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A PROFILE OF THE NIGERIAN POLITICIAN
Ozodi Thomas Osuji
Lately, folks have been talking about the need to have Nigerian politicians subjected to psychiatric/psychological evaluation, so as to prevent criminals from getting into Nigerian politics. I decided to present an assessment of a hypothetical Nigerian politician. This is meant as a spoof but it follows the general pattern of such evaluations. Its conclusion reflects my perception of the typical Nigerian politician.
Name: Olu Haruna Njoku
Date of Birth: September 18, 1956
Gender: Male
Race: African
SS# 999-999-999
Highest Level of Education: Masters in the Stealing Sciences
Occupation: Thieving politician.
Address:
22 Olarewaju Street, Lagos, Nigeria
Mr. Olu Haruna Njoku is a fifty year old Nigerian. He reports that he was born at Kaduna, Nigeria, of mixed Igbo-Yoruba-Hausa parentage. He reports that he completed elementary schooling in 1968, secondary schooling in 1974 and university schooling in 1978 (Degree in Thiefology). After his University education, Mr. Njoku served in the military for twenty years and retired as a Lt. Colonel. Thereafter, Mr. Njoku worked as an independent businessman. His line of business was figuring out ways to steal from the public treasury and still seem like a descent man. He was so good at what he did that his village made him the chief-thief of the village.
At the time of this interview, Mr. Njoku presented as a typical fifty year old Nigerian male. His affect was cheerful and ebullient. It is as if he has no worry in the world. He seems so happy that you would think that he is not living in a country where over fifty percent of school leavers have no jobs.
Mr. Njoku came across as friendly, not in a helpful manner but in a manner calculated to make you like him and help him. He was attired in clean Nigerian’s flowery agbada robes. He spent much of the time arranging and rearranging the flowing robes that he was wearing.
Mr. Njoku was appropriately oriented to time, place and his surrounding. His short and long term memory appeared intact. He was able to remember when he was born and the events that took place when he was in elementary school and recent events in the political life of Nigeria. Mr. Njoku’s thinking appears normal and devoid of psychosis at this time. He denies ever hearing voices or seeing what other people do not see. At this time, there were no systematized delusions in his thought processes. He interpreted proverbs correctly. (To the proverb: those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, he said: “because nobody is perfect, therefore, no one should judge other people”.) His level of general knowledge appears adequate for his age.
Mr. Njoku denied having a history of mental disorders. He denied ever taking psychotropic medications for mental disorders. However, his affect appeared excitable, suggesting up and down swings. He appeared to have an inflated opinion of himself and this further buttresses probable underlying and untreated cyclothymia. He claimed that to the best of his knowledge, no one in his family has ever been treated for mental disorders. However, because Mr. Njoku appeared glib and facile, he was referred to our chief psychologist for paper and pencil testing (to supplement the findings of this verbal evaluation).
Mr. Njoku was given full psychological test batteries, including WAIS, MMPI and Psychological Interview. (These test instruments have the highest validity and reliability results of all such test instruments.)
Intelligence test shows that Mr. Njoku is average, IQ 98. He did better in the verbal section than in the quantitative section of the tests. (See attached psychological write up on Mr. Njoku.)
Personality testing shows that Mr. Njoku is, as this interviewer suspected, a much practiced thief. The test shows that he has a history of cheating, stealing and telling lies. Generally, he would not do anything morally right unless someone is supervising him. If you looked away and did not keep an eye on him, he would steal from you and then pretend that he did nothing wrong.
Mr. Njoku does not seem to know the differences between right and wrong and only does what he believes serve his immediate self interests, even if it means stealing from other people and telling lies about it. He does not seem to feel guilty for his wrong doing. He does not seem to feel remorseful for the antisocial behaviors he has engaged in the past.
Mr. Njoku seems to take pleasure in stealing from people and cheating other people. He enjoys hurting other people. Hurting other people, physically and psychologically, apparently, makes him feel powerful. He feels strong only when he is engaged in socially inappropriate behaviors but not when he is engaged in pro-social behaviors.
