"TO RESTORE THE DIGNITY OF MANKIND"

I came about this phrase about two weeks ago while I was reading Chimamanda's PURPLE HIBISCUS. Some characters in the book had visited the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and on the welcoming board was written; "University of Nigeria, Nsukka, …to restore the dignity of mankind". I was shocked and curious about the motto of such great institution. Many questions ran through my mind: "why would the University of Nigeria choose this phrase?" "Has the institution succeeded in restoring mankind's dignity?" "When was the dignity lost?"

Knowing that the University of Nigeria is one of the oldest universities in the country, I decided to ask Google to know when the school was established. I became shocked again when I found out that the school had even been established before our independence as a country, it was established in 1955. My curiosity sank deeper and deeper as I began to wonder what the scholars who picked such a phrase for a motto had in mind to make them base the standards of a school on such powerful words.

Jokingly, I asked my brother through a chat; "bros, since when has the dignity of mankind been lost?" he simply replied: erm…. Tipe! tipe!! (Meaning: long long time ago). Immediately, I picked up my dictionary to get the definition of Dignity which means: self-respect, seriousness in behavior or worthiness. In all ramifications, mankind has actually lost dignity. But, since when and is there a means of restoration?

In 2011, I was privileged to be present at a seminar organized for us final year students of Ladoke Akintola University of technology, Ogbomoso, to charge us into the working world. One of Nigeria's top speakers, Pastor Kunle Soriyan, charged us to be dignified in our dealings as we go into the world proper. He said: "being human is not the ability to speak, see, smell, taste or feel, animals do these too. Being human is the ability to be kind, caring and showing love to our fellow species".

I read in the news daily, housewives stab their husbands, boyfriends kill their girlfriends for money rituals, landlords sleep with tenants, friends kill friends over little arguments, even a fortnight ago, Suarez had to bite an opposing player simply because he wasn't allowed space in the goal area. The dignity of mankind is really lost. News of death of multitudes of people no longer amaze us, we simply scroll or switch unto the next page. Almost a year ago, four Uniport students were gruesomely killed and everybody condemned the act, the question is; If you and I were there, would we have thrown a stone or two? The Boko haram massacre is no longer news, infact what is news is whenever they temporary seize bombings for weeks. Our dignity is so lost that we now even commend the MEND activities in the Niger Delta for "only" kidnapping and not killing like the Boko Harams do. Recently, we also heard about the Boston bombings where athletes from different parts of the world gathered to entertain people and unfortunately met with their deaths.

I know you are shaking your head now reading this, yes, I agree with the scholars who chose the motto of the institution that the dignity of man is lost, but can we really restore the lost dignity? Let me ask; are you living a dignified man? The subject of this matter actually cuts across to us all as we all have lost our worthiness. Everybody wants to cheat the next person, parents cheating their children, children cheating their parents. The passenger on a bus doesn't want to pay the complete fare for a journey while the conductor is also devising a means to make the passenger forget his or her change. The attendant at the fuel station steals fuel by pumping air into cars or kegs while the buyer keeps looking at the dispensing meter wishing it will run past what he or she has paid for. Spiritual leaders telling lies to their congregation in order to get more donations. Aren't we all guilty of the undignified state of mankind?

We keep pointing fingers at people, especially those we have in government, about the hardship that has fallen on us, but sincerely, they were once ordinary citizens like we are now who also craved for better governance. Now, arguably, is the indignity of man allocated to a particular position of power or is it something that is moulded with us in our mothers' wombs which cannot be removed and the environment we find ourselves determine its level of growth? Even Paul, the great Apostle, in his letter to the Romans confirmed he was doing that which was unworthy and he blamed it on something within (Read: Romans 7: 14-19).

In this society of ours, to be anything "meaningful" to the public means to have had your hands washed in undignifying things. This makes me conclude that to live comfortably in this present world, one must have the mind of a criminal, must be corrupt in one way or the other. Our law system ascertains this. Criminals rule over us, power is passed from one corrupt hand to another corrupt hand. People are killed daily and no one cares to know how and what caused the killings. We simply nag about it and move on with our daily inhuman activities. To make it more alarming is the fact that even prophet Habakkuk in the seventeenth century BC complained about the injustice in the land of Babylon (Read: Habakkuk 1:4). Centuries ago, the French organized what we now call "the great revolution" which occurred between the year 1789 and 1799 where more than 30,000 people were killed. Has that restored the dignity of the citizens of that country? God never created  man with the intention of ending his life through the hands of another man. Remember Abel? What year was that? Erm…tipe! tipe!! (Read: Genesis 4: 8-9).

Well, we can boldly point out some few personalities who have always at one time or the other advocated for worthiness and good governance. Mahatma Gandhi, mother Theresa, our own Fela Anikulapo Kuti and professor Oby Ezekwesili, who also happens to be an alumni of the University of Nigeria, to mention a few. So many of us have always wanted to do things rightly, we want a  better governance which we believe would automatically lead to a better life, but we forget to believe that a better life actually exists within us, all we need to do is just keep doing things rightly without sentiments.

With all due humility and respect to the great university of Nigeria, the subject matter which is "to restore the dignity of mankind", in my own opinion, can never be achieved by the management, staff nor students of the institution, infact, it cannot be restored in this life, maybe in the next life it will, and that would be by the Only one who created mankind in the first place; The Almighty. But the subject is a phrase that should run in every man's mind to help us shape our life for the next.

Please answer these questions as I drop my pen:

·         Has mankind ever been dignified?

·         When God created the world, he looked and saw that everything was good, if God decides to take a peep on us now, what would he say?

I tweet from @oluwasedago