This weekend a video surfaced, purportedly by Premium times that showed the minister of interior Dambazau’s shoes being cleaned in public by a secret service agent and it hit me, who really are these people we call our leaders, how morally upright are these folks, how conventional is there thinking and how representative are they really are? The president, his vice and all his cabinet members are responsible to the public thus the name public servant, they are servants to the public and not the other way around where a serving officers of the secret service, a Nigerian serves as a ‘servant’ for a man many believe to have attribute of an astute, technical person, but one that has shown that those qualities are misguided. A man that would seat there and degrade a whole secret service agent in public to the extent of cleaning a shoe, tells you more than meets the eye. For this is someone that should know better than degrade someone of that nature having been a general of the Nigerian Army himself, if he could do that in public, what then has he been doing to his security details in private? How representative can someone who doesn’t respect his detail then respect or represent folks that aren’t even close to him. This is the kind of people we call our leaders and it is unfortunate really, even more unfortunate to see it in this present government, one majority of Nigerians have genuine hope and trust for.
However, the blame shouldn’t be felt by the minister alone, as for me the secret service agent should also be called to question. Is it the case of ass kissing, where the agent is just doing too much to impress the minister and as such involved in what wasn’t requested and what was outside his jurisdiction as a security detail to the minister? These are question that we can’t categorically have answers to. However regardless of what the case maybe it’s still a very deplorable situation for both the minister and the agent in question, if peradventure he was asked I feel it is within his right to reject the request and stay with his primary duty to the minister and not subject himself to embarrassing errands in public. In Nigeria, more so in the western part of the country we seem to let culture impede us especially in official settings, whereby we take our leaders/elders as gods who cannot be questioned or challenged even when on a wrong pact. This is where the agent got it wrong for me, he simply didn’t challenge the minister even when hypothetically the minister may have requested for a shoe shine and simply did his bidding with no questions asked.
This same instance could be said to be palpable within the Nigerian system in general, within government and outside where by youth does the bidding of its elders without any questions asked, it’s a slippery slope kind of situation with a dire consequence. As citizens, workers of government officers be it executive, legislature, or judiciary we need to challenge those who are our leaders/superiors to make better decisions, to do the needful and stay within that which is just, if not there would be no room for development with regards to human and material development. We need to challenge the seat of power, enable these people become better, provide better service, represent us the way we want, and not just be comfortable with the status co which isn’t really doing anyone any good. If we are comfortable with what exist there won’t be any changes in government which could be applicable personally too, To develop one need to keep challenging himself/herself, so too is government. The SSS agent failed to challenge the minister of interior, even in an instance where his image was going to be tarnished, and we can’t continue to live our lives like that.
We (citizens) need first to play our role in government, government cannot be run in isolation, if they are willing to isolate us we cannot allow it happen, we need to be involved, say things we would want/like to happen, things we would like to have differently, engage the government and continue to challenge the seat of power not to get comfortable.
In contemporary politics, there’s this saying that “you don’t inherit power you take it” and this is something I totally agree with, more so conventional happenings of today. Power/leadership should never be something that is inherited, it should rather be fought for, fought for in terms of the will, capability and capacity and not betrothed. If you want power or a seat in leadership show that you can handle it and you want it, which also narrates with, fight for what you want. Good things don’t/shouldn’t come/go to those who seat and wait for it, it goes to those who take the extra mile to fight for it, who would go extra mile to fight for what they believe in. If you want a particular action to stop in your office or how someone treats you, you think it would stop if you don’t challenge them to stop or do that which they do differently? No it won’t, it certainly didn’t for the SSS agent (assuming he’s not okay with it) and it’s not about to if he does not; firstly challenge the minister that he’s going beyond his jurisdiction and then to also make the minister understand that we are in a civilized society and such things like having someone clean your shoe in public event while you seat shouldn’t be happening anywhere in the world, our third world status shouldn’t be applicable to our thinking ability as people.

As Karl Marx put it In the Communist Manifesto “the workers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to gain.” If we are to gain, archive we need to let lose our chains, certainly the SSS agent is still in perpetual chains (it would seem), we as Nigerians can’t be in that state of mind, thus the need to challenge the seat of power.

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Yeah, I just watched it on Youtube. Too bad, I felt like crying.

A really sad thing.

kaffy4tope:
Yeah, I just watched it on Youtube. Too bad, I felt like crying.