A MAN, ALMOST ALWAYS A MAN!

The headline derives from a passage in this column two weeks ago, “Olabode Ibiyinka Judged”. The relevant paragraph read: “It works like this. A man (almost always, a man!) corruptly enriches himself. The law catches up with him and when he eventually manipulates his way through the system, his handlers organise a massive rally to welcome home their “illustrious son” – in a show of ‘People Power’”.

Who is chiselling at the foundations of our nation through all kinds of malfeasance? Who has warped up our democratic aspirations? Who is at the forefront of the desecration of our social values? Who are the serial violators of corporate governance ethics in banking, finance and other sectors of our economy? Who is responsible for most of the breakdown in marriages? A man, almost always a man! Or, a group of men.

It is unfortunate, but true, isn’t it, that wherever and whenever something has gone, or is going wrong, there’s a man - oftener than not. Contemporary Nigerian history bears this out with such blinding glaringness. Episode after episode of the Nigerian story reveals the sad and saddening condition of the male species in our land.

Who is chiselling at the foundations of our nation through all kinds of malfeasance? Who has warped up our democratic aspirations? Who is at the forefront of the desecration of our social values? Who are the serial violators of corporate governance ethics in banking, finance and other sectors of our economy? Who is responsible for most of the breakdown in marriages? A man, almost always a man! Or, a group of men.

Ah, yes, you might counter that at the forefront of resisting many of these ills is also more oftener than not, another man. Or, that wherever these ills rear their ugly heads, there’s also always a woman somewhere in the chain. And you would be correct, on the surface of it. But this issue is more than skin-deep.

Let’s begin with a basic understanding of the role of the man in God’s master plan, as revealed in the Bible, the life manual of this columnist, the column, and hopefully a preponderance of its readers. God’s first being was a man He named Adam. It was from one of his ribs that He chose to make the woman, describing her as a “help meet for him.” It was to the man that he gave the assignment to tend the expansive Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2: 8, 18, 21-23). To be sure who was in charge, God gave Adam the right to name His wonderful new creation, the same way he named other creatures. This explains why the Almighty directed his query to the man after he had joined his wife to eat the infamous forbidden fruit.

The point here is that God expected and still expects a lot more from the man than He does from the woman. Examples abound. Whenever God had a major assignment, He almost always looked for a man. There is a famous verse of Scripture in the book of Ezekiel: “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none (22:30). The word “man” here derived from the Hebrew root word “Iysh” which is man as male, a carrier of the “Y” chromosome; not man as in mankind. Of course, most of the greatest people in the service of God in the Bible were men. In God’s sovereign wisdom, Jesus also had to come as a man. In short, man is God’s gender of choice for manifesting His will on earth.

Flowing from these truths, therefore, is that the extent to which the men in a community or nation recognize the responsibility God Has trusted into their hands, and fulfill it His way, is the extent to which that community or nation will grow, develop and prosper.

Unfortunately, scant attention is paid to issues affecting men specifically. You have people and institutions concerned with women, children and youth issues, the disabled, widows etc. But who looks out for the men? Who teaches the man how to be a man or, more correctly, who teaches the male to become a man? Any wonder that things are the way they are?

Dr Patrick Morley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Man in the Mirror, a men’s ministry based in Orlando, Florida in the USA told a story that illustrates the absurdity of the situation in his best selling book after which his ministry is named. One of the donors to the ministry one day called to inform him he was going to stop supporting, Man in the Mirror. Asked why, the donor told him he had decided to channel his giving to two other causes. One was a prisons ministry, while the other was a group dealing with teenage pregnancies. Morley was shocked at the shallowness of the thinking. But he politely pointed out to his caller that he was abandoning the cause to deal with the effects.

Think about that. Who dominates the prison population? Isn’t it men who have personally failed in their manhood and/or have been misled or lured into crime by this category of men? Who is responsible for teenage pregnancies? It’s mostly men! It’s men, who lured young girls to bed; men who failed in their duties as father either to the girls or to boys who end up in premarital sex.