As a matter of fact, he does not seem to understand what pro-social behaviors are. Helping other people is alien to his nature. He has a sense of entitlement and feels that the world owes him a decent living and feels justified in taking what does not belong to him just so that he lives.
Mr. Njoku believes that he is special. As a special person, other people ought to meet his needs, and failing to do so, he uses them to meet those needs. Believing himself superior to other people, he justifies using and exploiting them for, after all, as inferior persons, they exist to serve his superior person’s needs. As it were, he is god who must be served and worshipped by non-gods, other people; it is not for him to serve other people, mere human beings. He seeks social attention and is motivated to seem very prestigious in other people’s eyes. In fact, it appears that his reason for living is to seem a very important person, VIP, in other persons’ eyes. His goal is not to give attention to other people but to get attention from them.
It is clear that Mr. Njoku seeks political office not because of what he wants to do for his people but because of (1) the money he could steal from his public office, and (2) the feeling of importance that he obtains from occupying a high social position, and (3) the fact that being in public office places him in social lime light and that gratifies his apparent infantile narcissistic desire for admiration. He imagines that every person in the world lives to admire him, to see him as a very important person, even though he does not serve their interests. He is admirable not because of what he does for the people but for just being who he is, a do-nothing god.
Overall, Mr. Njoku thinks like a child, not an adult. An adult thinks that he gets attention from the good he does for other people, not from merely being in existence.
DIAGNOSTIC IMPRESSION (DSM IV)
Axis 1: No Major Mental Disorder. R/O Cyclothymic Disorder (301.13)
Axis 11: Personality, Anti social (301.7) and Narcissistic (301.81) Personality Disorders
Axis 111: No Medical issues present at this time.
Axis IV: Psychosocial issues: Mr. Njoku is married, has six children and is having affairs with several girl friends located at several parts of Nigeria; the financial burden of supporting a large family and several mistresses and telling lies about his lifestyle appears to create some stress for this otherwise smooth operator.
Axis V: Highest level of functioning: Mr. Njoku appears to be functioning at an emotional status appropriate for a fourteen year old boy; he appears emotionally retarded; he marginally performs the tasks that existence demands of him, preferably by delegating them to those he manipulated into doing for him what he ought to be doing for himself. He does not take responsibility and ownership for the consequences of his short sighted behaviors.
TREATMENT
At this time, Mr. Njoku did not present with any Axis 1 mental disorder. However, he presents with full blown personality disorders: antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. His affect appears excitable, indicating possible mood swings, though not of manic-depressive quality. If he were amenable to taking medications, a trial of anti mania medications, such as Lithium or Depakote, even a neuroleptic medication, such as Zyprexa or Risperdal, could be useful in stabilizing his apparent erratic moods (rule out hypomania, dysthymia, and grandiosity).
PROGNOSIS
Mr. Njoku is living in a culture where stealing, cheating and lying are accepted as normal. From childhood on, he observes the adults in his life engaged in antisocial behaviors. When as an adolescent he began telling lies, cheating and stealing, instead of been reprimanded for his inappropriate behaviors, his significant others (parents, siblings, peers teachers, and pastors) praised him for doing what he was doing. As long as he brought money to those people, nobody seemed to care how the money was obtained. Indeed, his church’s pastor made him a deacon of the church, knowing full well that he stole the money he donated to the Church, money with which the church bought a piano and some pews.
In Mr., Njoku’s society, persons who steal money from the public are seen as doing the right thing. Musicians serenade those who become wealthy from stealing from the public. The public treasury is seen as a national cake and people go after getting their own share of that cake. Nobody wants to work to produce wealth for the commonwealth but to steal from it. Indeed, folks seldom pay taxes. The government obtains more than 90% of its revenue from oil resources.
The national government essentially maintains an occupation army and uses it to browbeat the people living in the Niger Delta religion where oil is extracted. The revenue from that oil is then shared among the thirty six states and the federal government. The politicians essentially figure out ways to share the country’s oil money but do not bother themselves with thinking about how to generate non oil revenue for the country. People go into politics, it seems, with the sole objective of figuring out a way of getting their share of the oil money.
