Hello,
I have watched in utter amazement how the
episode of the Channels TV Interview with
Obafaiye Shem Sunday, the Lagos State
Commandant of the Nigerian Security and
Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has turned out!
This is sad!!! I write this with a deep sense of
pain in my heart – pain of how we have so
lost our spirit of brotherhood!!! Truth is, I do
not expect majority of the readers of this
piece to like my perspective, but I must poke
some true Nigerians to THINK differently!
Reading the ‘Top Ten Tweets’ on this episode
makes my heart sink further! Do we really
THINK of the adverse ripple effect of these
aspersions we are casting on one of us? This
is not being sentimental or unnecessarily
logical, but being thoughtful and empathetic!
Putting myself in the shoes of one of his
children or family, I wonder the shame, low
self-esteem, and discouragement they could
be dealing with! Will these children or family
ever consider contributing their quota to the
development of a nation that derives
pleasure in propagating their father’s
‘excusable’ mistake, yet disregarding his great
works? Is his error a valid yardstick to
measure his content and competence? Let us
THINK, please!!!
Have we taken the time to think of how the
‘Oga At The Top’ episode has distracted us
from concentrating and speaking up on other
recent and pressing national degradation? Yet
people spend time composing their own
version of: ‘I would have picked a date for
my wedding, but I don’t want to say one and
my oga at the top say another.’ How we
major in the minor, and minor in the major!!!
Let him who is without sin cast the first
stone! This could have happened to just
anyone! How many of our CEOs, DGs,
Ministers, and other ‘ogas’ know their
websites? Many, including officers under
them, cannot even boot a computer, much
less navigate it! They don’t even have email
addresses much less know how to use the
internet. I am a Management Consultant with
focus on Human Resource Management, and
I’ve interviewed many job applicants, some of
who do not even know the meaning of ‘Social
Media’, yet we laugh at someone else! How
ironic! People who live in glass houses should
NOT throw stones! Let us think! This is a
deeply-rooted systemic error, and it is
foolhardy to make one man pay for the
failures and ‘sins’ of the system! It is high
time we looked inward and CHANGED!!!
Many, majority of whom are jobless vibrant
youths, who are spending their valuable time
on someone else’s error don’t even know the
meaning of NSCDC; much less if their own
websites (if any) ends with .org, .net, .com or
why/when we use .com.ng, .org.ng, gov.ng,
or .edu.ng! Even when we have studied so
well for an examination, don’t we sometimes
just forget, goof, and remember later? I have
appeared on TV and spoken on Radio
programmes more than I can count, and I
can relate with the tension and forgetfulness
that comes with it, even when you are vast
in the topic or have prepared.
I gathered that Shem is a great, responsible,
and respectable Field Officer of the NSCDC,
yet, within seconds, due to an error anyone
could commit, we have rubbished his years
of Commitment, Sacrifice, and Diligence to a
Nation he could swear would watch his back
especially when it’s needed most! We have so
lost our sense of humanity by consciously or
unconsciously exposing this issue beyond its
weight – using a sledge hammer to kill an
ant! Do we have to do this to ourselves?
Simply Google ‘Oga At The Top’ and see how
we’ve shamefully propagated our own
inadequacies to the world! Let’s think
‘Ubuntu:’ ‘We are who we are because of who
we all are!” If it is done to one, it is done to
all. That should be the spirit of ONE NIGERIA!
How disappointed I am in the Channels TV
Presenters!!! How did the video leak out so
much so that it’s all over the place;
especially when it is obvious there was an
issue with it? Do we really have to take
pleasure in someone else’s downfall? The
Presenters clearly knew Shem was struggling
to answer the question, yet they kept ‘poking’
him; and when he had ‘goofed’, there was
silence, thereby making the error more
pronounced and allowing the mistake to sink
well in the minds of the viewers. Where is
our sense of empathy, caution, respect,
wisdom, diplomacy, and patriotism?
Annoyingly, only the part of his error is the
video that is being circulated! What
happened to the remaining part? From my
training in Journalism and Creative Writing,
there’s what is called ETHICS for God’s sake!!!
Where is ‘covering up’ someone’s obvious
innocent struggle and forgetfulness? How
about the pardon and cover-ups we’ve given
to national rogues who should face more
shame than what we are subjecting Shem to?
How is this different from the “ALUU4″, or
what was done to Victor Moses’ Parents?
‘Killings’ is not only physical shooting,
bombing, or setting people ablaze; it is also
about the gradual emotional and
psychological killings we do to ourselves? A
house that is divided against itself can never
stand! Let us THINK very deep, please!!!
This is not about excusing, coating, or
celebrating mediocrity, but who cares if he
graduated from UNILAG in 1984? How is he
different from the clueless PhD holders we
have around who daily disappoint us with
thoughtless decisions, policies, actions and
inactions! I read, yesterday, how the House
unanimously agreed to ‘Life Imprisonment’
for Rapists; yet our ‘national thieves’ get
pardon, or worse still, an option to pay some
ridiculous peanuts in exchange for the
billions they stole! Let us really THINK!!!
Do we realize this goes beyond the chores of
Nigeria? Wait until international
correspondences , like Christian Amanpour,
expound it for us (as was shamefully done to
our own President), then we will know that
our dirty linen should be washed and dried
INSIDE!!! A Yoruba adage comes to mind,
which I interpret thus: “when we sell our
fellow household member so cheaply, we
cannot buy him back with expensive sums.’
It is amazing how people’s creativity have
been illuminated by someone else’s mistake!
What a misuse of creativity, time, and
energy, especially in the face of weightier
issues! What hurts (truly) instructs; yet that
depends on the ‘instruction’ you choose to
get and act on. T-shirts have been designed
and now being sold, graphic designs (as
display images), mockery phrases, senseless
videos, mimicking comedy, meaningless music
version, and an irritating version of ‘MOATT
Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire’. Even a
musical group I once respected did a ‘live
recording’ of their version of the ‘Oga At The
Top’, laughing shamelessly at someone who
could pass as their father! I’m still unable to
wrap my mind around how we spend valuable
TIME doing all these in a bid to bring
someone down when there are better things
to be done? Please, where is our African/
Nigerian culture of RESPECT for elders! Have
we so lost it? I wonder how jobless people
spend valuable time! Yet we say we are
unemployed and we have unemployable
youths! Shouldn’t this energy, time, and
creativity be channelled at legitimate,
corruption-figh ting, and/ or other income-
generating activities that will ensure a better
economic standard for ourselves and the
nation?
I ask myself if this is the system I want to
raise my innocent children, and not risk them
being ‘infected’ with what is gradually
becoming the ‘Nigerian spirit’…a system
where we ‘kill’ the innocent and celebrate the
rogues, pardon them, compensate them with
more political platforms to steal, and
eventually decorate them with national
honours (depending on how smart they
cover/sustain their acts). We build ourselves
up by bringing others (ourselves) down; yet,
we get angry when international airline
companies use their age-long soon-to-die
abandoned aircrafts in Nigeria; or when
Immigration officers abroad ransack and
empty our luggages in search of what will
validate the impression we’ve created in
their minds of who we are! Why won’t they?
When we’ve simply sold to them what should
be our sense of togetherness, thereby giving
them the LICENSE to treat us the way they
see us treat ourselves and, of course, ‘help’
disgrace us globally! Let us really THINK!!!
My conclusion is an admonition for us to
look inwards, think, reflect, and learn lessons
from this episode! Let us not be distracted by
seemingly mundane things as there are many
pressing national issues we should spend our
valuable time, energy, and creativity
deliberating upon and tackling rather than
concentrating on one man’s error and his
‘Oga At The Top.’ That’s all!!!
Thank you.
m a k t u b!!!

