POWER AND PERSONALITY CRISIS

POWER AND PERSONALITY CRISIS

Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua

I love these wise sayings from Globacom; “Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do nothing for you” (Glo 4040). “When our nails are growing, we cut our nails and not our fingers. Similarly, when ego starts rising, cut your ego and not your relations” (Glo 4040).  Olufemi and Nasiru were very close friends in secondary school. Through the encouragement of Olufemi, both of them entered university the same year. Olufemi graduated with first class and started teaching. Once in a while he would visit his friend, Nasiru who could not graduate because of challenges in his exams to give him financial support. At last Nasiru graduated with a third class. Olufemi did postgraduate studies and ended up becoming a professor in a university. Nasiru loved politics. Later he indicated interest to contest for Local Government elections.  Olufemi supported him immensely.

Nasiru became a Local Government Chairman. On resumption of duty, he stopped picking the calls of many of his friends including Olufemi. “Levels have changed!” Olufemi did not find this funny and so decided to visit his friend in the house. Arriving, the security told him: “oga says that I should tell you that he is not available and that if you must see him, you should book appointment with his secretary in the office.” Olufemi responded; tell him that it is Olufemi his friend. The security left and came back with this message: “Oga says that you should obey simple instructions!” He left and promised not to give up on his friend, Nasiru. As usual, the Local Government Chairman goes to office not everyday. However, Olufemi went to the Council to book appointment to see the Local Government Chairman (his old friend). Fortunately the Chairman was in the office that day. He was asked to fill a form to indicate why he wanted to see the chairman. After waiting for an hour, the chairman came out to meet his friend at the reception. This was the scene of the encounter.

Olufemi: Hi my big brother, quite an age!

Nasiru: Yes, how can I help you?

Olufemi: What kind of reception is this?

Nasiru: As you can see, I am very busy, I am in a meeting and I need to go back.

Olufemi: In that case, can I come to the house?

Nasiru: My house? Sorry, I don’t welcome visitors in my house after the heavy day’s work.

Olufemi: That is ok, I see you then, when you finish the tenor of this exalted office. But remember, no condition is permanent, what goes up must surely come down. I do not think that this is the same Nasiru that I know.

Nasiru: You can curse me if you like but remember that at a point in a man’s life, he needs to adjust to his new status. You chose “book” while I chose “power where there is money”

Olufemi: Bye and enjoy your power, money, new personality and transient status.

Not so long thereafter, there was a change in government. Nasiru was jailed for embezzling the Local Government fund. Then levels changed again. Shamelessly, he needed Professor Olufemi to bail him out. “Those who can do nothing for you” at a particular moment can be your support some other day. Some people from experience and observation have defined uncontrolled power as “intoxicating liquor”. Others identify “abuse of power” as demonic possession. This gives rise to personality crisis akin to the biblical demoniac whom Jesus asked:  “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many” (Mark 5:9). A legion in the Roman army was six thousand soldiers. The personality crisis here is the thinking that he is equal to six thousand soldiers. Here again, the power drunken person has a combination of neurosis, psychosis and schizophrenia. The phrase, “we are many” indicates a sense of insecurity hence the “powerful” does not feel safe without security agents.

Power and personality crisis is either self imposed or created by the society. It is self imposed when a person who never dreamt in life that he could be a Headmaster of a primary school suddenly gets a political position by election which very often is not credible. Then the person has access to money that he or she could steal with impunity. At a point the person thinks that he or she has the world in his personal pocket akin to the sea that never runs dry. Like some truck drivers who see every other vehicle like a little ant that can be crushed on the high way, begins to look down on everybody. The symptoms of this self-imposed power and personality crisis are: loss of respect for elders, distance from old friends, separation from family members and feeling that those who greet them are beggars. The real sickness becomes self deification.

The society can also create and promote power and personality crisis for office holders to such an extent that the person in power forgets that he or she is appointed or elected by the people to serve them but not as “bread winners”. He needs to provide for the people a net to fish and not occasional scrap of fish. In a civilized society, people who are educated and empowered by the society do not need to crowd around a “power figure” for food, drink, medical care and all types of temporary support. In some African countries, the failure of government to provide essential commodities and human capacity produces office holders with a personality crisis. Some of these officers gradually lose the capacity to rediscover their real and true being while in office.  Having lost their essence, some office holders steal from the people to act like a “Good Samaritan” to the same people from whom they have looted and exploited. Consequently, the real personality stops acting and the artificial personality takes over.  An applicant now has to “worship” this disordered personality to get a job. Very often, jobless applicants are made to pay money to get a job. Some people in position had borrowed a fortune to win the election that deify them like little “gods”. This makes the chain of manipulated manipulators endless such that some people who cannot get jobs kidnap for a ransom.

Another way the society promotes and encourages power and personality crisis is the illusion for tough leaders (supper man figure) like the Jews who preferred a warrior messiah to Jesus who came to serve and not to be served " (Matthew 20:28).  Leaders with authentic and constant personality need the wisdom and courage of Jesus to be consistent and not be distracted from their vision and mission. Jesus had to resist Peter who did not understand his real mission to suffer and die to save the people (Matthew 16:21-23). It is only a disease that has no cure that leads to death. We can locate the cure for power and personality crisis in the words of Jesus: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and then forfeits his soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for the soul” (Matthew 16: 26)?

The earlier we remember that no condition is permanent, the better for us while we occupy some privileged positions. Once we know that who we are and what we are is by the grace of God, we sustain and maintain our true identity. If we remember that the opportunities we have is a gracious opportunity to win more friends and not to scare them away, we save our sanity and the true persons that God has created us to be. ”Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves; so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). Plant a tree that could feed the next generation so that even your children will have the freedom to turn their faces to any direction. Take the right step that will make people remember that a person of substance, a leader of character and a servant with integrity once passed this way. To avoid the syndrome of power and personality crisis, conduct yourself in a way and manner that like Saint Paul, you will be courageous to say:  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Oh God, guide leaders through a course that does not lead to lowliness and annihilation after office!

Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua (omonokhuac@gmail.com  / www.omonokhua.blogspot.com)