June 9, 2009
Scene1 (Outside the office)
Oteniyark: Good morning Mr. Nwachukwu
Nwachukwu: Point of correction please! I’m Chief Engineer Nwachukwu.
Oteniyark: Can’t an engineer be addressed as a Mister?
Nwachukwu: I don’t know but as far as I am concerned, as the Chief Engineer of our company where you also work, the members of staff must call me Chief Engineer Nwachukwu otherwise I will ignore their calls.
Scene 2 (On the telephone)
Oteniyark: Hello good afternoon, could you allow me speak with Mr. A. Bello?
Yakubu: You mean my dad, Ambassador A. Bello?
Oteniyark: No, Mr. Bello is a pensioner.
Yakubu: Yes, It’s my dad, he was a Nigerian ambassador 18 years ago.
Scene 3 (At a public function)
Oteniyark: It is my pleasure to introduce the guest speaker Mr. Tony Bamgbose who was a member of the State House of Assembly.
Tony: Beg your pardon! I am honourable Bamgbose.
Oteniyark: I also have the privilege of inviting to the high table, the wife of the state governor, Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka.
An aid of the governor’s wife hurriedly jumped to the podium
Governor’s wife’s aid (whispering): Madam is First Lady and must be addressed as Her Excellency, the First Lady, Alhaja Chief Dr. Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka LL.D. Please quickly make the correction!
The above scenes are a demonstration of the title craze that is endemic in Nigeria. Everywhere you turn your face in the society, this craziness is conspicuous and cuts across all segments of the society. It is evident in the workplace and business environment as well as political and religious circles.
We may not be the best in many things but not in inventing titles. If we can bring a bit of the ingenuity with which we invent or combine titles to other positive areas of lives, Nigeria will certainly be a better place and will surely rank among the best places in terms of positive development. Nigerians generate new titles almost with the same frequency Microsoft comes up with security updates for the Vista operating system. I have seen people adding to their names, strange titles like ‘Akobi’ a Yoruba word meaning first born and ‘Aremo’ another Yoruba word meaning next in line for a king’s throne.
Some good people of this great nation seem to extremely abhor being addressed as Mr. or Mrs. It may be out of sheer ignorance of thinking that the titles are for people of little importance and scarce achievement in the society or out of the ever increasing zeal to flamboyantly exhibit all the achievements and identities at any given opportunity or to cover some deficiencies. Mister may not after all be as insignificant as our dear people think and in fact it is the mother of all titles which can be applicable to any highly regarded man. Mister (Mr.) is a conventional title of respect for a man, prefixed to his name and to certain official designations or positions e.g. Mr. Chairman. Likewise, Mrs. or Ms is a title of honour for a woman. Regardless of other titles somebody possesses, the person can still be addressed as Mr. or Mrs without any disparaging feeling. In a place like America, the president is officially regarded as Mr. President but you dare not add the Mr. to the title of our President in order to save yourself of the Abuja wrath, the president must be introduced as His Excellency President Whoever.
A title, according to the American heritage dictionary of the English language, is a formal designation attached to the name of a person or family by virtue of office, rank, hereditary privilege, noble birth, or attainment or used as a mark of respect. A title can be a prefix or a suffix or in some cases embedded in between the names. Prefix titles are pre-nominal letters which are placed before the name of a person as distinct from a suffix titles which are post-nominal placed after the name. A prefix is used in direct address as in Mr., Dr., Chief, Alhaji, Barrister, etc while a suffix is used more in descriptive form and placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, award or honour. An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters. The order in which these are listed after a name is based on the order of precedence and category of the order. Examples include CEO, SAN, CFR, PhD, MBA, ACCA, retired General, former Senator, Editor in Chief, Commander in Chief, MP etc.
A title can be permanent or temporary. Funny enough most temporary titles have been made permanent in Nigeria. A former senator wants to be eternally addressed as senator. A former legislator will never give up the title of honourable and all of retired generals still bear their formal titles. A permanent title can be relevant throughout one’s lifetime after attaining it while a temporary title may be relevant only for a certain period of time.