@op
Nice write up i must say and i was touched to the point of tears for the man. Cause no one is above mistake.

bravo...

but tell d nigga to do a thorough homework next time nd as for the idle niggas embarrassing d dude...be ur neighbors cloth wen he gets naked

If I were that Oga at the top dude, I'd issue a short statement on facebook, nothing formal. I'd start by saying that when I woke up that day I had no idea I would end up being so famous. Continue by saying that this has shown me how important it is to have all my facts and realize that there is nothing like a small error. Particularly in positions of leadership. I'd proceed by praising Nigerians for their quick wit, good humour and ingenuity. I'd express my amazement at all the different dps, videos and music videos I have seen. I'd insert that I am expecting royalties from those selling tshirts or otherwise making money from the incident. I'd round up by restating that I've learned an important lesson which will make me a better leader and more valuable to my country. I'd thank Nigerians and end with "dasall".
Change the perspective from being ignorant to making a mistake. Make myself part of the joke and defuse it. Wish Nigerian organizations were more PR savvy. There's nothing you can't spin. Not everything must be responded to seriously. Read the prevailing mood and then ride it.

~Arit Okpo~

^^lol

One funny thing I've found all around social media commentators is that most people are completely ignorant of the basis on which the State commandant was invited for an interview in the first place.
He was solely invited because many job seekers has been swindled by phishing fraudsters using clones of NSCDC website to advertise and collect payments for the job. The very first thing he should have come to the table with is the correct URL of the organization, so as to educate Nigerians and also clear the air that the frauds was an insider job.
He ended up confusing the populace without giving any address, making it look like the 'oga at the top' is actually the fraud mastermind.
There was no reason whatsoever for him to dilly dally on this particular question, that was why the panel insisted on getting him to say something that will be taken as the official website.
If I invite you for an interview to clear the air that some people are using variants of your father's name to defraud people, you should be able to tell me clearly, what your father's real names are.

Look at my fellow nigerians, u make me ashamed today oo,the man clearly deserves the ridicule,it is because of people like him that there many jobles well educated people roaming the street, do u not wonder how he got the job in the first place,abeg he deserve the ridicule, if he feels he also deserves the job.