What exactly is the Nigerian factor? Experts and observers of the Nigerian condition have long diagnosed its malignant presence in our society. For years Nigerians have agonized over its tentacular pervasiveness in virtually all spheres of our national life but as to the Nigerian factor itself, a precise definition has never been proffered. Due to this imprecision, the Nigerian factor is an ailment whose symptoms are often confused with its causes. Many define it as corruption, nepotism or fraud and yet it comprises and transcends these social ills.

According to Murphy’s Law, “If anything can possibly go wrong, it will.” This appears to be the best description of the Nigerian factor in its operation__ it is a phenomenon that is at once social, psychic and psychological which embodies the potential failure of any enterprise in Nigeria simply because it may be Nigerian in origin, conception or execution. Our encounters with the various manifestations of this syndrome have become so commonplace and unremarkable. Its malignant presence in our nation is now very much politically correct and socially and morally acceptable.

This is reflected in our lack of outrage over the things which ordinarily should not be. Why for example do Nigerians tolerate commuting in mortuary vans or bakery vans that have been imported into our public transport system from scrap yards in Europe? If Nigerians in Germany were made to board buses designed to convey fresh bread or corpses, they would doubtless chalk it down as racism or Negrophobia but what do we call it when Nigerians do it to Nigerians? The Nigerian factor is thus a culture of collective sadomasochism. Nigerians derive a perverse pleasure from inflicting pain on each other.

Social critics frequently cite the machinations of a despotic elite class as being responsible for the Nigerian condition. They are, I submit, right up to an extent but this is not the whole problem. All over the world, the oppression of the poor by the rich is nothing strange or new. Karl Marx posited class conflict as one of the engines of the dialectical processes of history. The domination of a society by the wealthier is acceptable to human social psychology. Nigeria’s unique contribution to the Marxist thesis of class conflict is the oppression of the poor by the poor. In this we have a true expression of the Nigerian factor as a social anomaly unanticipated by history’s great social theorists. The failure of Nigerian Marxism to get beyond the theories and theatrics of lecture theatres in this country is rooted in this fact. The conventional Marxist paradigm of class conflict does not completely or even adequately explain the Nigerian condition. Consider that the average Nigerian __ the ultimate representation of the “masses” once in possession of any measure of power and no matter how minuscule, has no compunctions about lording it over his fellow countryman or woman. The concept of power as a tool of service is as unknown in the grass roots as it is in the rarefied heights of the state.

The same drama of abuse of power is acted out over and over again in many episodes of everyday life in our society. It is played out between the armed policemen at a check point and motorists, between the bank clerk and the customer, between the civil service messenger and the hapless citizen that needs official attention, between armed bandits and their cowering victims, between the university lecturer and his vulnerable students from whom he demands monetary and less savoury favours, and finally and tragically all too often, between the state and the society. The stages for this drama are innumerable. It is an interesting if not controversial commentary on the Nigerian social psychology to note that the exercise of raw power by an armed robber over his victim is in essence the very same dynamic of power manifested in all other scenarios of inter–human relations.

The Nigerian factor in its operation dehumanizes the Nigerian by the institution of rot in our social systems. The condition of our hospitals, schools and prisons among others eloquently testify of the value of Nigerian life especially how the Nigerian sees himself in his own eyes.

There is indeed a gulf of near indifference between the state and the society but given measures of influence, no matter how small and for how brief a time, Nigerians generally waste no time in erecting similar barriers of indifference between themselves and their fellow citizens affecting self importance at each others’ expense. If we can understand this then it stands to reason that we have the exact sort of governance that we deserve; the state itself being no more than a reflection of society. Consider how even workers’ unions, the so-called representatives of the masses unleash brute force and terror on those same masses during strikes and demonstrations. The reason for this is that within that brief space of time, they believe that they have the power and will not shrink from exercising it.

This is why the sort of populist revolution envisaged by Marx is all but impossible in Nigeria. In our country, power mongering is a fluid condition that has little to do with being rich or poor and more to do with circumstantial (and providential) allocations of varying and transient measures of influence in a society that is ill-attuned to the imperatives of love and service.