That same scenario is playing out here in Nigeria. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) exist for many critical socio-political, economic and even cultural issues – which is a truly welcome development. But if men don’t come to the fullness of who they are created to be, they would continue to serve as production lines for the problems these NGOs are tackling.

The churches aren’t doing much better. They all have children and youth ministers. Many have women ministries, courtesy of the pastor’s wives. Very few have men’s ministry worth the name. Where men are encouraged to gather, they soon become welfare fellowships and business clubs with little or no manhood development content. I know there a number of exceptions to this general rule. I have been involved with one such ministry, Christian Men’s Network Nigeria in the last ten years. But this nation needs hundreds of well organised ministries like CMN - if we are going to even begin to confront the challenges. And dear reader, you have a role to play. (Continues Next Week)

PIX: Dr Patrick Morley, Chairman/CEO, Main in the M1rror

THE SON IS THE FATHER OF MAN

Does this imply that we are not supposed to work? No! It simply implies that we are workers in the family business like Adam in the Garden of Eden and like Jesus going about “my father’s business.” It means that we see whatsoever job that we have as a calling, an assignment within our father’s vast conglomerate. If we grasp this truth, we would not put the assignment above the assignor; we would not do despicable things to get and keep our jobs, and we would not cut corners on the job. We would understand that God, as our father has responsibility to provide for us and he’s not about to shirk his responsibility… Be a son, brother and you’ll never have to worry about your manhood!

The Christian man would typically like to see himself as either a mighty man of valour, or aspiring to be one – understandably. Gideon, the poster mighty man of valour, was a success story. He started out an unknown, belonging to a poor family in the least of the tribe and in his own words “the least in my father's house.” Called to battle by the almighty through an angel, he at first declined, until God patiently showed him through the signs he himself requested, that He would be with him. One thing led to the other and he eventually became conqueror of Israel’s colonial tormentors, the Midianites. His epitaph may as well be this passage of Scripture in the book of Judges: “Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.”

But, for whatever it is worth we must not forget that many of the men referred to as mighty men of valour were not necessarily great men. Some were little more than ciphers, pawns on other’s chess boards, without personal achievements of their own. But given our antecedents in the Christian Men’s Network in Nigeria, it can safely be assumed that our “mighty man of valour” is simply the Christian Man in pursuit of Christ-likeness. And that shall form the basis of what I am bout to say on the “Coping with the Challenges facing the Mighty Man of Valour”.

Incidentally, my take on this subject shall be based through and through on what I sincerely is the biggest challenge facing us as Kingdom persons today – that of being who we are. And this challenge is far greater among us men because of the critical nature of our roles in the churches, families, communities and nations. It is the challenge of sonship.

The need and the process of transiting from boys to men have both been very soundly and biblically articulated by the previous speaker. The man of God, Rev Ademola Iroko has identified absolutely correctly that the Christian male who would become a man has to be able to identify and seize opportunities. He must be disciplined because the bridge between goal and achievement is discipline. He must learn to prioritize. And he must also be a good time manager. Time wasted, he said poignantly is life abused. These are nothing but nuggets of wisdom based, as they are, upon the word of God.

However, I wish to suggest that the reason many of us do not have these attributes; the reason we are having to “cope with challenges” of being real men, is essentially because we are not being who we profess we are. Let me explain. Ask any one of us who we are, we would unhesitatingly declare that we are sons of God. Asked how we know, we would quote the Bible. But are we living as sons of God? I have my doubts. In fact, if truth be told, most of us are not. You see a major part of sonship is the impartation of the divine nature, the very essence of God, His love nature, his holiness and faithfulness. If we really know that we are and are being sons of God, rather than people who just know about its possibility, we would manifest these attributes and the items listed above by the man of God would simply be part of the territory! They would be fruits of sonship rather than the root of it.

