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What the WikiLeaks Controversy Says about Nigeria’s
Leaky-mouthed Elite
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Newsdiaryonline Admin
Thur Oct 6,2011
Just when you think you’ve read the worst possible testament to
the spinelessness of Nigeria’s blabber-mouthed elite, WikiLeaks
releases more secret U.S. diplomatic cables that just make your
head spin in utter horror and embarrassment.
Well, there is now what must feel like a soothing letup for our
ruling elite in the flow of humiliating exposés of their dirty
little secrets. For me, four things stand out in bold relief in
the aftermath of these WikiLeaks revelations.
First, most Nigerians would seem to be held hostage by a
debilitating and deep-seated inferiority complex. This complex
consists in the internationalization of a mentality of low
self-worth and an inordinate reverence of the foreign,
especially if the “foreign” also happens to be white. I once
called this xenophilia. It is this xenophilic inferiority
complex that allowed low-grade US diplomatic officers to extract
treasure troves of sensitive national secrets almost
effortlessly from well-placed Nigerian officials.
Our elites’ egos are often flattered to no end when a white
person--any white person--considers them “worthy” enough to
serve as a traitorous snitches against their own country. When I
worked in the presidential villa during Obasanjo’s
administration, people used to joke that the surest way to
attract the president’s attention was to bring a white person to
his office. Many a truth, it is said, is uttered in jest.
I once read the experiences of German expatriate workers in
Nigeria who said they made a boatload of money from Nigerian
governors who paid them to appear with them in public as
“foreign investors.” They said all they did was to pretend to
sign documents, shake hands, and take pictures with governors
and commissioners.
It isn’t only our political leaders who are afflicted by this
psychiatric malaise. A friend here in the United States once
told me the story of a rich Nigerian woman who came to Houston
in the state of Texas to treat a medical condition. It turned
out that the best doctor for her condition was a Nigerian-born
medical doctor. But the woman, to the shock of people who
referred her to the Nigerian doctor, said she would never submit
to being treated by a Nigeria. “How can I spend millions of
naira to come to America only to be treated by a Nigerian? No
way! I might as well have stayed in Nigeria. No, I want a white
man to treat me,” my friend quoted her as saying.
Long story short, the Nigerian doctor recommended the treatment
regimen to be given to the woman and handed it to a white doctor
who administered it to her.
Second, the willingness of our elites to divulge unsolicited
information about the nation to U.S. officials betrays an
infantile thirst for a paternal dictatorship. The United States
is seen as that all-knowing, all-sufficient father-figure to
whom our elites run when they have troubles. We have learned
from the US embassy cables that WikiLeaks leaked that our
Supreme Court judges, Central Bank governors, even vice
presidents and governors routinely run to the American embassy
like terrified little kids when they have quarrels with each
other.
The condescending language that the diplomatic cables deployed
to describe our elites clearly shows that even the American
officials they confided in were amused by the juvenile
exuberance of our leaders to squeal. They are infantilized as
clueless informants who become garrulous when the right buttons
are pressed.
What I’ve found particularly instructive is that our perpetually
lying politicians suddenly become truthful, honest, and
straight-talking people when they talk to Americans. You would
think they were standing before their Creator—or at least before
a stern, omniscient, no-nonsense dad who severely punishes his
kids for the minutest lie they tell.
For instance, Nuhu Ribadu who had told the world that he
thoroughly investigated former President Obasanjo and found him
squeaky clean confessed to the Americans that Obasanjo was,
indeed, more corrupt than Abacha, who has become the byword for
obscene corruption in Nigeria’s popular discourse. The same
Ribadu shamelessly lied a while ago that the EFCC he headed
never investigated Mrs. Patience Jonathan over money-laundering
allegations. But leaked US diplomatic cables confirmed that he
did. I think Ribadu deserves an Academy Award for his great
acting and lying skills.
What of Nasir el-Rufai who publicly denied any debt to Atiku
Abubakar for his social rise only to confess to American embassy
officials that Atiku indeed gave him his first public service
job as head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises?
In the past, many people had been falsely accused of being “CIA
agents.” For instance, Dr. Patrick Wilmont, the brilliant
sociologist who taught at Ahmadu Bello University for many
years, was deported to England under the pretext that he was a
CIA agent. Many other innocent people, Nigerians and
non-Nigerians alike, have been falsely labeled “CIA agents.” Now
we know that it is our leaders who are embedded in the inner
recesses of our national power structure that are the real CIA
agents. The American government doesn’t need to invest a lot of
money planting agents in Nigeria when they can—and do—get any
information they want first-hand and untainted.
Third, the revelations from WikiLeaks betray the extent to which
our elite have no faith in the country. The nature and scope of
squealing by our political elite that we have read from the
leaked cables can only come from people who have no patriotic
investment of any kind in their nation. It is obvious that the
only thing that unites our elite is their common desire to loot
and plunder our oil wealth. Once the oil dries up and there is
no other means of cheap revenue, I doubt that Nigeria can
endure.
Finally, the nature of the denials that emanated from our
government officials in the wake of the damning revelations
against them betrays unnerving ignorance. For example, President
Jonathan, shamelessly stealing a line from el-Rufai, dismissed
the WikiLeaks cables about Nigeria as “peer parlor gossip.” But
WikiLeaks is merely a website formed in 2006 for exposing secret
documents from governments all over the world. In the current
case, they are merely exposing cables that US embassy staff
wrote from all over the world, not just Nigeria.
The site didn't author those cables. So what we've been regaled
with these past few months is NOT "WikiLeaks’s beer parlor
gossip"; it is U.S. diplomats' dispatches, which were intended
ONLY for the consumption of the US president, the US Secretary
of State, and other high-profile government officials but which
WikiLeaks exposed to the rest of the world at the cost of
tremendous discomfort and embarrassment to the US government.
The juvenility of the responses from the president and other
government spokespeople to the WikiLeaks revelations about them
confirm English journalist Francis Claud Cockburn’s famous quip
that you should “Never believe anything until it has been
officially denied.”
Whatever it is, the faith of many people in the “Nigerian
project” is being destroyed.
Posted by Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Culled from www.farooqkperogi.com
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