This is the environment in which Mr. Njoku was socialized. It is free for all worlds and every behavior is approved. Sex? If you have money, you have access to as many women as you want. The big men generally support mistresses and concubines all over the country. University teachers often transform their students into sex mates. If female students desire good grades, the only thing they have to do is have sex with their professors.
Mr. Njoku lives in an environment that corruption is the accepted norm. Nobody gets anything done without bribing another person. A simple thing as obtaining forms from a government office requires one to bribe the clerical person employed to hand out that form to the public. To obtain contracts from the higher ups in the various government ministries requires paying them a certain kickback.
Only the exceptional person grows up in this amoral milieu without developing thieving habits. Mr. Njoku is, therefore, just like every one else in the land. Given that his society positively reinforces antisocial behaviors, it is doubtful that Mr. Njoku could ever not be a sociopath.
It seems that the best that can be done about him is to supervise him as we supervise paroled criminals. Probation and parole officers ought to be hired to watch his every behavior. If he is not closely monitored, he would steal for, as it were, stealing is now in his blood.
Mr. Njoku proffers glib solutions for eradicating corruption in Nigeria even though it is clear that he participates in that cottage industry. He is an exploitative Nigerian politician after all; to the public, he says all the right things while doing something else behind their back. He is just trying to get folks to let down their guard and trust him. If trusted he would rob the people clean and not even feel like he did anything wrong. In fact, he would blame those he stole from, for not protecting themselves hence giving him the opportunity to steal from them. They must be fools for not taking self protective measures; they deserve been stolen from.
Nothing is ever the fault of Mr. Njoku; in his belief system, it is always other people’s fault. In his mind’s eyes, he fancies himself perfect and sees other people as imperfect. He employs the various ego defense mechanism to help him see himself as an ideal person despite been a thief. (He employs repression, suppression, denial, dissociation, projection, displacement, rationalization, sublimation, reaction-formation, fantasy, minimizing, justifying, avoidance, anger, fear, pride, acting out, and other ego defenses.)
Mr. Njoku lives in a culture where most people appear emotionally underdeveloped. Perhaps, because their mothers tend to not gratify their narcissistic needs (hence satisfy their childhood developmental narcissism) most people in this culture grow up with one thing and one thing only in their minds: to do something to appear socially important. It seems that the people want to be perceived as special and as admirable.
To obtain other persons attention appears the sole reason why most of these people are alive. They work hard to obtain education, not because they wanted to use their education to serve public good but because they want to be seen as educated persons. Those with doctorate degrees like every one to call them doctor, and if not so addressed they feel demeaned and angry with one. Those not fortunate to have that level of education often buy chieftaincy titles and get to be called Chief.
If they are Muslims and go on the hajj, they want every person to know about it and call them Alhaji. (In other countries, people who have gone on the hajj do not have other persons so call them.) If they are university professors they want every one to address then as professors, even those who are not their students.
The typical Nigerian wants you to address him by his professional title, such as call him, Engineer Aderemi etc. Such practices are not done elsewhere; it is only in Nigeria that such childish attention seeking behaviors are engaged in by folks.
It seems that just about every Nigerian suffered narcissistic injury and seeks restitution by attempting to seem a very important person. Mr. Njoku’s desire for social admiration is not really an exception; it is part of the general rule in his world. These people live to seem important but not to work and contribute to the general welfare of mankind.
Generally, emotionally they are adolescents and not adults. An adult, emotionally, is a man who derives a sense of worth by seeking ways to serve other people, and to serve social interests. An adult asks: how can I help other people; a child asks: how can I get from other people. Mr. Njoku and his country men are getters, not givers; they are children, not adults.
It is very unlikely that Mr. Njoku can change his pattern of personality in this life time. He is likely to remain an antisocial personality and narcissistic personality for the duration of his life time.
Mr. Njoku is too self-centered to be able to work for public interest. He doesn’t even know what the term public good stands for. His ego self concept is restrict to seeking what is good for him and, perhaps, for his immediate family members. He does not identify with the larger society.
Politicians often engage in extralegal activities if in doing so they serve the community’s interests. For example, the nation-state can go to war and in the process have its members killed. Leaders rationalize such actions with the notion of protecting the larger community. Leaders and statesmen sometimes even tell lies if they think that in so doing that they serve the national interests. Machiavelli encouraged such behaviors if it serves the nation-state’s interests.
