By Osabenyi Onefeli
Double High Chief, Rt. Hon., Senator, Dr, Sir, Pharm., Arch., Prof., Amb., Brig. Gen. Barr. Osabenyi Onefeli, (rtd) pss, pcs, JP, CON, MON, B.Sc., M.Sc., LLM, PhD; the Ochiligwe 1 of Onicha-Ukwuani, the Ochiosa 1of Utagba-Uno, the Ekeneke of Amai Kingdom, the Odogwu of Umutu, the Onotu-Ukwu of Ukwuani, the Etim of Obetim-Uno, the Agbalala1 of Utagba-Ogbe. In sane climes this can be seen as total madness. It sounds crazy and a brazen demonstration of insanity. But in our environment, it’s the norm, it’s the picture of a great achiever. A man who has distinguished himself in all human endeavours. A man that should be held in high esteem, a man that must be worshipped and adored.
Generally, there are four simple basic rules guiding titles and they’re not rocket science. One, order of seniority. For instance, if you’re a major in the Nigerian Army, and you’re promoted to Lt. Col., you drop the lower rank and you go with the higher one. There’s no point for you to be going about as Capt., Maj., Lt. Col. ABC. In the same manner, if you’re an academic doctor, and now you have become a professor, you don’t need to be writing Dr, Prof. XYZ.
Two, the love of one’s profession. You are Double High Chief, Rt. Hon., Senator, Dr, Lt. Col. ABC. Here you are not gauging whether senator or double high chief is higher than Dr, but for the love you attach to your profession as a medical doctor, you decide to go with the title Dr ABC. The other man, for the love he has for his profession as a soldier, will decide to drop every other title and go with Lt. Col. XYZ.
Three, order of preference. You’re a Double High Chief, Rt. Hon., Senator, Dr, Amb. Here is another situation where seniority doesn’t apply. This is just like the way you married your wife. You looked at the whole universe, you saw all the beautiful girls around and you decided to pick one and made her your wife because you preferred her to the rest. In like manner, you look at all the titles you have acquired and decide to drop them and only go as Senator Ojodume because you prefer it to the rest.
Number four is last but not least. This is the crux of the matter. This is where Nigerians have the greatest problem. It’s easier not for a camel, but two camels, to pass through the eye of a needle than a Nigerian to do number four. Here almost all Nigerians are culprits. This is a situation where you are Double High Chief, Rt. Hon., Senator, Dr, Amb., Pharm., Barr. Prof., Sir Okekonum Esq., but you carry all the titles put them in a box, padlock it, throw away the key and simply go about as Mr Osabenyi Onefeli. How many Nigerians can do this? Very few, if any. This is the norm in civilized environment where people don’t attach much importance to titles as we do here.
That’s why we’ve people like Mr Jimmy Carter, Mr George Bush, Mr Bill Clinton, Mr Bill Gates, Mr Warren Buffett, Mr Tony Blair. If these people were Nigerians, they would never answer Mr. They would look for big titles and attach to their names. Somebody like Bill Clinton can easily answer Lawyer, ex-Gov Bill Clinton. But that’s not gigantic enough, so, his church can make him a deacon and an elder, then he can go with titles like: Lawyer, ex-Gov, Deacon, Elder, Sir Bill Clinton. Let’s come nearer home, Mr Kofi Annan, the former UN General-Secretary, if he were a Nigerian would he answer Mr? Of course, not at all. His village would award him chieftaincy titles, his wife village will also award him chieftaincy titles. His church will make him a deacon and an elder. A university in Ghana would award him honorary degree. So, he can end up as Double High Chief, Dr, Deacon, Elder Scribe Kofi Annan.
The only title with two letters Nigerians love to answer is Dr. But Mr, no, they abhor it, they loathe it. They see it as belittling and not befitting. To them ‘mr’ is for beginners, non-achievers and village headmasters. To them ‘mr’ is insulting, it’s for the man in the street, not for big guns like them. Because of all these they create all kinds of avenues to carve out titles, titles that are not titles in the real sense of it, in a desperate bid to escape being addressed as ‘mr’. They never know that ‘mr’ is a dignified title all over the world except in Nigeria, but unfortunately, they end up masquerading bogus titles. Many things people are parading today are not titles. Is Amb. a title? No. Is diplomat a title? No. Is comrade a title? No.
Let me state here clearly that not all courses you study in tertiary institutions are titles that you attach to your names. Pharm, Arch., Surveyor, Lawyer, Nurse, Engr. etc are not titles, let’s not deceive ourselves. The way we’re going, we’ll soon get to the point where if you study history, you become Hist. Ossai; you study geography, you become Geogra. Enudi; you study Geology, you become Geo. Okonye; you study Agricultural science, you become Agric. or Farm Ogwu. Then at a stage it becomes difficult to differentiate your tittles from your names. For instance, a man that studies fishery and becomes Fish John James or a woman that studies education and becomes Edu Betta Chinwe, PhD. Which one is her name, which one is her title? Let me also add, that because you’re a PhD holder doesn’t necessarily mean that anywhere you write your name you must put PhD in front of it.
