Our Collective Hypocrisy

Also published in DAILY TRUST 

                   PEOPLES DAILY 

It is an unmistakable fact that Nigeria is in a deep self-inflicted mess. Equally the resultant misery needs no further explanation, because as a Hausa proverb puts it “Jiki magayi” which more or less means physical suffering says it all.

Ironically also, there is a general apathy despite the common agony, which some analysts attribute to a pervasive hopelessness. Perhaps it is such hopelessness that gave rise to our obvious collective hypocrisy, which makes us pretend to not know the very cause of the mess let alone tackle it. Instead we beat around the bush to find a scapegoat to blame. In fact some of us (out of sheer naivety) even attribute it to God the Almighty Himself, claiming that it is actually our predestination, hence it is beyond our control.

I Want to be a Nigerian Citizen, Please!

 Also published in DAILY TRUST

                          NIGERIAN PILOT

Modern civilization has among other things redefined the concept of citizenship as the right of belonging to a sovereign political entity, where citizens’ rights and obligations are defined in the context of the appropriately enacted laws of the land. It therefore abolished the old concept of subordination that used to define the relationship between rulers and the ruled.

Nigeria’s Irony of Affluence

 

Also published in DAILY TRUST

One of the funny ironies in Nigeria is how even the rich hardly if at all enjoy comfortable lifestyles worth their accumulated fortunes. This perhaps represents one of the implications of bad governance perpetrated over the decades by the ruling elite in collaboration with their cronies, most of who are rich or even super rich for that matter. Incidentally, while indulging in their inconsiderate looting spree, they never seemed to have realized that they were simply creating an unfriendly social environment for themselves where they could not enjoy their loot.

Nigerians’ Ironic Religiosity

Also published in DAILY TRUST 

         Nigeria's President kneeling down before a pastor 

Perhaps the much publicized finding that Nigerians are “the most religious people in the world” yet among the most corrupt, to say the least, represents the trickiest paradox I have ever come across. Because after all, I know for sure that all religions irrespective of their ideological differences have more or less similar core values.