NIGERIANS ARE BAD PEOPLE - PART-1

I thought the talk was over, but a recent comment fired me up to make a reply to the post TITLED: SHOW OF SHAME, BIDEMI BAKARE AND 4-NIGERIAN STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA ARRESTED FOR SCAMMING – especially as the commenters now started attacking “the poster” for calling Nigerians bad people.

So here, I commence a series of posts of why I have come to a conclusion that NIGERIANS ARE BAD PEOPLE, and unfortunately are world famous for it, and unfortunately won’t accept it. In each post, I’ll give a reason or two and then we can discuss.

Please note: you can abuse this poster for all he cares about.

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NIGERIANS ARE BAD PEOPLE – they dont like to be told the truth about themselves(NIGERIANS), as a people; and about NIGERIA as a country. Tell a Nigerian the truth about himself / his country, and on an average, you become an enemy.

Example-1: tell an Ibo/Igbo person something bad that you observed about Ibo/Igbos, and that is the end of your friendship. The same goes for every other tribe in Nigeria. It is either he/she will argue from now till eternity just to paint you a big positive picture(definitely contradicting the observation you started with) – which he/she wants to be imposed on you or you will be pushed aside: your friendship / acquaintance level immediately reduces.

Now lets play fair.

It might first appear that this Nigerian has taken his positive stand(for his culture / place of origin) out of patriotism and love for country, but no – neither of the two reasons is in the picture. He is neither patriotic, and his love for country doesnt measure up to anything. The truth is that we(NIGERIANS) just dont like to be told the truth – plain and simple.

On the other hand, prepare your speech and tell a Nigerian an absolute lie – but let it be something positive about him, his place of origin, his country or his people. Garnish this lie with some local information(do some research) which your target knows about, – and suddenly he/she, Nigerians open up to you like a flower. They will never ask you for the authenticity of your positive claim, they will take whatever you have to say as the absolute truth – and just for the fact that it boosts up their ego, you become their friend#1 – that is all they are asking for: same me something sweet in my ears.

And is this not the same game that Nigerian politicians play 24/7?

Example-2: Mr. Politician goes to the North – says something against the South, East, West and suddenly the Northerners begin hailing the speaker as “our son” even if he doesn’t come from the North.

Next, he goes to the South, and says another thing against the other three parties, and he soon becomes the son of the South. By the time he completes the round of 4, and becomes a son in each of the 4-angles, Nigerians from each corner will begin fighting one another based on what they each heard the politician say. Meanwhile, the politician has retreated into his cave in Abuja, sipping coffee over the evening news.

Now, what bothers me is that none of the warring Nigerian parties will accept they are being played by Mr. Politician. For example: if a Northerner tries to reason with an Easterner, and reminds the Easterner that what Mr. Politician said in the East was the exact same thing he said in the North, and that both(East and North) were being played by Mr. Politician, the Northerner becomes an enemy of the East – for even starting the discussion in the first place.

The same applies to each part of Nigeria – we would rather hold fast what we heard about us, rather than what we heard that was said about us. As a result, it is easy to play politics in Nigeria.

Since Nigerians are not ready to be told the truth, it is very hard to put Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa behind us, and move forward as a people.

Let me still play fair.

At other times, I think that perhaps Nigerians just desire to wash their dirty linen in private, thats why they usually put up a line of defense. If that were the case, I wouldn’t mind. If its like a husband and wife that would smile in public but go back home and settle their differences, life would be alright in Nigeria.

But when the Northerners get back to the North; when the Southerners return to the South; when the Easterners go back home East; and when the Westerners arrive in the West; neither of these four will reason amongst each other and make things better. Everything remains as status quo. Nigerians would rather pick fights with someone who points out their error, than deal with the error itself. Thats how bad Nigerians are.

Now, if its so hard for us to see the light through the eyes of a total stranger, how much more through one of our own. If Jesus Christ was a Nigerian, those whose tables he overturned for selling in the temple would have resorted to lynching his parents if they couldn’t get a hold of him because of his disciples. The point is: dont try to play Jesus Christ in Nigeria.

The local lingo is called: SIT DOWN AND LOOK: Since we already know what will happen to whoever tries to play Jesus Christ(we will make sure he doesnt succeed), we would rather keep quiet and watch as good(assuming there is still something good in Nigeria) becomes bad; bad becomes badder; badder becomes worse; worse graduates to worst; worst becomes a stench and the stench begins to kill people. When the stench begins to kill people, we run inside the Mosque or Churches and if our spiritual leaders can’t solve the problem, we conclude them as not sent from God; we point an accusing finger at our political leaders who was just sworn in yesterday, we blame the works of the devil.

The point is if Nigerians were good people in the first place, why attack 1-person who decides to do something good? why ridicule him? why not support his/her good effort? If Nigerians were good people, why do we get angry when our tables were overturned in the temple when we are fully aware that the temple is not a market place? If Nigerias are good people, if Jesus was the wrong doer, why go after his family members because we couldn’t reach our target.

This is why in the Nigeria of today, our useless police officers for example, on a house search for a crime suspect, would arrest everybody inside and outside the house because they couldnt find the person they were looking for. While the innocent are kept in police custody, they are still expected to produced the accused.

Back to the main discussion:

Take one of the four Nigerian angles for analysis: the Yoruba for example. You might think they are united because they speak the same language. No. By the time you enter the yoruba circle, you begin to realize the differences between Ibadans and Ondos. When Ibadan tells Ondo a negative truth about Ondo, wahala starts, and vice-versa.

At each angle(North, South, East, West), each of these set of Nigerians have their own idea of what NIGERIA and NIGERIANS is supposed to be. Now, I think this is quite fair, if I could say each part of Nigeria has a vision? but further in each of the 4-locations, the Nigerians comprising that identity are further broken down into smaller communities, each with their own idea of what NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS is supposed to be. These individualistic ideas influence our actions and inactions, and too many times we make each other uncomfortable. But since we individually dont like to hear the truth, how will the incessant complaining of one party mean anything to the other without the use of force?

Force is the only thing that works in Nigeria. Its either the government forces the people; the people force the government; the law forces the people or the people force the law to move. There is this general headiness which blinds so many eyes.

As a result each of the elements making up the Yoruba people(for example) can’t be united as one – for a common goal. They would rather be relating with each other behind each others backs; stories, gossips flying, etc.

To be continued – watch out for Part-2

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