Any activity undertaken by a human being, with monetary and material gains as primary motive or impetus, is one form which a mercenary mentality can take. Like the dangling of a promise of a reward of N36 million for any Nigerian scientist or medical researcher able to find a cure for Coronavirus, mercenaries do things for money, not conviction. Such mind-set born of a worldwide movement into deeper materialism, has some mechanism bearing some observable trends. It’s the opposite of patriotism.
In the history of education in Nigeria, during the colonial era, there was a policy of “Payment by Result”, whereby schools with impressive results received grants from government. How such examination results came about would not be an issue of concern, but what mattered was the “impressive” nature which was the determinant of award of grants. Good results, good grants!
The mechanism of mercenary mentality went to work to craft subtle means of getting impressive school results. School heads and teachers assisted pupils to pass examinations in “flying colours”. It took a long time, after much harm had been done, before obtuse policy makers could figure out that money is a good soldier. Sanctimonious people would talk of examination malpractices but would not search deeper for the causes.
In the university system there is a policy of “publish-or-perish”, whereby promotions of lecturers depend on articles published in “learned” journals, local and international. Like the history of the South Sea Bubble or the Scramble for Africa, humans long for where they can make maximum gain but with minimal investment. The job of teaching demands commitment to the learner as professional priority. Such commitment derives from personal conviction in the worthwhileness of the job and the task involved.
Mechanism of the mercenary mentality went to work to place fame and personal gains in the forefront and commitment to the learner as an unimportant issue. We do not need a microscope to see the result. Who would not want to become a professor at the quickest possible time, if all it would take is to have publications and good rapport with appropriate god-fathers? From fixing of names in other peoples’ works, to several clever tactics, what do we not find in the universities in a hypocritical rat-race to excel?
“The higher you go, the cooler it becomes” is an old maxim which describes the philosophy of the mercenary mentality. To struggle from below is to take the risk of encountering hustlers and predators and so, why not jump to the top by any means, hook or crook? Once at the top, you can afford to pontificate and point out lazy and unpatriotic people.
Would you not want to retire at 70, even when you are 80, with your full salary, benefits and possibly acquire any choice government asset in your custody? To “board last flight” is to run the risk of being left out in grabbing the largesse that Nigeria offers to those in the fore-front. This is why there is hustling, horse trading, rat race, do-or-die affair, etc.
The up-coming version in the mechanism of the mercenary mentality was provided recently by an elder statesman and retired military general, Theophilus Danjuma. Listen to him: “The Nigerian Army under Burutai is working with President Buhari to grab lands from indigenous Nigerian owners and give it to Fulanis from West Africa and turn indigenous Nigerian people and land to modern-day Fulani colony”. Danjuma is not alone in raising this alarm, because, another retired general said so before.
Anyone who had read The Tide newspaper of Friday, February 21, 2020, would recall the scary headline: “Rise Up Against Herdsmen, Danjuma Tells Nigerians”. Ordinary Nigerians battling to find some food for their empty stomachs may not be interested to hear that “Miyetti Allah determines what happens in Presidency” or about the “Army working with Buhari to grab lands, gives same to Fulanis”. Such prospects are scary enough to contemplate.
Mercenaries are not only soldiers fighting a war they know nothing about, but solely for the sake of money and property to loot. Mercenaries are also those who participate in implementation of conspiracies because of ignorance, vengeance, envy or spite, even if they turn around later to shed crocodile tears. For example, we are being told that “the Northern Elders who in 2015 believed that General Buhari had come to redeem the North, have now turned against the President”.
In Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, we have an illustration of how ambitious Antonio usurped the throne of his brother, Prospero, in collaboration with Alonso, King of Naples who was ill-disposed towards Prospero. Nigerian politicians often see situations better when they have left office, but power remains an ally they rarely forego.
The mechanism of mercenary mentality has an operational system which is built in the mind, with fabrics drawn from intellectual sophistry. No one has disproved the fact that humans are wolves and predators. They can blow hot and cold, depending on where their gain lies, such that the culture of service without reward as a motivator is rare to find. Humans cry wolf when their interest are threatened, but also become wolves when there are booties to share, including land grabbing. You have to be a macho-man to survive.

By: Bright Amirize

Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.