Of selective morality and the clamour for a better Nigeria BY BORONO BASSEY

Although we were classmates since the beginning of the school year, I first took active notice of Dennis one fateful morning during the daily devotion in school. Dennis was asked to kneel down by some senior students as punishment for the double-barreled offence of not maintaining the required posture (standing attention) during rendition of the National Anthem and recitation of the National pledge and for failing to join other students in the rendition.

Minutes later, Dennis punishment was increased from just asking him to kneel down to giving him uncountable strokes of the cane, yet with each stroke, Dennis became even more resolute against yielding to the directive of the three senior students who had ordered him to sing and recite the National Anthem and pledge. He was later left alone when one of the teachers approached and told the students that he will take the matter up from there.  In a bid to bring an end the curiosity that had gotten the better part of me, I decided to inquire from Dennis what informed his “questionable” stance of refusing to go with the flow in the demonstration of patriotism, as it were, to our fatherland through the rendition and recitation of the National anthem and the pledge.  

His response was that it was against the doctrine of his church for adherents to involve themselves in actions calculated to depict them as those who pay allegiance to the government (of man). He also brought to my knowledge some other popular practice and celebrations which his denomination takes exception to, which include not joining other Christian denominations to mark  the 25th of December as the date of Jesus Christ’s birth. 

I came away with a potpourri of impressions about Dennis, including that which left me strongly persuaded, that if he could demonstrate such a strong attachment for his faith, he is sure to maintain an impeccable moral standing. “He is one of the few ones whose morality cannot be open to doubt”, I still remember telling myself. But then, you can hardly guess how discombobulated I was during our terminal examination when the same “morally uptight” Dennis was caught cheating! I could hardly believe my eyes. But then the shock I felt was quickly replaced by a strong mental dissonance as I tried to establish if the biblical injunction of “Thou shall not steal” covers acts of examination malpractice.

A decade and scores of years later, I came up, close and personal again with a similar scenario while living with my cousin somewhere in the heart of Uyo metropolis. His name is Akan. Akan is a physical embodiment of your everyday fire-spewing, holy-water-spraying, midnight praying and everything in-between “born-again”. He does not miss a single church activity. From Monday to Sunday, Akan is attending a choir rehearsal, midweek service, Sunday service, anointing service or house fellowship. Attending church service had become somewhat like a hobby to him. On the flipside of his high religiosity, Akan exuded an enviable image of a morally-firm personality.

Then came the day of reckoning, when this same fire-brand “holy-ghost-filled, morally right  Akan left the house to receive money as payment for a Polio immunization exercise he did not partake in. when he came back with the sum of N2000 Akan told us that his aunt who was a director in one of the Primary Health centers here in Uyo – and was one of the  coordinators had directed him to come over the primary school where the payment was made with a Passport to fill a form a get the money, just like that!  From that year, till when I left that compound, it became a tradition that Akan must get paid on the completion of every round of Polio vaccination exercise he did not play a part in.

Admittedly, Akan and Dennis are just two people in the infinite number of Nigerians who approach the altar of morality with the lenses of selectivity. There is also an Asukwo, an elder in his local church who professes to be morally upright but still adjusts the dispensing meter in his fuel station to shortchange other Akwa Ibomites who patronize him. Asukwo stands shoulder-to-shoulder in the altar of those who curtsy before the god of Selective morality with Mrs Arit who is a civil servant that will only make sure that your proposal for, say a contract, that will benefit a greater number of Akwa Ibom people, gets to the required destiantion only when you have offered her some kickbacks. There is also a Honourable Ntatam whose conscience will haunt him if he dares to carry a gun  to rob people in broad day light, but the same conscience will go on vacation the moments Hon. Ntatam begins to device a fool-proof  avenue for dipping his hand in the coffers to make away with tax-payers’ money.

They are all worshippers of the god of selective morality. I dare say that the god of selective morality is a potent god who handsomely rewards those that diligently seek him.  Seek him with all your heart and you stand to benefit immensely in diverse ways, including having money rain on you like the Christians-professed showers of blessings. All you need to do is publicly denounce some acts of immorality perpetrated by some mainstream members of the society and you become a convert to this religion.  Once you are an adherent of the religion of selective morality, recruiting someone else to write an examination or offer some help to your child(ren), is not antithetical to your moral beliefs, yet you will be quick to shout “foul play” when a beans seller measures a sizeable  amount of sand and mixes it to her beans and sells it to you. You will fraternize with the idea of supplying substandard equipment for the erection of a public building that will house no fewer than 200 people, thereby leaving the lives of other people hanging in the balance, but you will curse and shout your voice hoarse if you to discover that that the woman who fries akara by the roadside adds a little garri soaked in water to the beans she uses in preparing her akara, in a bid to up her profit margin.  To you, the man who adds artificial dry colouring to a little amount of grounded pepper he sells in the market is the cog in the wheel of progress in the fight to rid Nigeria of corruption.

Interestingly, Nigerians who offer sacrifices at the altar of morality are the most vocal lot in the campaign against corruption. They are experts in the art of finger-pointing. They will throw the impression that they desire a morally upright society at people who care to listen but deep down in their hearts, what they are implying is the sentiments echoed by Ashleigh Brilliant when he mused:

“I either want less of corruption or more chance to participate in it”

I dare say that with the geometrical progression of converts into the religion of selective morality, a long walk lies ahead to that land called “A better Nigeria” – where people will treat morality as an all-inclusive ideal.