The Father and Son affinity
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
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There is a general saying in
the local parlance that states that, “an innocent child who doesn’t know the
spouse of his/her cheating mother, would call him uncle.”
Specifically, the word uncle
means “the brother of your father or mother; the husband of your aunt or
rather, a word used by children basically with a first name attached to address
a man who is a close friend of their parent.” Based on the above definition,
anything short of this, a different word should be used. How easy to say if you
ask me.
Back home, as tutored, it was
insulting when my siblings and I addressed a close elder relative to my mum
(more like a sister to my mum) as aunty. To let sleeping dogs lie, we came to a
compromise of calling her Big Aunt. On the contrary, an uncle of mine was faced
with the same challenge when the same Big Aunt asked his kids to call her
grandma, this my uncle obliged but had a different view years after when his
kids all grown, realised they had three grandparents unlike their colleagues in
school who had just two. He got tongue tied and had to do some explanations
when his kids challenged him on the, “My aunt in school said this and said
that” questioning.
It is in the light of this
that I have found out that we as Nigerians take delight in the use of affinity
words to persons all in the radiance of emphasizing our closeness to such
individuals.
It would be recalled that a fortnight ago,
President Goodluck Jonathan branched (using his words) the residence of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo hilltop residence at Oke Mosan in Abeokuta where he
stated that, “Obasanjo is my father and I am his son”.
In the same light, 55years old
Nigerians own First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, while reacting to the cold
war between her and 48years old Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Ameachi, at the
Presidential Villa, when she received members of the Niger Delta Bishops
Forum/South South Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the same week her
husband visited the former President, said, “Amaechi is my son”.
The above inference was also
used by 69 years old Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, to Governor Ameachi
while reacting to the outcome of the Nigerian Governors Forum election. Jang
had, while laying emphasis on the age difference between him and Ameachi, said,
“Going by my age, am old enough to be Ameachi’s father.”
Now, if we decide to do some
little arithmetic, we would discover that, while former President Obasanjo is 76,
President Jonathan is 55 thereby creating a 21years age difference between them.
The same applies to Governor Jang who is older to Ameachi with the same age
bracket of 21. But for Mrs. Jonathan, she is older to her “son” Ameachi with
7years. On a lighter note, based on the inference by the First lady, one may be
forced to assert that though the Senate is in 2013 making moves to amend Section 29 (a) of the proposed constitutional
amendment stipulating that a woman shall qualify for marriage only when
she attains 18 years, the act has been in practice in the country as far back
as 1958 when the First Lady was born.
Aside the name calling with
family inclined affinity, majority of people would concur with me that we as Nigerians
have always fancied the affinity to persons especially when such persons are
financially or politically placed to fan our ego amongst our contemporaries.
It is based on the above that
clergies now as against being simply identified by who they are now, preferred
to be addressed with strings of titles in the beginning of their name and at
the end as well.
In as much as we try to
portray ourselves superior over our fellow man with numerous titles or try to
claim a purported relationship to someone,
our personality of being an individual remains and like Mario Puzo would
say, “You are who you are and the world is what it is.”
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