Uzokwe's Searchlight


I have wondered if they [Rich Nigerians] understand that by simply bringing their fellow rich ones together and pulling their resources together, they could build state of the art medical clinics....
Monday, October 27, 2003


Alfred Obiora Uzokwe

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OSTENTATION - IS IT HELPING OR HURTING NIGERIANS?



he Igbos say, "onye lua, nya lie". It means that if one works hard, then one should reap and enjoy the fruits of one's labor. This saying is of course incontrovertible, but is it possible that enjoyment of the fruit of one's labor could be taken too far, to a point where it bothers on needless flaunting of success or wealth? These days, life for some Nigerians seems to be all about the acquisition and showing off of fleeting and ephemeral paraphernalia; why is this so and what effect is it having on Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole? You see this trend during gatherings organized by Nigerians and one can even sense it during casual conversations with Nigerians. The negative effects of this style of life may not immediately be apparent until one considers that some who engage in 419 and other offensive activities, are only looking for fast-track ways to make money and be like those they see flaunting real or imagined success. Inotherwords, they simply want to belong to the highbrow class of Nigerians who have "made" it at home or in the Diaspora.

During the beginning weeks of October, Dr. Tonye David-West wrote an article decrying the way Nigerians organize parties at the slightest provocation; he was right. Nigerians organize parties for christening, birthdays, wake keeping, independence, reburying someone that died many years back. Some even organize parties to mark their child's first day in school! From what this writer has observed, as much as some of the parties are for good reasons, many of them simply provide the forum for the host to engage in ostentatious and shameless display of the trappings or accouterments of real or imagined success. The parties equally present opportunities for some of the invitees to show how well they are doing. They go to such gatherings bedecked in the latest lace materials, head ties, and gold necklaces; for the men, they wear alligator skin shoes and gold watches worth hundreds if not thousands.

The other day, a female contemporary of mine outlined to me what some of our women spend these days, on clothes, in the Washington DC and Boston areas. Of course those cities are noted for weekly Nigerian parties; for someone to really look like they belong to the highbrow class during those parties, the currency and flamboyance of the person's attire, must not be in question. This means investing in and wearing expensive clothes, gold necklaces and bangles to the parties. I almost fell backwards when my friend added that an average Nigerian lady, in those cities, goes to parties wearing clothes and accessories that cost as much as two grand! No wonder why we always hear about unhealthy but stiff competitions between Nigerians living in those areas. Such unhealthy rivalry leads the less fortunate into activities they would normally not engage in. They borrow; they engage in torturous odd jobs and work themselves sick just to keep up with the rest.

My contemporary, who is a nurse herself, also told me that some Nigerian nurses have been known to work round the clock for days on end, just to raise enough money to buy clothes and look good in the eyes of their competitors for the weekly parties. It boggles this writer's mind that some of these nurses seem not to know the sometimes deadly side effects of overwork and sleep deprivation. As far as one is concerned, if "onye lua, nya lie", means working 18 hours a day for five days in a row, just to raise money for clothes for a weekend party or flamboyant cars, then I say, it's not worth it. Engaging in unneeded but self-imposed suffering, just to make quick money to impress others, is something that no sane individual should wallow in.

It surprises this writer that Nigerian men, who are at least supposed to be somewhat conservative in their dressing, have also gone wild. The expensive lace materials they wear these days are adorned with shiny rhinestones, complemented with alligator skin shoes and watches that cost hundreds of dollars. The idea of men wearing shiny clothes is somewhat very unsettling in the eyes of this writer because it gives them the appearance of pimps or magicians who should be somewhere in Las Vegas displaying their latest magic or working in a circus with elephants and lions. They do not seem to be fazed; it seems like the shinier the rhinestones, the more costly the lace materials and the more they give the appearance of affluence. No one should get me wrong, I do not begrudge them for enjoying themselves but when enjoyment bothers on outright ostentation, it hurts rather than help the already dismal image Nigerians have, especially in the Diaspora.

Recently, I was in Boston Massachusetts to see my mother and other family members as well as attend a wedding. As the wedding, which was for two Nigerian medical doctors, who have done very well for themselves (bless them) wound down after midnight, I had the opportunity to be at a gathering hosted by a Nigerian social club on the same night. According to them, they were celebrating the third anniversary of the existence of the club. We left the wedding reception a little after midnight and as we got close to the venue of the social club gathering, I could not help but notice the caliber of cars that were lined up in the parking lot. There was an assortment of Mercedes Benz cars, BMWs, Volvos and the likes. My first question was, "do all these cars belong to Nigerians"? The answer was affirmative.

Inside the hall, more than 250 Nigerians, dressed in their latest and best, were mingling with one another. The shinny lace materials could be seen all over the place on both men and women. In a little while, the chairman of the occasion set the donation process in motion. I continued to chuckle under my breath as they rose, one after the other, to make pledges. One of them pledged one thousand dollars while others made pledges in the hundreds. The reason why I was chuckling was simple, I have been to Nigerian occasions where people, overcome by the euphoria of the moment, rose one after another and made pledges to impress the audience only to renege on payment later. Is this good? It depends on whom you ask. Some simply get caught up in the moment and make pledges they cannot afford but when reality hits later, the story changes.