I repeat, most of the things flying around are not titles. In the second republic, when Shagari was our president, there was a lady in his government, a Yoruba by tribe and a Moslem. That lady refused to be addressed as an alhaja, according to her alhaji / alhaja meant stranger and she couldn’t be a stranger in her own home. When I googled alhaji, it confirmed that alhaji / alhaja means stranger. While alhaji means male stranger, alhaja means female stranger. Now see how google defines alhaji: ‘(In West Africa) a Muslim who has been to Mecca as a pilgrim (often used as a title).’ This means there are some parts of the world, you hardly find alhaji / alhaja, that doesn’t mean they’re no Muslims there, it doesn’t mean they have not gone to Mecca, what it means is they don’t attach the kind of importance, we attach to titles in this part of the world. Google saying in West Africa is a bit of generalization, it would have simply say in Nigeria, because other WA countries don’t attach importance to titles as we do in Nigeria. This is not a familiar terrain, I’m only rehearsing what the Muslim lady said, so let me leave it there.
Now, we move to another title, ‘chief’. ‘Chief’ is not a Nigerian word, it’s an English word. I’ve been living in the cities for decades, surprisingly, I’ve never seen any white man attaching ‘chief’ to his name as a title. To heighten my fear the more, the Yoruba have awarded chieftaincy titles to many white people in their domain, but instead of these white people going about as Chief Stone Wood or Chief (Mrs) Plank Wood, they continue with Mr Stone Wood and Mrs Plank Wood. The question is, is ‘chief’ a title, if yes, why is it that the white people the word originated from don’t attach it to their names?
Chief as a noun means a leader or ruler of the people or clan, a headman. The chief of the village. But this doesn’t mean that the chief of the village should be parading himself as Chief Uti. As adjective: the most important, the main. Eg: The chief occupation of Ukwuani people is agriculture. The chief concern of the minister of education is to provide quality education to every Nigerian child. Let’s see other areas where ‘chief’ is used: chief of army staff, chief of staff, police chief, chief medical director, commander-in-chief, editor-in-chief, chief engineer. If you look at all the instances, there’s no place ‘chief’ is used as a title. So, chief engineer should not be going about with the appellation Chief, Engr. Odogwu, rather it should be the chief engineer of AZ PLC, Mr Odogwu …
Now, we move to the Christendom and it would surprise you that almost all the titles flying in that space are not titles after all. Elder, deacon, deaconess are not titles and nobody attached them to their names in the Bible. Elijah a powerful man of God who locked heaven and put the key in his pocket and declared: ‘there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my words,’ and heaven established it. Elijah that confronted four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the groves and defeated them, Elijah who didn’t see death, but was taken to heaven alive, never paraded himself as Prophet Elijah. When Elijah met Obadiah, he said, ‘go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.’ He didn’t say tell thy lord Prophet Elijah is here. What we see in the Bible is Elijah the prophet, which is not a title. The Bible simply introduced him as, Elijah the Tishbite.
Elisha, the man whom the double portion of Elijah fell upon, and he did outstanding miracles, after his death, when his bones came in contact with a dead man, that man came back to life. The Bible simply called him Elisha, the prophet, not Prophet Elisha as a title. Joshua declared: ‘Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,’ and they obeyed him and stood still. He had not titles. He was just going as Joshua the son of Nun. What of prophetess? Nobody has that appellation to her name in the Bible. What we have are Miriam the prophetess, Huldah the prophetess, not Prophetess Miriam as a title. Philip, the evangelist, not Evangelist Philip. His Grace, His Holiness, Archbishop are not in the Bible.
The word ‘pastor’ appears in the Bible nine times but there’s no place it’s used as a title. Now assuming we allow pastors to go with the title pastor attached to their names as a mark of respect, do you know that wouldn’t be enough for them? They would go as far as The Most Rt. Rev. Pastor, Prophet, Apostle, Evang. Dr John Johnson. The word ‘revere’ appears once in the Bible (Psalm111:9) and it refers to the Almighty God, if God, the Creator of the universe is just ordinary Revere, and the finite, mortal man he’s created is The Most Rt. Rev, that means that man is higher than God Almighty. A man of God is supposed to be humble. Display of titles is not the acme of humility, rather, it’s the acme of arrogance and pride.
Titles are not ascribed to human beings in the Bible. The only personality that titles are ascribed to is the Almighty God. Another entity that titles are ascribed to is Jesus the Christ, despite that, more often you see him introducing Himself as the Son of man. He said,’ l am meek and lowly in heart.’ The people that display titles are the Scribes and Pharisees. They’re the ones that go to the market places to be called Rabbi. But Jesus warns his disciples not to toe that path. That’s why in the New Testament there’s no character with titles. ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…’ Rom1:1. ‘Jude the servant of Jesus Christ …’ Jude1:1. ‘James the servant of God …’ James 1:1. They’re servants, servants don’t display titles, they display humility, like their master Jesus Christ.
Let’s round off with 1 Timothy 3:1 ‘This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.’ He didn’t say if a man desire the office of archbishop, because archbishop is not in the Bible. He didn’t say if a man desire the title of a bishop, because bishop is not a title. Bishop, prophet, apostle, prophetess, pastor etc are not titles but offices.
I remain Mr Osabenyi Onefeli.