Reflection on the Nigerian presidential election

Nigeria held a presidential election on March 28, 2015. Most Igbos supported the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan.

However, to those with eyes to see the moment Hausas and Yorubas formed an alliance it was obvious that Mohammadu Buhari was likely to win the Northern and Western states hence win the election.

I predicted that Buhari would win 22 states which are exactly how many states he won. I wrote that he would probably lose Ekite and Ondo in the West but make that up by winning two states in the South East, perhaps Imo and Abia.

It was clear to me that Buhari was going to win the election but most Igbos did not see it that way. Instead of looking at reality as it is they believed in fantasy; their fantasy told them that Jonathan could lose the North and West and still win the election.

How he was supposed to do that escaped logical understanding; apparently, many Igbos were not paying attention to empiricism but merely banked on their wishes.

Many Igbos seem to lack the capacity to learn from their past mistakes; they seem to believe that they are always right and that it is other people who are always wrong; they want other people to change. That way they keep doing what they have always done that gave them negative results but now receive positive results.

Igbos want other Nigerians to change their behaviors while they, Igbos retain their past behavior patterns and receive different results.

Of course, other Nigerians are not going to change to please Igbos; Igbos would keep behaving as they did in the past and keep receiving the type of negative results they received in the past. They are thus losers, as all immature persons are.

I see Igbos behave as they do; I observe them and come to understand their self-defeating behavior patterns and call attention to them.

I know that I cannot change them; my function is not to change them but merely to point out their refusal to change and their tendency to persist in doing stupid things over and over, again, doubling down in doing what would bring them defeat.

I point out their issues but they see me as persecuting them and therefore do not like me. They defend against what they see as my persecution of them by attacking me; many of them (like the monkey in Canada who probably does janitorial job while attaching edu to his email address) are always looking for an opportunity to attack me and say nasty things about me (and I retaliate by pointing out their even more sordid behaviors).

DELUSION IS WISHING THAT ONES WISHES IS TRUE
If you bank on your wishes alone but not on external phenomenon, as it is, you are bound to become delusional.

Delusion disorder is belief in what you want to be true that is not true in the empirical world as true.

Igbos wished that their man, Jonathan would win the election. They stuck to their wishes in a rigid and inflexible manner and from so doing refused to pay attention to social reality (the powerful alliance of Hausas and Yorubas) staring them in the face.

IGBOS BELIEF IN THEIR SPECIALNESS
Generally, Igbos wish that they are special and indeed superior to other people. In reality they are of course not special; their wishes are silly, for all human beings are the same and coequal. Nevertheless, many Igbos believe that their wish for superiority is the truth thus they masquerade around as superior persons (they are always citing their supposed superior achievements Vis a Vis other Nigerians as evidence of their specialness and superiority to Nigerians).

In delusion disorder one wishes to seem special and superior to other people but one in fact is not so but one believes in ones wish so much so that one acts as if it is true hence one is deluded, for one is no longer operating in the world of reality where all people are the same and coequal.

THE DELUDED PERSON SEES WHOEVER TELLS HIM THAT HE IS NOT SPECIAL AS HIS MORTAL ENEMY
If you tell the deluded person that he is not an exalted person, that he is not special and superior to other persons he feels as if you are de-exalting him; he literally feels that you have attacked him and tried to kill his special self; he feels angry at you and attacks you; he wants to kill you or make you go away so that he lives in his delusion of specialness.

The deluded person sees the person asking him to give up his delusion of specialness as his implacable enemy and attack him.

Deluded persons want to change the reality of human equality and make it what they want it to become, prove their specialness.

Deluded racist whites want to believe that they are superior to black folks; to prove that their delusion is true they come up with what seems to them evidence of their superiority, such as their contributions to science and technology and their so-called high intelligence; they actually believe that most black people are dumb!

It is impossible for one human being to be superior to others regardless of his contribution to science and technology.

Deluded persons, be they racist white folks or tribalist Igbos, are fighting reality; those who fight reality always lose.

If you made a mistake you must man-up and accept it and correct it; you should not double down trying to make it seem that you did not make a mistake.

