GOVERNOR Seyi Makinde of Oyo State recently girded himself up to wrestle with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). This venture will be an absolute Test of Kariability. In the Kegites Club, there is something called Test of Kariability. In modern man’s usual way of abbreviating concepts, the Kegites too abbreviated their Test of Kariability to TOK. The concept of TOK in the Kegites Club was made popular and glamorous by students of Nigeria’s Premier University, the University of Ibadan. From UI, where the club is known as Kegites Club Nigeria, National Headquarters, TOK was taken to and widely accepted by other Ilyases (branches). TOK, apart from being an avenue to keep members alert and on their toes, it also brings the best out of members of the club in terms of vibrancy and adroitness. It’s also an avenue to ascertaining one’s level of responsibility and responsiveness as a comrad (member) in and outside of the Kegites’ regalia.
Kariability sets a comrad apart from among his or her peers; it also sets a comrad apart from a comrado (non-member). Kariability itself means and determines a lot to being a cherished member of the group. A ‘kariable comrad’ is a go-getter; he or she is a reliable person and a leader. A kariable comrad is generally a useful gift. As it is often sang in the club, “kariability cannot be acquired with money”. Kariability naturally shines through when you are imbued with it. The basics of what you’re doing as a person, the basics of what you’ve elected to do as a student of the University of Ibadan and as a member of the Kegites Club in any other institution of higher learning in Nigeria are not supposed to be lost on you. In the club, your intellect, your knowledge of (especially) the African culture, and the tenets of the club as you were taught during tutorials for admission, would be tested at formal and informal intervals. In simple terms, that is a test of your kariability. That is TOK.
As a leader and a member of a group, it is expected that you must always be at alert. You must be alive to your responsibilities to the group and the people you’re leading. This is expected at all times and in all situations. When a leader is called upon, even at the most odd (and sometimes most improbable) intervals or situations, such leader should be able to pass the test of kariability. This is not just in the Kegites Club where the Chief wears the crown as the overall head of his branch, it is also the same in the larger society. Other groups or organisations don’t just have their kariability tenets only, they also have what they call their leaders. Some say ‘President’, some call their leader ‘Chairperson’ or Chairman or ‘Mayor’. In the case of a State in Nigeria, the Governor wears the crown. Thus, the Kegites Chief just like the State Governor, knows that unease lies the head that wears the crown. However, with kariability such leader would weather the storm and still stand out everywhere.
So, as stated, a Test Of Kariability is brewing in Oyo State. Suave but steely Governor Seyi Makinde recently chose to test his already established kariability with his avowed attempt to take legal steps against NIS personnel who brutalised Nurudeen Abiola and Taiwo Adeagbo in Ibadan. Abiola and Adeagbo are officials of the Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency (OYRTMA). Makinde was not happy when he visited the two men in their homes and he assured them of justice. He said he had instructed the Attorney General of the state to follow through with the despicable degradation of the state’s servants by fellow public servants.
The NIS officials had beaten a hunter’s dog in his presence… They were said to have stripped the OYRTMA workers naked, flogged and locked them up in a cell in their Zonal Command office in Ibadan. Their offence? They had arrested a driver/vehicle for alleged traffic offence – driving against traffic they said. Further claims have it that the persons in the car arrested by the OYRTMA men were a son of a senior Immigration officer and another Immigration personnel. Upon the arrest, their car was being driven to the OYRTMA office when the Immigration officer, who had allegedly taken over the wheel from his boss’s son, made a detour to their Zonal Command headquarters on the same road as the OYRTMA office. They had the traffic men where they wanted them…
The NIS has denied this as false, but they didn’t deny that there was a traffic offence and an incident at their Zone F headquarters. Yusuf Kehinde Muritala said he is of the NIS in reaction to the incident in one online publication confirmed that the OYRTMA and accused a journalist of
The incident is not just annoying, it is a deflating turn in the quest for orderliness in the legendary city. Governor Makinde learnt of the incident and made two quick visits: One to the humiliated OYTRMA officials and the other to the NIS Command headquarters in Ibadan. One is to assuage the feelings of the state traffic officers, encourage them and assure them of justice, while the other is to seek that the erring NIS officials be identified and brought to book – a strenuous demand and a delicate walk.
Governor Makinde’s NIS expedition is novel and would serve as a proper test of kariability. Nigerians have always been unjustly treated by their servants in uniform. Numerous examples abound. Nigerians have also received some nice treatments from their servants in uniform. Examples also abound. So many journalists have had doses of brutality from our servants in uniform, including one that involved Mr. Tony Babatunde Daniel at a petrol filling station some 24 hours before the immigration incident, in the same Ibadan. We all remember what led Nigeria into EndSARS protests. These ugly treatments – the good, the bad and the ugly – are experienced from our officials whether they are in or out of uniform. Our “Do you know who I am” boastfulness has often degenerated to numerous tales of woe through the hands of our uniformed servants. It is however like the metaphor of the Yoruba talking drum…
Uniforms, epaulettes and service to fatherland through uniformed jobs are supposed to confer dignity, imbue discipline and attract honour and respect. But this is not the case in Nigeria. There is total lack of trust in the people in uniform by the citizenry because they mostly use these to entrench oppressiveness. Of a fact, the man in uniform is first seen as a bully, oppressor and a threat until proven otherwise. Public workers and sundry operatives wearing uniforms in Nigeria have their peculiar characteristics. Just consider the arrogance, the language and general attitude of many senior nurses in public general hospitals in Nigeria. It’s a uniform syndrome.
Seyi Makinde must pass this TOK. Nigerians who desire law and order want him to see this through so that the country can begin to seek it’s way from the maze of lawlessness. Most Nigerians want Nigeria to be governed by laws, rules and regulations. This should be the example leaders in and out of uniform must show but they don’t, they obey laws only when they are outside of Nigeria. Most Nigerians want to see all and sundry behave like we are in a democracy indeed. We need an example to re-ignite citizens’ confidence in law and order. The example hasn’t got to be a scapegoat in the NIS, but if that would set Nigeria – beginning with Oyo State – on the path of orderliness, so be it. Enough with people in and out of uniform and ‘their people’ acting and living like they are not under the laws of the land! The laws are for an orderly society and we all must conform for order to set in.
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