The Nigerian factor is basically a value system and a mindset which holds that Nigerians do not deserve better. This is a mentality that we are all guilty of. It is what defines governance, public sector performance and private sector service delivery. It is why Nigerians stack their fellows on poorly ventilated mortuary vans or bakery vans; it is why Nigerian businessmen import fake and substandard drugs into the country, visiting pharmaceutical terrorism on their own kith and kin. It is for the same reason that Nigerian businesses score appallingly low in terms of service delivery and total quality management. And it is why ultimately we can neither expect nor demand more in terms of governance. We simply do not believe that we deserve better. The Nigerian factor has even infected foreign business concerns operating here. Foreign investors once here and having observed the abysmally low premium that we place on each other as human beings, quickly lower the bar of quality on their services and devote their energies to unbridled profiteering. After all if we will not value ourselves why should foreigners do so for us?

From not believing that we deserve better, our society has now made the logical short step to believing that Nigerians, in fact, deserve the worst. This is the crux of the culture of mediocrity that has spread all over the nation. Many of us at one time or the other have been victims of the vibrant unintelligence and uncompromising ineptitude which denotes public services and sadly is now becoming the norm in the private sector. Unfortunately, we have come to accommodate this as the “typical” Nigerian inefficiency. The very same malaise afflicts much of the policy formulation and implementation processes of the state.

The tragedy is that having now gotten accustomed to mediocrity, Nigerians now violently resist attempts to change things for the better. As Robert Ingersoll said, “In a republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.” We live in a republic of mediocrity, and genius, within our context is simply the desire and capacity to effect change; to rise above the rut and reorder our chaotic socioeconomic and political environment.

The climax of a peoples’ dehumanization is when they become accustomed to filth, chaos and degradation. Our society is approaching that terminal nadir where we will de-evolve into implacable enemies of moral and aesthetic values.

Those who try to institute a semblance of order in our grossly dysfunctional systems are marginalized. In the words of Jonathan Swift, “When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all dunces are in confederacy against him.” Genius, again, is best understood as the capacity and willingness to go against the grain of social decay. One ongoing conflict that has been largely unnoticed and which will assume even more importance in the coming years is that between the high priests of our dysfunctional system- a seamless confederacy of reactionaries who are committed to entrenching the Nigerian factor by maintaining the status quo and those who would be agents of change.

Is there any hope of uprooting the Nigerian factor from the national psyche? The answer is yes. The onus is on those of us who have been scarred so many times and in so many places by this syndrome to begin to model an alternative value system. The tragedy of social change in Nigeria is that we are angered only just enough to ventilate our personal frustrations with the system but not enough to make a decisive break with it and forge a counter ethic. The very victims who should rebel against it instead adopt the same insidious values and thus propagate the cycle of pain. There is no other way of addressing this malaise other than to demonstrate an antithesis to the Nigerian factor. In place of the self derogatory and self dehumanizing thinking that esteems money above humanity, let us put a proper value on ourselves as human beings and let that new valuation reflect in service delivery, policy formulation and implementation.

The quality of life in a society is a function of the value that the society attaches to life. Life is cheap in Nigeria only because we don’t value it enough to preserve or improve it. In place of mediocrity, we need to pursue the enthronement of excellence personally, professionally and publicly. The time is ripe for a new generation of professionals, entrepreneurs and technocrats to esteem the Nigerian as being worthy of the highest standards of service delivery and in so doing, redeem our private and public sectors from ruin.

Robot  # 1 | 13.10.2005 09:07

Link to the article is here

Ngozi Allanah (Jnr)  # 2 | 13.10.2005 18:13

I have not read a better piece in a long time. Once again, I fear that those \"people\" that matter will not get to read this article. Well Done once again!

Shoko  # 3 | 14.10.2005 14:15

When I saw the title of this article, I had great expectations that the author would offer a thorough dissection of a phrase that is widely used in Nigeria, even though it isn\'t properly defined (as the author himself acknowledges). Unfortunately, I find nothing of the sort here. Indeed, the nearest the author comes to defining the term where he describes it as \'a value system and a mindset which holds that Nigerians do not deserve better\'. I find it hard to believe that such a mindset alone could be responsible for the myriad of problems that Nigeria suffers today. In fact, most of the descriptions that the author gives aren\'t specific to Nigeria, so I don\'t understand the justification for the adjective. I guess this just shows that the term is just a lazy way of avoiding a thorough examination of what exactly the problem is with Nigeria. No electricity? Nigerian Factor. Late for work? Nigerian Factor. Boyfriend left you? Nigerian Factor. Inability to describe what the Nigerian Factor is? Nigerian Factor.

Anike  # 4 | 14.10.2005 21:21

Well written article but why \"murphy\'s\" law? Pay me no mind oh jare!