To appreciate the point I am trying to make, let’s refresh our memories about creation and the divine plan as revealed in the Bible particularly as regards work and money which is one of the enemy’s most powerful tools for robbing us of sonship consciousness. We saw in the book of Genesis that God set out to create a kingdom of sons on earth through Adam. Like the good father that he is, God provided for everything that this first son would ever need. All that this son had to do was be a son! Take care of the family business including the family estate also known as the Garden of Eden, which he was told to “dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The original plan of God did not include today’s “work to eat” situation. God never tied Adam’s continued well-being to his success or failure in the family business. They were totally unconnected. Proof of that was that it was after the fall that God made the declaration that “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…(Genesis 3:19). This was one of the curses that Jesus, the second Adam, by his death and resurrection and therefore reinstatement of what lawyers call the status quo ante, came to repeal. So, if we are still seeking to eat bread, by the sweat of our brow, we are still living under the curse!
Does this imply that we are not supposed to work? No! It simply implies that we are workers in the family business like Adam in the Garden of Eden and Jesus going about “my father’s business.” It means that we see whatsoever job that we have as a calling, an assignment within our father’s vast conglomerate. If we grasp this truth, we would not put the assignment above the assignor; we would not do despicable things to get and keep our jobs, and we would not cut corners on the job. We would understand that God, as our father has responsibility to provide for us and he’s not about to shirk his responsibility. We would grasp the full import of these famous verses in Romans 8: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God…The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Be a son, brother and you’ll never have to worry about your manhood! (Derived from Ministration at CMN Ojokoro’s Men’s Retreat at Ota on Saturday, November 14)

OLABODE IBIYINKA JUDGED

It works like this. A man (almost always, a man!) corruptly enriches himself. The law catches up with him and when he eventually manipulates his way through the system, his handlers organise a massive rally to welcome home their “illustrious son – in a show of “People Power”. But ex-Governor and retired top Naval Officer Olabode George took it one step further. After gorging on the resources of the Nigeria Ports Authority, on which board he served as chairman, and for years escaped justice, he finally had his day in court. He turned every hearing into a carnival, with aso-ebi clad supporters singing and dancing in the court premises. It was clearly a veiled attempt to use corrupted “People Power” to intimidate the judiciary.

The first day of August has come to acquire a certain significance in my life since that Monday, 26 years ago, when I became a father. We had had to wait more than two years, two years that seemed like eternity, two years during which questions were already being asked and accusing fingers being furtively pointed in the usual direction! Thank God, nobody needed to publicly recant of their opinions. The rapidity of the “follow-ups” took care of that.

This August 1, however, registered a different kind of significance. One of my favourite international figures died. The woman died. The woman you could say gave the world “People Power” died. Corazon Aquino, one time President of the Philippines died, felled by colon cancer at 76.

The woman Filipinos liked to call “Cory” and “People Power” came to my mind during the week as I reflected on the trial, conviction, march to jail and, refusal of bail (for now, at least) of Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George, well-known chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a Lagos High Court. Wondering about the connection? Here goes.

Corazon was married to a certain journalist turned politician, Benigno. As leader of the opposition in their country, he had become a threat to the status quo. So, Ferdinand Marcos threw him into jail and assumed full dictatorial powers in 1972. Undaunted, Benigno, with the full backing of his wife, became the icon of democratic struggles in the Philippines. Some seven or so years later, he went on exile to the United States, where he continued the struggle. On August 22, 1983, he began the fateful journey home from exile to continue the campaign for democracy. He never made it. He was shot right on the gangway of the aircraft on landing at destination. Dream determined? No way. It was dream deferred. Deferred for about two years; the period it took the devout catholic wife of the murdered hero, to acquiesce to the will of the people that she stepped into the shoes of her husband.

