Fraternities are Viruses in Nigeria: Part 10 – Poor Imitators
University campus grown fraternities (UCGF) have done either good or evil to the societies in their countries of origin (e.g. the USA) is debatable. In the American-formation, with no idealisation intended, their “honour codes” are both formidable and adhered to. “Honour among brothers” is a precious matter for American fraternities. Interestingly, their Nigerian imitators as ‘free-for-all fraternities’ are observably oblivious to the meaning of honour and devoid of working honour codes. It may be the reason UCGFs in Nigeria are more like “street gangs” than collectives of educated men.
The secretive fraternities formed and perpetuated at elite old universities in the USA were based on premises of “honourable brotherhood”; all intentions and pretensions ‘to do good for the society’ were secondary. Honour necessitated by the privilege of brotherhood had a stoic rigour to it. Even when a brother was in the wrong, outside the boundaries of the fraternity, his brothers stood by him. Seeing a brother “fall” was a challenge of full support no belonging brother could shirk. They took care of each other. That was in the USA, though. With Nigerian UCGFs, the inverse was the case; “fighting the ills of society” first and promoting brotherhood [without honour]. That they leave till last. His Brothers remind a Brother in trouble to remember “Y-O-Y-O” (You’re On Your Own). They leave him to his fate; any trifling help or derisory advice will endure exaggerations as if it were lifesaving.
Why are the fraternities in the USA so different from those in Nigeria? Direct comparison is not the intention here. Brotherhood, successfully practised roots itself in “like-mindedness” shared beliefs, values, backgrounds and ideas. When recruiting new members, UCGF old hands never seek compatible mentalities of persons backed up by consonant experience of the soon-to-be-member. The exaggerated belief in the use, abuse and misuse of power by the leadership is the facility the UCGF relies upon. To mould the behaviour of every recruited member into the desired form. It is the chief failing of the founders and perhaps the root of dysfunction. Unsurpeingly, preponderate “unlike-mindedness” is what prevails in UCGFs.
UCGFs without strict honour codes act more of a gang than a collegiate association. The honour codes of UCGFs are at the best nominal. The leaders never enforce them and they consider them extraneous to the activities of the entity. There is the code “Thou shalt not sleep with the girlfriend, fiancé or wife of a Brother.” The punishment is verbally severe–beatings and expulsions. The actual practice is, sleep with your Brother’s woman if you can, is the accurate dictum. Those who report to the authorities of cuckold by a Brother ends up regretting it. They do nothing to the culprit. Yet, the story remains forever in the fraternal grapevine.
Another code is “Thou shall not engage in dishonest dealings with a Brother(s).” Again, the punishments threaten to be severe. Yet, there are too many UCGF members who saw swindles that left them out of pocket to the tune of ten to hundreds of thousands of US dollars, individual or collective. A few culprits receive given light punishments, and some are serial swindlers of their Brothers. It is of interest that members who swindle their Brothers they consider smart, daring and likeable by other members. Paralogisms like “if a man cannot keep his money, he does not deserve to have it” or “if the deal works, would it have given me anything?” suffices as a reason not to get involved in internal prosecutions. Yet, the victim of a swindle only trusted the other because of his naivete about honour codes and trust.
It has been the “African experience” that transplanting methods, approaches, policies, techniques and more from the West. Just because they look good and work very well but meets with pernicious dysfunction and failure. UCGFs are no exemption. The UCGFs that exist in Nigeria started well. But they have become ever more dysfunctional for most of their histories. UCGFs are dysfunctional to the point of succumbing to several criminal activities, inclusive of assassinations, violence, mail fraud, charities fraud, advance fee fraud, election fraud, insurance fraud, rape, extortion, human-trafficking, protection-rackets.
Bloodbaths result from rivalries between different UCGFs litter southern Nigeria in sub-genocidal proportions. Such criminal dysfunction of the Nigerian UCGF is an outcome emergent from the leaderships’ purposeful or inadvertent attraction and recruitment of psychopaths, sociopaths, adventurers and the naïve. Male like that do achieve success in gaining entrance into higher education institutions and pass exams. Average and high I.Q.s do not prevent the holders from committing crimes.
Organisational dysfunction is also clear. While the founders and most prominent members of the UCGFs preach and fight for democracy and its accompaniments in the public eye. Surprisingly, hey are ruthless and manipulative practitioners of autocracy within their given fraternities. These autocratic regimes demand the centralisation of power and resources contributed by members coupled with money from charities. These tyrannical regimes with vehemence stifle free speech and free creative participation by members. The deep-rooted ‘group think’, ‘doublespeak’ and the ‘cult of personality’ to which members of UCGFs are indoctrinated [brainwashed] teach them to fear the “sacred”.
In UCGF parlance, the infallibility and deified status of the founder is most sacred. “The unquestionable power of the holder of authority” and “the amorphous interpretation of the law” are also sacred. The abuse and misuse of power is the behemoth of UCGF functionality. What should be sacred, enabling and honourable such as ‘the “powers that be, ever desecrate truth and justice.’ Only because it yields no immediate benefit for the founder or constituted authority.
What might seem to be functional in UCGFs is also dysfunctional; “navigating”. Navigating, the meeting up with brothers to sing in chorus, dance to drumbeats and get drunk after fraternal meetings or at weekends seems to be a happy affair. They are supposed to be brothers celebrating brotherhood. False! It is an opportunity to plan revenge, gather incriminating information, cause cowardly harm [poisoning], exploit others, misinform or dupe another brother who is an agreed or unsuspecting enemy.
Most brothers will go beyond themselves to bring another down for things as petty as an imaginary insult. Psychopaths and sociopaths always have an insatiable need to win, and it can be amusing when two nasty ones lock horns with ferocity in public view. Some may use navigating to enhance their status by buying brothers lots of drinks on an occasion. At large gatherings, the hunt for prostitutes and loose women is non-negotiable.
The atmosphere of mistrust among brothers is frightening, and the breakages of trust reinforce such an ambience to the point of disbelief. Social gatherings, navigating, are supposed to be their best semblance of functionality.Threats and blackmail is common.
In the early days of older UCGFs, although the word “rum” was prominent in the older UCGFs’ vocabulary, drunkenness was out-of-bounds and attracts severe punishment. The leadership of UCGFs prohibited the use of hard and soft drugs, especially marijuana [because of its identifiable aroma]. The way things are going today, UCGF authorities might soon legalise drugs because almost all members use it. And the thought that it is a new trend is self-deception. Members using marijuana in earlier times as a ploy to avoid detection ingested it by adding it as an ingredient to dishes. Like yam porridge, vegetable yam, vegetable beans, vegetable soup and coconut candy.
Ethnic divisions and disparate loyalties make the UCGF even more dysfunctional. The rule is “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” When an ethnic brother is in the wrong it is common to protect him with the most indefensible of rationalisations. An otherwise intelligent man becomes an idiot to defend his ethnic Brother’s wrongdoing. Yet, this same Brother will “See all evil, hear all evil, speak all evil” when a brother from another ethnic group is in the wrong or under suspicion. One brother going scot-free while his fellow culprit is punished for the same crime has its roots in ethnicity. Thus the foremost casualty of ethnic prejudice, again, is truth and justice. UCGFs are not only devoid of honour, but they are also devoid of “truth and justice” which most members hate with relish.
The original UCGF concept seems too foreign and sophisticated for young Nigerian males to both comprehend and put into practice without dysfunction. It is not their culture nor does it break in well. The same is true for the older ones. Well, there is an African way for, perhaps, everything.
Grimot Nane