By Grimot Nane, PhD
A few years ago, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon introduced a new set of verb
words (unheard of elsewhere) to describe the reason for poor governance
in Nigeria.
The words were "big stouting," "suyaing" and "peppersouping." We can
add to that shortlist list "jeeping," "spraying," "Benzing,"
"declaring," "spooting," "bathing-up," "isiewuing," "owambeing,"
"nacking"; food, drink, sex and shakara. To the uninitiated, it is just
another quip from the ex-legislator, something for laughter.
The words had deeper implications for society though. The poor state
of the economy, polity and society of Nigeria, amongst other things, has
a strong relationship with the overwhelming preoccupation if not
neurotic obsession of indulging in "enjoyment", "chopping life." It is
as if most Nigerians live for the outcome of enjoyment and not the
source of its funding which as a rule, is hard work and industry, sowing
and reaping.
This is problematic because outside Nigeria, perhaps Africa, hard
work means industry, sweat, inconvenience and commitment. In Nigeria it
means graft, smarts and God's blessings. Another problem is the
preference of most Nigerians for a lifestyle driven by "hyperbole," that
is, enjoyment has to "be" larger than life each time it occurs. In
fact, enjoyment is a day dreamy phenomenon in Nigeria.
The hyperbole of enjoyment involves the following: a family man
furnishing and paying the rent for a young pretty girl he met only two
weeks ago; owning six luxury cars at the same time; throwing extravagant
parties every weekend / month end; spraying fabulous amounts of
foreign/local currency at parties; eating out in fashionable
restaurants; joining exclusive clubs, etc. This has become the standard
the rich and affluent strive to maintain, and the less affluent and the
poor strive to attain. The hyperbole all comes down to conspicuous
consumption.
Conspicuous consumption as we know is enjoyment to show off, to
signal to others that you are doing well in life. Yet, how many people
who spend on the hyperbole of enjoyment with their hard-earned income?
While there is nothing wrong with engaging in enjoyment regularly,
the money that affords it mainly comes from surpluses of income. Large
or moderate surpluses in income outside the top 5% of earners in Nigeria
are unimaginable, considering the high cost of living against low
earning power of workers and entrepreneurs as the dominant economic
condition of the country. So from where does the surplus money for
enjoyment come?
The answer is simply corruption (majority) and crime (minority). Be
it a corporate executive or a ranking government official, a clerk in
the ministry or a constable at the border, a big-time fraudster or an
area boy pick-pocket, they only spend generously on enjoyment with
income from stolen, extorted, shared monies. Of course, there are fools
and misfits who spend much of their hard-earned income on enjoyment, but
they are not many.
The next question is why are people insensitive to enjoying
themselves spontaneously with proceeds from theft? The answer to the
question is less straightforward. Firstly, there is fact that there is
no visible connection between arena of an act of theft and the arena of
spending the proceeds acquired from a given theft. Secondly, Nigeria is
really but unfortunately, a pre-industrial society with an
underdeveloped economy, which means the incidence of poverty and
deprivation is high. Enjoyment is often a narrow source of relief to the
poor and the deprived (80% of the 150 million Nigerians), why should
they question the source of their relief?
Thirdly, those in power or that are in the top 5% of income earners
strategically use expenditure on enjoyment to secure their positions of
authority in society. The top 5% have no incentive to rock the boat by
questioning sources of income; that would be tantamount to shooting
themselves in the foot. Fourthly, the norms of enjoyment are considered
the highest of the highest in society. Nigerians since the oil-boom days
of the 1970s have morphed in to a nigh-hedonistic society.
Therefore, we can see corruption and the enjoyment lifestyle work
together. While it is easy to call the government of the day corrupt and
inept, it is important for every citizen of the federal republic to
realise that the enjoyment culture we so cherish in Nigeria, sometimes
to the exclusion of everything else, is fuelled and promoted by the
lifestyle we adore, the enjoyment lifestyle. Big stouting, suyaing and
peppersouping as humorous as they may sound are, in the context they are
used, a nutshell of wisdom that should give us cause to reflect on our
choices and indulgences in the enjoyment culture.
If we as Nigerians are so addicted to the hedonism lifestyle, even
when we know how it is funded, we should not complain too much about
corruption and crime in society!
Dr. Nane is an errant scholar and economist, who lectures at London South Bank University.
Anti-CorruptionLeague