As we left the place, about 35 minutes after we arrived, someone remarked that some of the people inside that hall, parading themselves as fulfilled and self-sufficient, still find it difficult to meet their obligations towards their children. In my mind I wondered why someone would find it more fulfilling to engage in needless ostentation instead of doing first things first. Our penchant for ostentation carries over or should I say started in Nigeria. Legitimately rich Nigerians refuse to put their money to good use. Instead, some of them derive more pleasure from buying and lining up their heavenly mansions with assortment of expensive cars. It is not uncommon to come into a family house and see 10 cars lined up in the garage, even though the millionaire head of the household can only be in one car at a time. Some, including those who stole Nigeria's money, build 30-room mansions even though they can only sleep in one room at a time.

Nigerians must begin to borrow a cue from the way people in their host countries live and act. In the United States, there are many solid millionaires. I call them solid millionaires because their wealth is not the fleeting type. They have made solid investments that would last a lifetime and beyond. They have more money than they would ever exhaust in a lifetime and yet they lead quiet and unobtrusive lifestyles. They lead simple lives but do much more significant things for the society. Some of them give away significant amounts of money to charity, others establish scholarship funds to help the less privileged acquire quality education and become productive citizens. During Christmas and thanksgiving festivities, some send large amounts of money to homeless shelters to help ensure enjoyable holidays for the less privileged. This is part of what makes countries like the United States and Britain great. Citizens, especially the affluent ones, help in the task of nation building by contributing their wealth towards worthy projects that would benefit society.

Developed countries thrive on the contributions of private but rich citizens and do not rely solely on government. The affluent establish foundations that engage in research to unravel the cure for devastating ailments like cancer, AIDS, diabetes, cerebral palsy, heart disease and others. Even when the findings from the researchers do not provide immediate cures for the ailments, they still develop ways of better managing the ailments, leading to longer and more meaningful lives for victims. No wonder why average life expectancy here is pushing into the late 70's. In these countries, private citizens also establish educational foundations for sciences and the arts. These foundations provide financial opportunities for the less privileged to go to school on full scholarships and become productive and outstanding citizens themselves. They then return to give back to society and the cycle continues. When I was at the University of Maryland in College Park, it seemed like every student I met in the school of Engineering was studying under one scholarship program or another and most of the programs were established by private individuals. The AJ Clark school of Civil Engineering has AJ Clark as the benefactor, providing a lot of the resources with which the school of Civil Engineering was run.

It is a pity that Nigeria's growth has remained stunted because affluent private citizens have failed to help out in the task of nation building. In Nigeria, there are many ailments that ravage the population like AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, cancer, heart disease and more. Brilliant researchers, who can stand toe to toe with the best researchers anywhere in the world, abound in Nigerian universities but they are seriously handicapped by lack of funds and moral support. As a result, a country as supposedly advanced as Nigeria and with the wealth of talents she has, is standing around, at the mercy of other countries, waiting for others to find cures for diseases endemic in the country. Our universities are not properly equipped. It is not uncommon for someone to graduate as a civil engineer without ever seeing a soil density testing equipment. As a result, when they are posted to road construction projects to supervise the work of contractors, upon graduation, the roads they supervise collapse only months after construction. We blame them without understanding the peculiar type of problems they find themselves in.

If our millionaires understand that to whom much is given, much is also expected, they would begin to establish endowment funds in our universities, they would begin to donate money for the equipment of deficient laboratories, they would begin to give money for scholarships to provide educational opportunities for brilliant Nigerians that would otherwise not further their education. They would begin to donate money for purchases of needed lab equipment for student researchers in the health field. Research in the health field is particularly important because, if well funded, all the ailments that are supposedly non-fatal in advanced countries, but which cause the demise of thousands of Nigerians, will be put in check and life expectancy will go up. At that time, when Nigerians say that they are happy, I will believe them.

So what is my beef with ostentation? I simply feel that we could put our wealth to better use by funding medical research, establishing endowment funds for research in the science and arts and establishing charitable trusts or foundations that would lessen dependence on government. We could even use the excess money we flaunt, both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, to call the bluff of the federal government in Nigeria by engaging good contractors to build good roads and install pipe-borne water. Sometimes I wonder how Nigerians feel when they have to drive their exotic and expensive cars through the pothole-ridden and waterlogged roads to reach their heavenly mansions in the villages. It is also instructive to note that the affluent, in Nigeria, go for medical treatment and check ups in overseas countries and pay very exorbitant costs for them. I have wondered if they understand that by simply bringing their fellow rich ones together and pulling their resources together, they could build state of the art medical clinics, equipped with the best diagnostic equipment and manned by brilliant and well-paid medical practitioners who could compete with the best and brightest anywhere in the world. This should at least be a good reason to begin to look inward.

Instead of buying 10 Mercedes Benz cars even though we can only be in one at a time, instead of spending money on expensive clothes that make us look like magicians or pimps, instead of spending money on alligator-skin shoes and bangles that cost thousands but yet are fleeting in disposition, we could help build the best medical clinics in sub-Saharan Africa, we could help beef up the quality of education in our universities, we could help our brilliant but less privileged ones get the education they need. Even in a democracy, one cannot always depend on the government to do every thing. It is bad enough that the current Nigerian government is a selfish one that does not even do the basic things for the people.

HERE I STAND!