Ehi Aimiuwu

Nigeria is a nation with so much yet produces nothing, while Europe is a continent with almost nothing, yet has the strongest currency and controls almost everything even on foreign shores. I started observing how Europeans, who are supposed to be one of the smallest race, are able to maintain control and leadership for centuries. It was then I realized that it was the very thing our parents told us to stay away from - the act and skill of politics.

The Webster dictionary simply defines politics as the competition for power and leadership. So, if the average Nigerian parent told their children to focus on books and get a job from the government, or chastised them to stay away from politics because it was a dangerous game, then they were literally saying - let others lead you and you get the credentials of being a great follower. The skill of politics or politicking is so important that it is needed in the family, in marriage, in class, at the playground, at work, in government, and in dealing with people generally. It is a strategic way of getting what you want patiently without the opposition knowing, or giving your opposition what they want in order for you to get what you need from them. After much observation, I have broken the European American politics and politicking tactics into four distinct categories.

The first category is what I call recruitment. Here they use their places of worship, employment, housing, or social clubs as the fishing hooks. Usually, the best paying and most respectable jobs, along with upper class houses and economically advanced churches are in extremely European dominated companies and neighbourhoods. So when you get in, they watch and test you for about six months to see your level of consciousness and mentality. If they are not happy with your mentality, they will find a way to send you packing legally. They are looking for a Black who always agrees with them even when it is obvious that they are wrong or that the opinion is against your progress. The Black has no voice or opinion, he just follows blind orders. After a while, he joins the big boys’ club and he becomes top manager or elevated member. By this time, the Black has lost his soul, and can no longer identify with his relatives, race, or culture. He becomes an individual who sees nothing good in Africa, hates his name, pretends not to speak his language, but will arrogantly oppose you if you talk down on Europe, White Jesus, racism, or colonization. The goal is to make this Black the symbol of success and put him on a pedestal. The intention is to tell the rest of the Blacks, especially the younger ones, that to succeed, you must hate yourself and your origin for their sake. Within a year, one Black becomes 100 and none will even speak up or protest any decision against Africa or Blacks because Africa is now wrong.

The second category is the messenger of goodwill. Here they look for a credible and highly influential Black, which they have or think they have control over through their recruitment process and send him to discredit anything that will disrupt their agenda in places they cannot reach successfully. Around 1996, when Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan was hosting the first Million Man March in WashingtonDC, this disturbed a lot of Whites. Many wondered why in the nation’s capitol and why it was a national event? So they went around the nation to colleges, employment places, and social organizations to look for Blacks that have passed their recruitment process to send them as messengers of goodwill. About that time, a very good White female friend of mine came to meet me at the student center where I was studying and invited me to study with her at her table. It was not a big deal; after all, it was not the first time we studied together.

It was not even up to five seconds of seating down before she asked me if it was not a shame that a Muslim minister should be calling the nation under God to address Blacks. She wanted to know what the Blacks Christians were doing to let a Muslim take the lead in a Christian country like America. I then explained to her that despite the fact that he is a Muslim, he has the right to call his race and people to be more responsible to their family, businesses, communities, and their economies. Surprisingly, a white pastor seating nearby joined the discussion in her favour. It was then that I realized that I was surrounded by about six older Whites who were not even students; they were on a recruitment mission. I then told them the story of the Jewish prophet in the Old Testament who was paid to curse Israel three times, but the angel of God commanded him to bless Israel three times through his donkey. I then asked them if it was better for a donkey to bless America with a message or an American who is a Muslim. It was then the pastor changed the conversation to how far Blacks have come from slavery. They were looking for an influential Black student who would go get other Black students to raise negative posters, write bad articles in the papers, or talk on TV against the progress one of their own was implementing in order to create an atmosphere of disunity.

The third category is misguided importance. Here they make Blacks think that they are very knowledgeable, but the knowledge is filled with their lies. In 2006 when I went to Johannesburg, South Africa to promote my book titled "The Political and Spiritual Purpose of the Holy Land", my host who was a retired White engineer read a portion of the book. He was so impressed that he called to his wife that he finally found a Black African that was making sense. He was worried that the Africans were not challenging the spread of the Chinese on African soil. He was not happy that on one hand, Whites have to deal with Iraq militarily, but also have to deal with China economically even on African soil. He was not saying that Africans should fight China for African enhancement or productivity, but instead to oppose Chinese advancement in favour of Europe. This was the same book I sold to the Africans on my soccer team, and in church two years earlier. After reading the first chapter of the book, many of the Africans started doubting my Christianity. Some even claimed that I did not reference enough books; others said I made blind statements about the Bible. Was that the purpose and message of the book?