You do not deceive other people by denying your past mistakes; you only deceive yourself. Moreover, by not accepting that you made a mistake you would not learn from it and seek corrective action plans and most likely would continue making similar mistakes and receiving the types of results you received in the past while of course expecting different results.

Igbos made a mistake in supporting Jonathan and his PDP but instead of accepting that they made a mistake many of them are rationalizing their voting for the clueless one; they try to persuade folks that they did the right thing. They made a mistake and will receive consequences for their mistakes (less rewards from the Nigerian state led by APC).

In general, Igbos made a mistake in pursuing specialness and superiority and must correct that mistake by giving up the desire for special and superior self and accept our equality and sameness; but instead of accepting this fact, like the racist white they struggle to prove that their group is superior to other groups by citing their so-called phantom accomplishments and the lack of accomplishment of their neighbors.

THOSE WHO PURSUE SUPERIORITY ARE ALWAYS WRONG

Igbos are almost always wrong; they are wrong because they believe in their specialness and behave from that false premise; because they are wrong they always lose and will always lose; they will always lose for as long as they wish to seem superior to other Nigerians, and people in general.

The mad man is the person who wishes that he is better than other people and since he is not so and other people do not accept his superiority he leaves other people and lives in his own separate world; he walks the world alone and or with those who share the same delusion of specialness with him.

Igbos walk with other Igbos and in their world share their delusion of specialness; they are unable to walk with other Nigerians/people because they want to seem better than they are. Naturally, other Nigerians leave them alone and they live their superiority in their fantasy world not in the real world where all human being are equal.

Igbos have to learn to accept the truth of human equality and give up their wished for sense of specialness. As long as they believe in their specialness they are losers although they do not know it.

THE PERMANENT CURE FOR DELUSION IS TO HAVE NO SEPARATED SELF IN BODY
The ultimate cure for delusion disorder is to have no separated self at all. If one really want to overcome delusion disorder one must jettison ones attachment to the separated self-housed in body. If one did that, however, one would die to the awareness of living in body and regain the awareness that one is part of one shared self and one shared mind. But since that is impossible to have while living in the world of separation we live in (except occasionally in meditative state) the most that one can do is retain one’s self concept and self-image but purify it with love for all people.

PURIFICATION OF THE EGO SELF AS PARTIAL CURE OF DELUSION DISORDER
Keep your sense of having a separated self, a delusion since in reality we all share one unified self, but now use your separated self and its body to love all people. If you love all people you approximate reality.

In Helen Schucman (A course in miracles) poetic terms, you are now at the gate of heaven but not in heaven since you still have a separated self.

In heaven there is no separated self; there is only one formless self (the nature of which none of us in the world of separated self can understand and need not speculate on). Helen Schuman said that we can retain our separated self, the deluded self and allow the Holy Spirit (love and forgiveness given human form) to guide us.

Here, I am not interested in metaphysics; all I need to say is that one should see all people as one with one and love all of them; one should try to help all of us correct our unloving behaviors by teaching us love by modeling love for all of us. If you love all people you would experience peace and happiness. Peace and joy is enough for me.

EASTER IS THE DAY ONE GIVES UP THE DELUDED SELF AND ACCEPTS THE HUMBLE SELF
Today is Easter Sunday. On this date Christians believe that their lord and savior who had been crucified two days earlier (Friday to Sunday is two, not three days) rose from death. Clearly, the idea of resurrection from death is metaphoric.

What they are actually saying is that on this day a man called Emmanuel Ben Joseph died to identification with his ego and embraced his real self, the shared son of God. Jesus jettisoned the separated self and accepted that he is one with all people and with their creator, God.

Christ is the symbol of any human being who gives up attachment to the separated self and embraces the unified self.

Easter is the day one decides to give up ones identification with the deluded, separated ego self in body and purify it by seeing one’s self as one with all people and one with our creator God, and loves all people.

Easter is any day that one chooses to heal ones delusion disorder by giving up belief in ones separated powerful self and accepting our humble unified self; humble because it accepts oneness with all people and accepts that a higher power, God created it and it did not create itself.

The new self, a healed self, the Christ self, or in my terms, the unified self is a loving self.

I have written on the meaning of Easter Sunday in the past and need not repeat myself here.

Easter Sunday,

Ozodi Osuji