Mr. Njoku and his type are not even aware of what constitutes national interests. They engage in Machiavellian behaviors to serve their personal interests, not the community’s interests. These people are too underdeveloped to be considered adults. It would be nice if they were to be in psychotherapy to explore the blocks to their maturation.
In Nigeria, there are very few psychotherapists and even then people do not consider it appropriate to go to therapists to sort out their problems. Generally, the people believe that only the severely mentally ill go to psychiatrists, even though most of the people are mentally ill, though they do not know it. Their conception of mental illness is psychoses, (schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, depression, delusion disorder etc). They do not seem to know that there are hundreds of other types of mental disorders. For example, those of them who feel like they must have sex, frequently, hence have concubines all over the place, probably do not know that they are addicted to sex, a treatable mental disorder.
What we then need to do is understand Mr. Njoku and his type and work with their warped and stunted self concepts, as they are, and not expect them to be anything better.
Mr. Olu Njoku is essentially a criminal, an antisocial personality, a sociopath, and a narcissistic psychopath. He is seeking public office not because of what he wants to do for his people but because of what he wants to get from them. In fact, he has not one goal in mind that he wants to accomplish for his people. For all he cares the people may be starving to death, as long as he eats, he is fine.
Providing the people with electricity, water, education, medical health, fixing the roads etc are not Mr. Njoku’s headache. He does not stay up at night worrying about how to improve his peoples well being. To him, only fools worry about the welfare of other people. Just give him the opportunity to steal money and seem like a big man and he is happy.
He steals sufficient money from his people and flies to the Western world and enjoys the well ordered society of that world but it does not occur to him to go to his world and replicate it for his people. No, caring for his people is not the thief’s concern.
If all things were equal, one would recommend against Mr. Njoku participating in politics. But because he lives in an upside down world where most people take what is not right as right, it would seem that it is fine for Mr. Njoku to join the other people robbing the country clean. Common on to Nigeria’s politics, Mr. Njoku. It is where you belong, the thief’s club.
It would probably take a century of vigorous efforts to clean up Nigeria. It is not likely that the country could produce decent men and women who see public service for what it should be: public service, a burning desire to serve the public’s interests. Given the reality of the country, therefore, the best that we can do is hire more policemen and anti crime agents and have them watch those in public office least they steal, and if they steal catch and send them to jail.
These people are like children, they need supervision. If left alone, they tend not to do the right thing by themselves. It would be naïve to expect a sudden change in this sea of political misconduct. You make do with what you have, so I recommend that Mr. Olu Njoku be permitted to run for office, provided he is closely monitored. If he is not closely supervised, he would probably steal.
RECOMMENDATION
Criminals understand only one thing: fear of punishment. They do not like to be arrested and punished. The country must vigorously go after criminals, arrest, try and punish them. Force is the only language criminals understand. Criminals do not have sympathy and compassion for their fellow human beings; they are not motivated to help their country men. They enjoy depriving their fellow country men of the basic amenities for decent living. Criminals make fun of those who care for other people; they see social do-gooders as sentimental fools and pride themselves as realistic, no nonsense persons. Love is not part of their nature.
Nigeria must treat its criminal politicians with draconian ruthlessness; upon the slightest evidence of malfeasance, arrest, try and jail the criminals in Nigerian politics. Mr. Njoku should be permitted to run for public office but ought to be supervised and punished should he step out of line and engage in socially inappropriate behaviors. The hang man, the executioner must hover over these criminals in politics if the country expects to produce a law and order abiding rulers; upon the slightest criminal thinking and behavior, the executioner ought to chop off their heads.
Date……………………………………………
Signature
Psychiatrist………………………………………….MD (License # …….. )
Signature
(Psychologist)……………………………………..PhD (License #..........)
*This evaluation was requested by the Election Board; it aims at ascertaining Mr. Olu Haruna Njoku’s suitability to present himself for election to political offices. Respectfully submitted to the Election Board on (Date)…………………………
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Posted by Robot| 11.11.2006 07:37