OF NIGERIANS AND TITLES
“Will power is the only tensile strength of one’s own disposition. One cannot increase it by a single ounce”
Cesare Pavese (1908 - 1950)
Titles or aliases as some would rather call them, are an integral part or indices for assessing achievements and growth for individuals and the society in general. These appendages, be it of cultural, professional, career, academic, religious and even secular variations, usually bestow upon the bearer that feeling of self accomplishment and grandeur. Recipients are usually conferred with them as a form of reward in recognition of their hard work, diligence and in many cases, generosity in pursuance of a cause.
In African tradition particularly Nigerian, it is common place to see people with such titles as; Chief, Ogbuefi, Otunba, Erelu, Alhaji, Ichie, Mallam, e.t.c. just to mention a few. Such people are usually regarded as illustrious sons and daughters of their communities. These days such notions have ceased as moneybags, thieves, scoundrels and people of very questionable characters have hijacked our societal institutions and display with reckless abandon, a wanton disregard for the core values, ideals, moral and social responsibilities attached to such titles. Consequently, those who can throw around the most money get the most titles. These days it is no longer about having a chieftaincy title, but about how many of them you’ve got. It is not uncommon to see people with such prefixes as “Double Chief”, “High Chief”, “HMC” (His Most Chief), inter alia added before their names.
This loss of sense of direction is not restricted to the cultural institutions alone, as all other institutions are also affected. For example, the academia (who should actually know better) are no different. People throw decency and integrity to the dogs in their bid to bag a Ph.D. degree and not for the worth of it, but just to have the highly coveted “Dr.” before their names. Whereas such a degree holder is supposed to be a research fellow, a person well versed in his/her field of study and in academic matters in general, a huge chunk of them can barely express themselves in impeccable English. One begins to wonder, what really is the worth in a title?
Another funny but equally annoying development is the unnecessary show of professional affiliation now prevalent in the society. Back in the days, one only recognized such prefixes as “Dr.”, “Engr.”, “Barr.”, as standard even though many of their bearers never used them because they felt that “you are not your profession”. Oh boy! Have times changed! Now it is very common to see people with “Pharm”, “Arc.”, “Acc.”, “Surv”(for pharmacists, architects, accountants, and surveyors respectively),e.t.c attached to their names. Please!!! This is getting ridiculous! What they are trying to tell us is, whatever your field of study or practice, just add something that will make the society identify and “respect” you. If that is the case, I’d enjoin political scientists to add “Pol. Sci” or geographers – “Geo”, carpenters – “Carp”, mechanics – “Mech” and even musicians – “Mus” to their names. You are laughing? Go ahead but that is where we are headed for and maybe that is just what we need to put an end to this madness and have people stop chasing these meaningless titles.
Another practice that is prevalent among our poorly educated professional colleagues (I say so because education isn’t about cramming your way to a degree) is the display of professional paraphernalia on their vehicles. For example, you see legal practitioners displaying their wigs on the dashboards or medical practitioners displaying stethoscopes on the dashboard or hung from the inner rear view mirror. I wonder if they are checking the heart rate of their windscreens or what? Maybe engineers should hang their coveralls and spanners, screwdrivers too. Em! Carpenters, your saws and hammers here please!
The religious institutions by the way are no less guilty. By the way I wonder why the government hasn’t started imposing taxes on them considering the huge amount of wealth their leaders are amassing for themselves. Anyway, that is a theme for discussion for another day. Anybody that goes to some road-side “theological” school comes out after 1-3 months with the title “pastor”, “evangelist”, “rev.”, “General Overseer (G.O.)”. Oh! And I almost forgot the grand one; “Mummy and Daddy G.O”. Hmnnh! Soon we’ll have “pikin G.O” (if it doesn’t already exist). Don’t get me wrong, I have no prejudice against Christians as I am also one, I am just a social commentator who says things the way they are.
It is high time people started paying attention to personality, integrity and moral content among other core values rather than to people who throw their weight around wanting people to respect them out of a false sense of achievement or accomplishment. Respect, like honor should be mutual and reciprocal. You don’t demand respect, you earn it and you earn it not by claiming to be one “Chief” or “Arc.”, but by respecting others too regardless of social, economic or academic status. That my dear, is the path to honor!

http://peelowtalk..com/2012/02/of-nigerians-andtitles-will-power-is.html


Hmmmnnn!