Image: http://dailypost.com.ng/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/NSCDC-official.jpg
A new jargon has been introduced into
the Nigeria social media following the drab response(s) given by the Lagos
State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) during
an interview
session on Channel TV’s breakfast programme. This argot - my oga at the top- has swiftly spread
across social networks and has even become rife in day-to-day conversations in
Nigeria. It is really difficult not to see an allusion to this patois when you
scroll down your news feed; someone somehow must allude to it in a funny way. However,
several versions of blurbs have been created on the image of the fumbled and
lame commandant and his image has been depicted in various art of caricatures. The
commandant has even become a blockbuster as the jargon spreads. Given the way the
transcript of his absurdly ridiculous response(s) spread across social
networking mechanisms like a blockbusting novel, one would then wonder why
Nigerians don’t engage such tempo in communicating very persistent economic,
political, and socio-cultural issues we face in the country.
Though the transcript of the interview has
gained much attention on social media networks and has to some extent, so to
speak, become a happiness generator to some people, I didn’t personally find
any course at all to share in that hilarity the first time I saw the video. Frankly,
I wasn’t actually chagrined per se because most of the times I have watched or
(and) listened a security agent give interview I have never failed to grimace. Haven
got a nodding acquaintance with the modus operandi and modus vivendi in the bureaucracy
of Nigeria’s security services; it suffices to say that the comic commandant shouldn’t
take all the reproach. That interview- otherwise what people regarded as a
national disgrace- has got a lot more to say about the regimented mode of
operation in Nigeria’s security services. The arrow emanating from such
interview- which looked to me like a comic strip session given the man’s
appearance and the whole setting in general- points to the fact that the
commandant must have been cautioned prior to the interview. He might have
responded based on the security conscious
brief/orientation he was given prior to the interview by his superior. This is
not unusual within the context of regimented lifestyle evident in the operation
of security services in Nigeria. And it is not out-of-the-way to argue that the
regimented way of life in the Nigeria’s security services may have impacted on
the commandant’s response(s).
Though this is not an attempt to shield
the ignominy exuded by the lame-brained commandant, but at the same time one
has to take into account some contingencies that may have affected the his
psyche. Too much restriction to what a security officer, irrespective of the
office he/she works out of, says when on official duty sometimes could have adverse
effect(s) on the personnel, especially in the current era when we have
considerable number of security agents who cannot think out of the box. Their
responses are often either tied to what they were asked to say or cocooned
within the nucleus of image/identity protection. The liberty of a security
officer to express him/herself in public the way he/she may deem necessary is
often times constricted. Thus it’s only a few smart ones that have the savvy to
apply their initiative(s) in some situations.
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