candidate in America as evidence that ‘Villagization is the new economic order”.  Far from it! The global village is not going to recede any time soon. It would rather expand on the basis of common interest engendered by economic and social pursuits. Therefore, as leaders and people, we should be conscious of the seeds we sow. Those to whom providence smiles today should be magnanimous enough to remember that providence is like the wheel of fortune, it would at some point stop at every door step.

I wish for once that the proverbial humble pie is sold at ‘Chicken Republic or McDonald’s’. Perhaps if we feed our Political and Religious leaders enough portion of this pie, their approach to governance and public discourse would be different. The idea of my God is bigger than your God or the votes from my constituency are more than yours would reduce. Perhaps humility would teach our political leaders to respect the governed and to be sensitive to the sensitivities of all sections of the populace. Perhaps then merit would take root in our nation and the propensity to arrogate ‘meritocracy’ to only a select few would be a thing of the past. Until that is achieved, my advice is ‘to not count our slaves, because counting them will make them sad’.