A permanent title is a title attained by virtue of one’s gender as in Mr. or Mrs., hereditary privilege or noble birth as in Chief, Prince or Princess, Eze, King, Emir, Obi, Oba or a permanently attainment such as in Pastor, Imam or Alhaji (which is a term of respect used to address a Muslim who has completed one of the Five Pillars of Islam by going on the Hajj, or religious pilgrimage to Mecca). A woman who has completed the pilgrimage is addressed as Alhaja. Whoever has any of these titles is very unlikely to lose the title rather may acquire further titles. A prince may eventually become a king. Titles resulting from academic and professional qualifications are other forms of permanent title as in Eng, Arch, Barrister and Dr. which is usually used in calling a medical doctors or somebody who has doctorate degree in any other field.
Save for Dr, almost all other professional titles are regarded as workplace titles which are officially applicable in the workplace and related environment. Such titles like Engineer, Justice, Architect and Barrister are used in addressing people at the workplace. Outside the workplace, they are more commonly used in describing people. As demonstrated in Scene 1 of the conversation above, at the place of work, somebody can be called Eng. Nwachukwu while outside the workplace, he is called Mr. Nwachukwu, an engineer but an average Nigerian wants to be addressed everywhere he/she goes with the professional title especially those in the professions regarded as noble. No wonder one hears people addressed as Banker Jide, Accountant Emeka, Surveyor Ahmed, Manager Bala, Pharmacist James, Journalist Segun and other inconceivable Nigerian made titles. The earned degrees and qualification and other awarded titles that suffixed a name can also be permanent. Titles like BSc, MSc, MBA, AMNIM, ACA, FCCA, SAN, LL.D, MON, CFR, GCON, RIP etc. These titles always come behind a name. They may or may not be written after a name. In the Western world, these titles are written only when necessary.
On the other hand, temporary titles are earned by virtue of one’s official position, rank, appointment or election and as soon as somebody seizes to be in the position, the titles should seize to exist. It can only exist in a descriptive way referring to the fact that the person once occupied the position. Titles like President, Governor, Senator, Chairman, Honourable, Professor, Bishop, General Overseer, Chief Imam, CEO, COO, CFO, Director, Chief Engineer, Chief Accountant, Attorney General, Minister, Commissioner, General, Brigadier, Colonel, Major, and IG are in this category. Once the title stops to be relevant, all salutation and protocols associated with the position and titles should automatically end. As seen in scene 2, Mr. A. Bello shouldn’t have been addressed as Ambassador A. Bello. It would have been right to say Mr. A. Bello, a former Ambassador. Because we are a people who would not let go of old titles, we believe once a senator is always a senator and most be addressed forever as one, once a general is always a general. Little wonder some governors and ministers are still addressed with the title of senator even after many years of being absent from the Senate. Hilary Clinton will never again be called Sen. Clinton unless she goes back to the Senate rather she can be addressed as Mrs. Clinton, a former senator. All our retired generals still clutch the title like General (rtd) Bala instead of Mr. Bala, a retired General as people like Mr. Collin Powell, a retired US Army General does.
Our desire for titles knows no bound as our people keep the endless invention growing and turning out ‘combined honours’ even when the combinations are senseless. I used to think that this craze about titles are a way of making up for some deficiencies of the protagonist until I found that those who have really achieved in life and who should know much about this are also into it. It is a rat race thing and we know that whoever wins in a rat race still remains a rat. How do you explain the official title of most company heads being referred to as CEO/MD? Is Chief Executive Officer not the same thing as Managing Director? Is this not a tautology? This combination is only meaningful in a company with subsidiaries like the consolidated banks where an individual is the Managing Director of the parent company as well as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the consolidated group which is directly the same as CEO. Virtually all our banks consciously duplicate their helmsmen’s title as CEO/GMD which makes no sense.
