Our Loyalty – The Costs

“Bros! I dey loyal o. Anything for your boy?”

The above can be heard on almost every street of Nigeria countless times daily. Though this “loyalty” is without value.

We learn from our homes to be loyal to the family – the first societal unit we know – and so we stick together. Blood is thicker than water, we say. How much is too much though?

We stay loyal to a fault, even to our own detriment. Siblings gain wealth quickly and no questions are asked. We enjoy a part of it after all, “so wetin you wan talk”. We do not even question the sources of wealth, for fear of being denied access to the stream. We only cry foul when the stream stops flowing.

In the larger society, our allegiances are up for hire – to the highest bidder perhaps -, and so when one source dries out we try to attach to the next. Isn’t this an anomaly?

Here’s an outline of some of what I believe we lose when we stay loyal to a fault.

Accountability

Competence

Integrity

Objectivity

Productivity

ACCOUNTABILITY

Our allegiance to different persons and organisations most times are without question. Some days back, I was in discourse with my father and we forayed into the procedure for swearing in of traditional rulers (chiefs) in my village. The swearing in ceremony required taking an oath of allegiance to the King, to protect his interests. These oaths hinder the chiefs from calling the king to accountability, thus making him sovereign. Being human, we are bound to make mistakes and we need checks and balances to make sure we do the right thing. Our bosses need these checks, as do our siblings and our leaders. If we fail to provide these checks in our desire to be loyal, we have cost not just ourselves but the entire society the good forgone.

COMPETENCE

We lose this when we reward those who stay loyal to us. In the award of contracts or even our simple household jobs, contracts to an incompetent company (perhaps, owned by a loyalist) or personnel costs us more than it pays. We have experienced, first-hand, the abandonment of contracts without execution, lack of prosecution of known criminals, and the square-peg-in-round-hole leaders.

INTEGRITY

The old saying “show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are” comes to play here. Indeed we may be different from those we stay loyal to, but being their benefactors makes us complicit in their wrong-doings. Be it battery, robbery or corruption, We lose credibility by our affiliations.

OBJECTIVITY

In our nascent democracy, we’ve observed how our political leaders have tried, sometimes successfully, to silence those who oppose them by “rewarding” them with political positions. This institutes a sense of loyalty and causes a loss of objectivity. The objectivity required to act as umpires for democratic processes is lost. The EFCC and ICPC are examples.

PRODUCTIVITY

When one individual or organisation is continually a recipient of contracts or favours, he tends to become lax and less productive. Also, the others who are not the recipients of such favours are denied of an opportunity to be productive. This is where monopoly comes in. I believe an economist would be able to explain further.

The above are costs which occurred to me, I reckon you have some thoughts of yours as well. Feel free to share.

True loyalty is a virtue indeed, I respect it. The point I’m making is we should be careful who and what we are loyal to. Our loyalty should be earned and should not deny us the right to call wrong doings to order. A good man fears no critique. In the end, the pittances we may get as immediate benefits for our loyalty are not worth it. Having a fleet of cars does not better the state of the roads. True loyalty shouldn’t be for hire.

I made a comment while discussing with my father, I said, “why be loyal to one man, when you can be loyal to an entire group of people”? These words are what I believe should guide those in service when they choose to be loyal. Our loyalty shouldn’t serve just our interests but the larger interests of humanity and society.

Thanks for reading and in one way today try to be The Answer a Man Seeks (T.A.M.S).