She finally did, when Marcos, the over-confident dictator, called a snap election in November 1985. Cory became the opposition candidate, filling her nomination form as a housewife. The election which held three months later was called for Marcos. Cory’s supporters knew differently and would have none of it. They poured into the streets, a million strong, clad in their candidate’s favourite yellow colour. Led by rosary-wielding nuns, they stared down Marcos’ armoured tanks chanting “Cory! Cory!! Cory!!!” Four days of sustained, but peaceful street protests later, the military joined the masses and the dictator scampered out of Manila to exile in Hawaii. Cory assumed leadership of her country and “People Power” was born – with a lot of help from the Church, the dominant catholic wing of it.

“People Power” in several variants, has in the 23 years since Cory inspired it, been put to effective use against vote-rigging and dictatorships in many places – from Poland, former Czechoslovakia and Thailand to, Taiwan, Mongolia and Ukraine. But, although apartheid fell to it in the Republic of South Africa, it is yet to chalk up much success on the continent.

In Nigeria, in spite of several attempts, including the recent series of marches put together in several cities by the Nigeria Labour Congress and its civil society allies, in opposition to government’s planned downstream oil sector deregulation, canvassing increase in the minimum wage for workers and electoral reforms; “People Power” is yet to chalk up any major victory. The “whys” of that would have to wait another day. “People Power” of the manipulated kind, however, seemed to be catching on in this nation. The Abacha million-man march easily comes to mind here. But, there’s an even more nauseating manifestation of this variant and that is the reason for this musing of mine.

It works like this. A man (almost always, a man!) corruptly enriches himself. The law catches up with him and when he eventually manipulates his way through the system, his handlers organise a massive rally to welcome home their “illustrious son – in a show of “People Power”. But ex-Governor and retired top Naval Officer Olabode George took it one step further. After gorging on the resources of the Nigeria Ports Authority, on which board he served as chairman, and for years escaped justice, he finally had his day in court. He turned every hearing into a carnival, with aso-ebi clad supporters singing and dancing in the court premises. It was clearly a veiled attempt to use corrupted “People Power” to intimidate the judiciary. It failed, thanks to the courage of a judge who chose to align with the dictum of the progressive school of adjudication – “let justice be done, even if the heavens fall.” Would that there were more judges like him – particularly on the higher benches!

It was a clear demonstration of these wise words of the Bible: “They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them” (Proverbs 28:4). A section of the people, obviously suborned, forsook the law and celebrated the wicked. But mercifully, a judge chose justice and contended with the wicked. “George Cross” is a decoration that the English used to award to civilians who exhibit bravery. Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, who judged George, deserves such a medal. So, by the way, does the as yet not-widely-accepted Mrs Farida Waziri, current chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who in spite of “threat, blackmail and pressure” treaded where predecessor Nuhu Ribadu dared not. And Nuhu, legend has it, was a brave man!

TELECOMS: A NIGERIAN STORY WITHOUT NIGERIANS? (3)

We emphasised, however, “that the issue of integrity is critical…because…if there is a grave national drought in Nigeria; it is in the integrity department. And I am sure you and I know it. I know also that Dr Omolayole knows it; otherwise, he would not have raised it...So, whilst we debate the glass ceilings and the consumer statistics, I wish to state that we need to take a closer look at the subject of integrity in the work place, at ALL levels. This is because, I believe in the injunction of the Bible that says, ‘…if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged’ (1 Corinthians 11:31).”

The paradox of a burgeoning telecommunication sector in Nigeria with no Nigerian in the cockpit of the top corporate players was recently highlighted by IT& Telecoms Digest. We have said that the situation brought to the fore by the recent replacement of ‘the last Nigerian standing’, Zain’s Bayo Ligali, with a foreigner, is a powerful reminder of the situation among the multinationals, about which Dr Michael Omolayole raised issues early last year.

In drawing attention to the development, Omolayole, a one-time CEO of Lever Brothers Plc, a multinational now known as Unilever, had raised a number of questions similar to those being raised or implied by the IT journal as it affects the telecoms sector. We had encapsulated the questions into two main ones, namely: “Is a glorious chapter of Nigerian history being written without Nigerians and if so, should we be worried?”

