Do you suffer from 'comparisonitisis'?

ONE of the most debilitating diseases of the modern world is called "Comparisonitisis" - The tendency to measure one's worth by comparing oneself to other people.

You surely will not find this illness listed in any of the standard medical text books or encyclopedia, nor will you find it in your company's disability or health insurance or worker's compensation programme to reimburse you for it.

But make no mistake about this: Comparisonitisis is a scourge as widespread and destructive as any physical or emotional malady known today.

Like most ailments, it cuts across all walks of life. It is not a respecter of persons, colour or status. Bankers, lecturers, pastors and priests, politicians, soldiers, police, civil servants, cleaners, palm wine tappers and business moguls, all suffer from it.

The indication of this illness starts with finding ways to look down on others and to think highly of yourself because you enjoy greater abilities, intelligence,status, or wealth than they? For example, some lecturers believe that they are the ones too qualified for professorship and such things.Professors talking down on others because they feel they are more endowed than them.Nothing you do will please sufferers of this decease!

It shows up also differently by making you,irrespective of your status,position and wealth, look down on yourself, because you feel you are not as capable, smart,powerful, rich or handsome, beautiful or endowed as others? The full manifestation of this ailment is in envy and hatred.

Hatred is a very powerful emotional force.The most destructive force in man, the force of hatred takes it first root from Comparisonitisis! It is the basis for the beginning of most of the evil in society like racism, religious violence, genocides, ethnic cleansing, wars,robbery, cultism, and kidnapping, and all these are the fruits of this sickness.

When we rig elections, it says: "We are more important than the electorate, we are richer, better endowed to rule whether they want us or not".

When we fight back, by killing and destruction, pulling down everything because we are not satisfied, or we feel cheated out, it says: "They are better than us, if we leave them, they will be much better, so we reduce them, to our level, and should they resist, kill them, because that is what they deserve".When we steal the peoples commonwealth, or the old people's money from pension funds, it says: "Don't mind those people, if I stay here and don't steal, when I come out they will call me a fool; better steal and risk getting caught, than leave without taking what belongs to them, life is a risk, but I must be better than my friend".

Comparisonitisis is an ancient disease.It was there in man and society before Christ, and is still ravaging most of the world today, Nigeria inclusive. It is at the base justification for the stratification of society by man.It causes a few to usurp the natural belongings of others through political or economic manipulations, keep same and lord it over the people.

They usually will call these people their colonised territory; the local leaders in the colonized territory want to be like their Lords, by colonising their various ethnic groups within the territory by exploiting them, using all kinds of arrangements, simply to create inequalities in favour of the leading group.

This will then give rise to majority and minority ethnic mentalities and the naturally attendant rivalries, agitations, complaints, and finally violence and if nothing is done, war!

Comparisionitisis is a bad decease.In the church, it converts religion to an opium for the largely uninformed masses, creating a cult aura around the church leader;  same in the Mosque. In such a situation, you find so much power and influence arrogated to the Church or Mosque leadership, and an impression is created that their God is better and more special than other peoples' God!

The wise ones know that we have only One God, and one Holy Spirit. In politics, comparisionitisis destroy the sense of shame, character and of knowledge of what is right and wrong in governance and leadership.It breeds political and social crime with impunity, justifying moral failure with, 'what's the big deal, isn't everybody doing the same thing?' Evil schemes against people, moral rot and mischief take the centre stage; merit is thrown out of the window, except for occasional homage.

In business, comparisionitisis causes the boss to think that he owns the life and property of the worker for his own exploitation and benefit, targets to drive in sales, or cash deposits (for bankers); are set for workers, including married women and men, making moral wrecks out of their homes!

The board of the company looks the other way; all they want is profit, the money and hell. At the family unit level, comparisonitisis will cause a house wife to jettison the discipline of marital life and run away in adultery, justifying her actions deceitfully, that it was to train the children.

The man abandons a committed wife with children, runs away with a staff, mostly the secretary, who quickly kills him to acquire or take over his belongings before the real wife knows about things.Comparisonitisis begins subtly in the mind and grows, unknown to the poor soul, it destroys the real him, and takes over.It has torn this earth apart!

Apostle Paul in Roman 12:3,was certainly aware of the deadliness of comparisonitisis and offered a remedial anti-dote.

That we see ourselves not as we stack up against others, nor as others evaluate us but as God sees us.Ultimately it is God's estimation of us that matters, and to God, we matter a lot! Do you suffer from comparisonitis? What needs to change in your self-assessment of yourself so that you see yourself as God sees you? How does God see you in Nigeria? These are questions we all have to answer in our nation as we approach 2015.

Mr.  CLEMENT UDEGBE, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.