Way back in my under graduate days and particularly in my first year into the university, a had a little experience on how to approach my studies. In those days, I used to have one sided view towards learning and in order not to expose my ignorance, I will deliberately avoid answering questions until almost everybody in the class has attempted. I remembered on one particular day, after one of my favorite lecturers, Prof. Jerry Buhari, returned from Pakistan in 2001/2002 and had his first class with us, he asked us (students): “what do you understood about the term image?” The class went quiet for a while then he swung into action by defining the term image in five different ways with relevant examples. In elaborating on one of the definitions, Prof. Jerry Buhari said, “each one of you is representing an image of your family, community or the locality where you are from. Whatever your habits, bahaviours or characters exhibited here in this citadel of learning (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria), they will give me a clue to knowing the kind of homes, families, or communities you come from.”
After he finished the lecture that day and throughout my stay in the university, I had a premeditated way of doing things. The simple reason was that, I did not want to do anything that will stein, tarnished or draw the image of my family, or community to the mud. That does not necessarily mean that I was a saint in any way but I had the mental capacity to pre-accessed what the outcome of my behaviour would be then decide whether to go ahead or not. For example, if one engages in examination mal-practice and is caught, the money, time and other resources invested in the person by the family or sponsor will be wasted. Wherever the person goes, his or her image will be psychologically encircled by an aura of self-betrayal extending to the family as well as the community he or she belongs.
Given the above insight, it can be observed that, the action of one individual can have a multiple or chain of (negative or positive) effects on his or her friends, family, organization, community and indeed country. If it is a bad thing, your friends, family, community or country will suffer in either one way or the other; if it is a good thing, you will make your friends proud, bring glory to your family, organization, community or country. It is advised to always, have a pre-meditated approach in every thing you want to do. Have a self-evaluation of what the consequences of an intended action before swinging into action. Value your image; but if yours is not important, then value your family’s good name; but if your family good name is not important, value the image of your community; but if your community is not important, value the image of your country. This is perhaps the most important in your life because, your country is the land of your birth, the soil on which God gave to your ancestors generation before you were born. So do it for the sake of your ancestors.
If you are holding a public office, maintain the ethics and conduct of your position as required to uphold the dignity and respect of your country. If you are a researcher, conduct your researches well and do not try to influence the results of your findings as your nation depends on the findings to form policies that will move your nation forward and better the living conditions of the coming generations. If you are a student, study well and do not cheat in exams or carry out examination mal-practice for the future of the nation depends on you. If you are a police man, genuinely strive to protect law and order when on duty. Do not abuse the privileges of your serviceship by harassing civilians unlawfully for you will definitely not last in the service. If you are lawyer, stand for the truth for only with truth that the future of your nation will be ensured. If you are a prison warder, be firm in your duty post but treat your prisoners with care given the available resources for most of those imprisoned by law are actually not guilty of the said crimes. Only when everyone is honest, sincere, hardworking, duty-minded, the image of Nigeria will continue to dim. As an individual, my opinion is that, the rebranding Nigeria’s campaign can not achieve success without individual rebranding. So let everyone have a self-approach towards the campaign we will make Nigeria a great nation.
*** Art in Disguise ***