Given that even companies in the sector owned by Nigerians have not proven nationalistic in their choice of helmsmen, however, we thought to beginning by asking why? The ‘why’ question became even more important with the magazine’s expose of the fact that many of the companies that have closed shop, unable to benefit from the boom in the sector were Nigerian-run. This was why we found ourselves asking these questions: Could it therefore be that a fear of losing their investments or of failing to maximise their returns is the reason Nigerians are not being considered as CEOs? Is such fear founded on empirical evidence? If it is, is it the result of paucity of technical expertise, or competence, or experience or integrity, or a combination of some or all of these? Or are there other factors?

It is incontrovertible that no rational group of investors will put someone at the head of their management team without consideration of his/her ability to ensure healthy returns on their investment. It is therefore certain that in choosing CEO, protection of investment and maximization of profit, rather than any primordial consideration have pride of place. So, it stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if a preponderance of Nigerians who have executive-managed telecoms outfits have ran them aground, business barons would avoid them, plague-like?

Now, if it is implied that more Nigerian helmsmen have failed in this booming sector; what factors are responsible? I make bold to say that it cannot be technical expertise because, as the telecoms digest explained, most of the foreigners in charge do not have engineering knowledge being mainly of either management and accounting pedigree. Also, competence, as in capability and effectiveness can hardly be a problem. Competent Nigerians abound in virtually every aspect of life. Many have and continue to make their marks internationally. Ligali, for instance, was head-hunted by Celtel, which became Zain Nigeria, from Unilever where he had headed its operations in a number of countries. There may well seem to be a bit of challenge with industry experience, which cannot be of great moment, since corporate management expertise is supposed to be industry-blind. That leaves our ‘why’ checklist with only one item, integrity. And that is one issue about which, I truly wish I could be as dismissive as I have been with other factors.

In our commentary on Dr Omolayole’s 2008 newspaper article lamenting the displacement of Nigerians from multinational companies executive suites, we noted that the most critical of the posers he raised was the one he couched in these words: “Are all Nigerian top managers non-performing or adjudged by expatriates to be bitten by the bug of lack of integrity?” (Emphasis added).

We aligned then with Omolayole’s other concerns articulated in these questions: “What future projections can we make? Has it occurred to multinational owners of large manufacturing outfits, that 99 per cent of the consumers of their products are Nigerians? Is economic nationalism dead, killed by globalisation? Is there now an artificial glass ceiling in the Corporate Boardroom for nationals? That is, a level beyond, which nationals cannot rise. What answers could we possibly give to such questions from our children and grandchildren with regards to this phenomenon?” We also found no fault with his conclusion that: ‘The future of our great country still lies in its ability to harness the potential of its abundant human resources (Human Capital) at the very top levels, be it in Management or Public Service”.

We emphasised, however, “that the issue of integrity is critical…because…if there is a grave national drought in Nigeria; it is in the integrity department. And I am sure you and I know it. I know also that Dr Omolayole knows it; otherwise, he would not have raised it...So, whilst we debate the glass ceilings and the consumer statistics, I wish to state that we need to take a closer look at the subject of integrity in the work place, at ALL levels. This is because, I believe in the injunction of the Bible that says, ‘…if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged’ (1 Corinthians 11:31).”

We align, in the same way, with IT & Telecoms Digest’s concerns about the implications of shutting Nigerians out the cockpit of one of the most successful sectors of the economy and do wish that it be roundly addressed. But we also emphasise today, as we did then, that there is a need to check the “integrity quotient” of the Nigerian executive class - across the board. The corporate governance issues thrown up by the current controversial banking sector “reform”, as yet unproven as they are, do make it imperative that we take a look at this critical area of our national life. And this is not a job for governments; at least not exclusively. A vast majority of our political class is yet to demonstrate immunity to the “bug of lack of integrity.” This is therefore a job for the Church – where the bug, thanks to the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, cannot acquire viral proportions. Then would Nigerians be the heroes of their own glorious story.