The yearning propensity for titles other than Mr. has created a surge in the number of people going on yearly pilgrimage to the holy lands. While most people do out of genuine desire to fulfil the requirement of the tenets of their faith, some are motivated by the new attributable title and status or class. As the Moslem become Alhaji and Alhaja, some Christians who would not want to be outdone also suffixed their names with JP meaning Jerusalem Pilgrim. Funny as it may be, I have read the profile of somebody being referred to as 3 times Alhaji to show he has gone to Mecca 3 times. The quest for titles has created a boom business for our traditional rulers who are flooded with the request of people seeking honorary chieftaincy title. The honorary title used to be offered by the rulers as rewards to well meaning and deserving indigenes who have or are expected to contribute positively to the community but it is now being commercialized. Once you have the price, you will take the prize. The very smart ones don’t even wait to be awarded the titles by any ruler, they fabricate titles and award them to themselves. I have an uncle who became a chief overnight. These titles are being bastardized as some many ‘unchiefly’ people of questionable personality are becoming chiefs by the day. The same thing can be said of honorary doctorate degree where money plays a major role especially in the private universities. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can now buy such titles in the country and also with a few thousands of dollars same can be obtained from a private university in the US or India.
The way people want to outdo one another with titles reminds me of 3 popular Yoruba Fuji musicians in the 70’s and 80’s when the started the title competition. When one became an Alhaji, the others went to Mecca to equal him, when one added Chief, others also went for chieftaincy titles, then one called himself Brigadier General, another called himself full General and the third called himself Marshall meaning Field Marshal and then one went for honorary doctorate to add Dr. to his already vast collection, then another added Professor to his already overblown collection and it went on like that until one of them became a king without a territory.
After acquiring these titles, you’ll see my fellow countrymen displaying their stuff. A single man can combine about 4 or 5 or more titles. A typical Nigerian will be elated to be introduced, addressed or write his own title profile as Honourable Alhaji Chief Dr. Musa Taiwo PhD, AMNIM, MON & CEO/MD. It sounds incredible but take your time to see business cards of some of your friends to understand what I’m writing. Some are not done with common titles anymore and the invent theirs. It is not uncommon to hear titles like High Chief, Otunba, Ozo, Eze, Eze Ego, King (without Kingdom), Yeye meaning mother, Balogun, Iyalode, Akobi, Special Adviser, Consultant, Diplomat, Chief Press Officer, Commissioner etc.
This title wave has not spared the religious circles. It has blown into the Churches and Mosque to the extent that some clergies take offences if their full titles are not precisely mentioned in introducing them to the podium to deliver God's message. The title of Pastor is not even trendy to many anymore. Titles like Reverend, Apostle, Bishop, General Overseer - GO, President etc are more preferred and mostly pastors have the unofficial title of Daddy and their wives are usually Mummy. In some extreme cases, the daddy is qualified such as Big Daddy to differentiate the office and the anointing or sometimes combined with the official title as in Daddy GO. This goes for other officers who want accurate appellation as in Deacon(ess), Elder, Choirmaster etc. The story is the same in the Islamic circle as Chief Imam will never settle for Imam and all titles must be completely spelt out.
In the political circle, the more dishonourable the Legislators become, the more they crave to be called Honourable, the more mediocre the Executives are, the more they lust for His Excellency, the more unchiefly they become, the more they long to be called Chiefs. The title must be extended to their family members as well. The Governor’s wife become the First Lady of the State (as seen in scene 3 of the conversation above) while the local government Chairman’s wife is the First Lady at the local government level as Councillor’s wife is FL at the council level. All States’ First ladies have offices in the State government secretariat with full staff and official protocols notwithstanding that our Constitution recognizes only the national First Lady. All first lady offices at the state level are illegal and an abuse of office by government supporting the office.
Even with this title craze, I am still proud to be Mr. R.K. Oteniya.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya ([email protected]) is the founder and the administrator of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
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