Only a fragment was bold enough to admit that they went back to read my biblical references and found out that they either never read that part of the Bible before or that they were totally misguided. This was a book I wrote for Africans, but it is the Europeans that are buying it in bulk. The Africans hate it because it does not follow the conventional teachings of the Bible, but yet does not contradict it. Around the same year, I was a teacher in high school, a young White girl asked her mother to buy the same book for her grandfather as a Thanksgiving gift. I was a little scared because the grandfather was a retired professor and researcher from EmoryUniversity, and the book did not really favour European ideals. To my surprise, she came back after the four-day holiday to tell me that her grandfather did not really participate in the festivity because he could not put the book down. So she went to get her friends to come buy the rest of the copies I had. The gold God gives the Black man is always collected by another because others look for truth and facts, but we rejoice on glorified lies and fail to see the gold. Even on African soil, the White man gets to the oil, gold, silver, and diamonds before the Black man wakes up. The White man is focused on controlling our resources, we are focused on what the White man and Arabs are saying.

The fourth and final category is timing and placement. Here they make sure that Blacks are not in decision making places, so that important events and situations are scheduled at the time the competent Blacks will be unavailable. Around 1997, there was an International Students’ President’s Election in my university, and an Igbo girl was supposed to be running against an Indian girl. To my surprise, the Igbo girl refused to show-up for her election and none of her closest friends cared to locate her. Since the African students made up about 65 per cent of those in the room, we then decided to speak on her behalf to prevent her from being disqualified and still have a chance to win the seat. I was chosen to go and speak on her behalf; after all I was in the International Students’ government years earlier and only stopped by to show support. Despite the fact that I did not know her plans and agenda, I went out there and gave her the best possible representation and stated that she had exams. To my amazement, despite the African majority, she still lost the election by a wide margin. It was obvious that the Africans voted for the Indian. I then demanded to know how the Africans voted when we went outside the hall. It was then that I realized that the Africans, even from her ethnic group and high school alumni from Nigeria, turned against her just because she did not show up.

After speaking to many of them, it was obvious that many expected her not to show up and had been told that she should be disqualified if she did not show-up. How did they know before hand that she will not show-up and what did the Africans do to make sure that she showed up? This is why the world does not take us seriously in economic and global affairs. In annoyance and humiliation, I went to dig up her phone number because we were not that close, and insisted that she explained to me what happened. She then explained to me that they moved the election date and time a day after the actual date and it fell on an exam period for her, and that she had short notice. This was when I realized what they did to her. Like in our college soccer days, in order to prevent the African or international students from winning every championship, our classmates and work mates in other teams would get the soccer schedule changed with short notice to have games around the time our key players were on our on-campus jobs or taking an exam. This means we must have a representative working for our interest in all fields of life and speaking or disputing schedules on our behalf.

In summary and generalization, when the Black man is rushing to work in the morning traffic, the White leaders are still sleeping. Before the Black man returns home in the evening traffic, the White man has contacted and made appointments with all his recruits and messengers of goodwill. While the Black man is asleep after saying his prayers, the White man is giving instructions on how to utilize our misguided importance to place his recruits and messengers in strategic positions for the exact timing for implementation. By the time the Black man wakes up the next morning to repeat his routine and live out the result of the pitiful things he prayed against, the White man is now asleep dreaming of the sweet result of his 10 year plan.

Some may argue that Nigeria as a nation is not doing badly after all, considering that at a time when countries in the northern and other regions of the world are making breathtaking breakthroughs in science and technology, and winning so many medals at the Olympic Games, in these parts we are also advancing in the lower regions of the flesh. A Nigerian polygamist has broken all known records since King Solomon by recently unveiling his 86 wives and one hundred and 170 children. The BBC, the Internet and other world media have all been captivated by this prodigy.

At about the same time this phenomenal news broke, a 72-year-old traditional ruler from Delta State was reported by Daily Champion as spending an average of N720,000 per annum on vitamins and energy-giving tablets. His Imperial Majesty told news men that he had to spend so much because "I have many wives, some of them very young, and I have to satisfy them all." What a caring and loving husband! With these kinds of developments, including the great exploits of our ruling classes, known to keep wives, concubines and lovers all around the globe with stolen funds, one may submit that we have reached a stage where we can begin to export gigolos (male prostitutes) to foreign countries to boost the foreign exchange earnings being sent home by our hardworking girls from Italy and other countries of the southern Mediterranean.

As we celebrate libido and related pleasures of the flesh, two of our prominent elders have happily exhibited the kind of wisdom expected in a society with some residual sanity, by recommending psychiatric treatment for deviant behaviour patterns. The Etsu Nupe and Chairman of the Niger State Traditional Council, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, among other steps taken, reportedly suggested to Alhaji Mohammed Bello Masaba, the polygamist with 86 wives, an option of seeing a psychiatrist, to ascertain the 82-year-old man’s mental balance. The case, as I write, is still under intense global attention, with Masaba very reluctant to let go the 82 women he has been ordered to divorce in order to reconcile himself with Islam.

