I should fear those that dance before me now would one day stamp upon me: it has been done; men shut their doors against a setting sun – Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens. I:II.

Recession, like every adversity in life, has some side benefits, including knowing true friends from fake ones, apart from bringing one into contacts with strange bedfellows. A two-hour interaction with an ailing professor recently, provided opportunity for some deeper insight into what being out of power can mean in Nigeria. When two other visiting professors came around, there began some honest discussions concerning leaving office unceremoniously.
It would be needful to bring up the issue that the conditions of many senior citizens are quite pathetic, after several years of diligent and patriotic services to the nation. Let it not be presumed that all retired senior civil servants live in affluent comfort. Ranging from ailing health, to the shift and changing mood of fortune, there are many retirees whose conditions are really pathetic.
Among the issues discussed by the university dons visiting their ailing colleague, was the changing fortunes of the nation. From matters concerning justice and fairness in disengagement from service, the informal discussions ended with Timon of Athens.
Why the issue of Timon of Athens came up was because one professor told a tale of how those who fall from power are usually deserted by fawning friends and old flatters. For the benefit of readers who are not familiar with the play, Timon of Athens was a generous, rich man who was brought low by fortune. When he needed help, those who benefited from his generosity and flattered him when he was wealthy turned their back on him. Banished from the city of Athens, he lived and died in a cave, where he discovered and dug up gold. His last words were: “what a god is gold, that he is worshipped in a baser temple than where swine feed!”
From fallen civil servants, to politicians, the story is always that: “Greatness, once fallen out with fortune, must fall out with men too”. However, apart from the fact that some falls are the means to rise higher and happier, there are several reasons why men shut their doors against a setting sun.
There was a case of a final-year undergraduate student who was dismissed from a university over an alleged examination malpractice; thanks to an “iron-lady” professor. After eight years and in a foreign country, destiny brought two of them together again in circumstances which reminded the professor that power is transient, just as no condition is permanent. Although the professor, who died soon after, was penitent, she took with her a lasting lesson. There is no doubt that this is just one out of several stories of similar nature. Some play god when in power.
Recession, like the changing moods of fortune, is an idiom whose message can give comfort to the meek and an admonition to bullies. Studies in the dynamics of recession support the view that life is characterized by ups and downs. Only wise people can dance to the riddles and idioms of life. It is also needful to add the lesson that there are usually underlying causes to every event or experience, since nothing happens by accident.
A long time ago, Plato gave an admonition saying: “Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore, avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity”. There are some people who throw their weight about and step on many toes when they are in power, such that when they are no longer there they find it difficult to interact with those they had injured in the past. It is also during such turning points that mean and ill-disposed persons find it fit to throw more stones on fallen adversaries.
In spite of everything, there are rich and powerful people who are quite generous and give help to the needy without expecting any reward or gratitude. There are also others who can be mean, using their wealth and apparent generosity to keep others in perpetual bondage. There have been stories of some politicians who went back to recipients of their “gifts” to retrieve them, on the ground that they did not vote for them. Some money-bags give such gifts to religious organizations as “sacrifices”.
One of the idioms which recession conveys is the fact that there is a law of reciprocity, which ensures that rewards and penalties are dispensed with accurate justice, according to how everyone deserves. Similarly, things done in hiding and under the cover and protection of power, return their consequences to the originators at the most appropriate time and circumstances. With economic recession, as it affects a nation, it is usually associated with past profligacies and faulty policies. This demands that any undertaking should bear the stamp of justice if it is not to result in protests.
It is needful to end this article with the idiom raised by one of the visiting professors, namely, that: “men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water”. The old colleague who they visited and who had been on a wheel-chair for the past several years, was almost in tears as his old friends set out to leave. There is a need to review conditions of pensions of lecturers who retired prior to 2008. Agreement which ASUU had with Federal Government was implemented with effect from 2011, leaving out those who retired earlier. Do we blame civil servants who help themselves in various clever ways when in service? Just move around and see the conditions of diligent and honest ones who retired with no investments!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

Bright Amirize