From the south of the country, on the same day (August 28, 2008), Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments of the Holy Catholic Church, on leave from his Vatican base, spoke from Onitsha. The third man in the hierarchy of the Church’s magisterium (government) denounced gay rights, child abuse, indecent dressing and other deviations from acceptable societal norms. Abuse of children, whether sexual, mental or physical, was the one he lamented most and, worse still, according to him, when associated with ordained priests, though reminding the press that such priests were rare out of the Church’s 444,000. On indecent dressing, he observed that, from his travels, Africans looked graceful in their peculiar cultural patterns and attributed deviation to erosion of morals and conscience. On the whole, he recommended comprehensive psychiatric examination for all these disorderly behaviour patterns, which he said ran counter to Divine law and order. Only married couples, he said, could engage in carnal sexual intercourse.

Alhaji Masaba claimed that it was the prophet Mohamed and the Angel Jibril (i.e. Gabriel) who prompted him to take so many wives and, I believe, this must have been partly what made his Emir propose psychiatric examination. Both Cardinal Arinze and the Etsu Nupe are right about deviant people in our country needing psychiatric help for so many of the psycho disorders of our time. Advising one to see a psychiatrist should not always be taken as an insult, for, in reality, psychiatric examination is normal for many instances, whether by self-choice or as requested by an authority, an institution or an employer in order for a proper decision to be taken in a doubtful situation. It is in this context that one must view the coincidental calls of both Arinze and the Emir. If any man or woman claims to have received a message from a deceased holy person or the Angel Gabriel (in Christian beliefs, one of the seven Archangels standing in the presence of God), and the revelation received contradicts the teaching of that religion (in this case, Islam), one of the first steps to take, in investigating the matter, is psychiatrist test. This is because anything extra-terrestrial is abnormal in the physical realm.

It is common routine in the Catholic Church to begin such investigation with psychiatric and other tests where such a claim has any merit at all. In recent decades, many mystics have been tested by teams of doctors to confirm their normalcy in view of the magnitude or depth of any revealed message. Usually, the Church treats such claims with levity, since public revelation ended with the coming of Christ and the Apocalypse. Only in rare cases, such as the Lourdes and Fatima episodes, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, that the Church has given approval because the claims by the mystics harmonized with Scripture and magisterial teachings. But the faithful is allowed to subscribe to such virtue-enhancing revelations with only human faith, which is not as binding as the faith associated with Scripture. In Fatima and in subsequent private revelations, especially to Rev. Fr. Stefano Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP), Christ’s Mother has spoken extensively about sins of the flesh and related behavioural disorientations of our time. On indecent dressing, for example, she once pointed downward a ring on her middle right finger which produced enormous light that opened up the bowels of the earth to the children of Fatima, revealing Hell to them: "This is Hell", she said, "where poor sinners go who offend God". She further revealed how offensive indecent dressing is to her Son and how millions would be lost because of such audacity. The majority of the people in Hell, she said, are there for sins of the flesh and related offences. She warned that unless mankind gave up sin which was enveloping the world rapidly like a mighty plague, this century beginning in 2000 would receive a terrible chastisement from God. After 2000 passed, many cynics are congratulating themselves that nothing happened, forgetting that before God a decade or two more is nothing by way of extension of His mercy.

As Cardinal Arinze observed to journalists in Onitsha, the Church can only advise, not legislate, against indecent dressing for the faithful. It has direct control over only those who work in the sanctuary. This statement should not be misunderstood. Usually, in dealing with matters not directly spelled out in the Ten Commandments or Scripture, or Church law, the Church reserves many matters to the simple executive discretion or prerogative of the diocesan Bishops. For example, as the Bishop of Rome, the current Pope, like his predecessor, has a standing order pasted on the notice boards of the Vatican barring women with sleeveless dresses and short skirts (that is, cut above the knees) from entering any of the churches in that territory, but not all of Italy.

In the Onitsha and Lagos Archdioceses, there is also a standing order directing priests to ensure that indecently dressed women do not enter the churches or receive the Sacraments. In keeping with this Episcopal directive, a priest in Lagos not long ago refused to wed a couple because of the bride’s naked dressing. The groom, in agreement with the priest, later cancelled the marriage plan altogether. Taking a cue from this simple executive discretion, nothing stops the President of this country, National Assembly presiding officers, State Governors and Assemblies, Managing Directors and other corporate heads from ensuring that buildings placed under their charge remain undefiled by naked women and the work environment sane for male workers, just by the management issuing simple directives outlawing revealing dresses. This way, without violating anyone’s constitutional rights and liberties, such erring women can carry on with their fashion in public arenas, market places and in the streets. The responsibility of ensuring a nation of balanced citizenry is a collective one of both government and civil society in general. On the other hand, imbalance, stemming from people deviating from established norms and their religious prescriptions, disorientates and militates against progress and responsible citizenship. Imagine the kind of havoc that is being caused presently in our country by unemployed men, suffering themselves from imbalance, but who have taken up the Bible and are now preaching all over the nation, claiming that God asked them to start churches. These pastors even make extravagant claims to "deliver" souls from the devil, with our streets plastered with posters and banners on "deliverance".