A Day's Rambling - #1: Deep Shit
I am an upbeat person. Really. I am. I laugh loud (at things that aren't
necessarily funny) and smile hard (sometimes even at strangers ). But I am about
to get sour for a minute.
We are in deep shit in this country. Seriously. And I don't think we realize how screwed we are. I was reading here earlier today about the billions of dollars NNPC failed to remit to the federation account. Billions. Of dollars. If that isn't ridiculous, I don't know what is. So billions of dollars have gone missing and the people who ought to be responsible for it are playing cat and mouse with each other and exchanging words. Okay.
Then, why does the majority of our population wake up on the wrong side of bed? At work I have to put up with the most absurd of attitudes from people who either think they are too big to say a polite "Good morning" (you can even add a fake smile - it won't hurt) or to respond to one; to people who simply refuse to be cheerful. For heavens sake, its 7 AM. And your face already looks like its been baptized with lemon juice. I am not your wayward teenager. I am not your stubborn spouse. I am not your nagging landlord. I am trying to do my job and your attitude is killing me. You owe me nothing, I know, but for the 2 minutes we will interact, can you at least just be happy. But that's too much to ask. Isn't it? Of course it is. You go to a shop and ask one of the attendants if they have Veet hair removal cream and she looks at you as though you're wasting her time. The lady you're buying credit from tells you she doesn't have change and you can tell from her tone she isn't about to stress herself out looking for change for your behind, so you better carry your money and keep moving. And if you speak up and demand to be treated with some respect, you become the anomaly.
I greeted a man at work today who never says hello when he comes in. I looked at him and said, "Good morning" (and I stressed the greeting). He asked me angrily, "What is the meaning of that?" He was offended I greeted him. I was shocked.
I have never been a fan of police officers - actually, our law enforcement officers in general. I feel they are given too much authority (and those huge guns) and not enough training as to how to manage that authority. I read here about a taxi driver in Abuja who was stripped naked by traffic officials because he stopped at a junction to pick passengers. People in uniforms think they are gods and act as such; instead of enforcing law, they are often the ones breaking it and treating people with disrespect without regard for their rights to dignified treatment as human beings. All these things I am saying probably sound foreign to an average police officer.
A few months ago, two market women, who were accused of stealing pepper, were stripped naked, blind folded and tortured by unknown men. I cannot begin to imagine the pain these women went through and the mental trauma as a result. They had pepper shoved into their vaginas during the assault and some sadistic person videoed the entire ordeal. You can read about it here. What gives anyone the right to torture another person and to subject them to such brutal treatment? It is heart breaking.
And then a few weeks ago, a joke about rape by a Nigerian comedian went viral and many people (Nigerian men and women) supported him, explaining, "It was just a joke. Una wan kill the guy?" A friend asked me if I wanted Basketmouth to apologize for that ill-informed, tasteless attempt at a joke. My response was 'No'. We don't need his apology. What his joke actually did was excavate our nation's complacent psyche about sexual violence against our women. And so what we need is to change that broken mentality. That over 5,000 people liked that joke on Facebook is pathetic and heartbreaking.
So. Why are we in deep shit?
Because we are. We really are. WE (not just our leaders - that's a common misconception, in my opinion) are corrupt. WE are complacent. WE are often grumpy and rude.
I am a devoted Christian and I believe in the power of prayer, but God isn’t about to come down from heaven to fix our problems for us. PRAY, we should, but prayer without works is DEAD. He gave us a brain; we should use it. He gave us a voice; we should speak out. He gave us a conscience; we should key into it.
It is heartbreaking to see the negligence and apathy that is so rife in my country. We can rise from this mess. But we need to look up first and then roll our sleeves up. Is God the answer to Nigeria’s problems? Absolutely. I believe He is the answer to every problem. But He isn’t a magician. He needs us to stand up, partner with him, and do something.
We are in deep shit in this country. Seriously. And I don't think we realize how screwed we are. I was reading here earlier today about the billions of dollars NNPC failed to remit to the federation account. Billions. Of dollars. If that isn't ridiculous, I don't know what is. So billions of dollars have gone missing and the people who ought to be responsible for it are playing cat and mouse with each other and exchanging words. Okay.
Then, why does the majority of our population wake up on the wrong side of bed? At work I have to put up with the most absurd of attitudes from people who either think they are too big to say a polite "Good morning" (you can even add a fake smile - it won't hurt) or to respond to one; to people who simply refuse to be cheerful. For heavens sake, its 7 AM. And your face already looks like its been baptized with lemon juice. I am not your wayward teenager. I am not your stubborn spouse. I am not your nagging landlord. I am trying to do my job and your attitude is killing me. You owe me nothing, I know, but for the 2 minutes we will interact, can you at least just be happy. But that's too much to ask. Isn't it? Of course it is. You go to a shop and ask one of the attendants if they have Veet hair removal cream and she looks at you as though you're wasting her time. The lady you're buying credit from tells you she doesn't have change and you can tell from her tone she isn't about to stress herself out looking for change for your behind, so you better carry your money and keep moving. And if you speak up and demand to be treated with some respect, you become the anomaly.
I greeted a man at work today who never says hello when he comes in. I looked at him and said, "Good morning" (and I stressed the greeting). He asked me angrily, "What is the meaning of that?" He was offended I greeted him. I was shocked.
I have never been a fan of police officers - actually, our law enforcement officers in general. I feel they are given too much authority (and those huge guns) and not enough training as to how to manage that authority. I read here about a taxi driver in Abuja who was stripped naked by traffic officials because he stopped at a junction to pick passengers. People in uniforms think they are gods and act as such; instead of enforcing law, they are often the ones breaking it and treating people with disrespect without regard for their rights to dignified treatment as human beings. All these things I am saying probably sound foreign to an average police officer.
A few months ago, two market women, who were accused of stealing pepper, were stripped naked, blind folded and tortured by unknown men. I cannot begin to imagine the pain these women went through and the mental trauma as a result. They had pepper shoved into their vaginas during the assault and some sadistic person videoed the entire ordeal. You can read about it here. What gives anyone the right to torture another person and to subject them to such brutal treatment? It is heart breaking.
And then a few weeks ago, a joke about rape by a Nigerian comedian went viral and many people (Nigerian men and women) supported him, explaining, "It was just a joke. Una wan kill the guy?" A friend asked me if I wanted Basketmouth to apologize for that ill-informed, tasteless attempt at a joke. My response was 'No'. We don't need his apology. What his joke actually did was excavate our nation's complacent psyche about sexual violence against our women. And so what we need is to change that broken mentality. That over 5,000 people liked that joke on Facebook is pathetic and heartbreaking.
So. Why are we in deep shit?
Because we are. We really are. WE (not just our leaders - that's a common misconception, in my opinion) are corrupt. WE are complacent. WE are often grumpy and rude.
I am a devoted Christian and I believe in the power of prayer, but God isn’t about to come down from heaven to fix our problems for us. PRAY, we should, but prayer without works is DEAD. He gave us a brain; we should use it. He gave us a voice; we should speak out. He gave us a conscience; we should key into it.
It is heartbreaking to see the negligence and apathy that is so rife in my country. We can rise from this mess. But we need to look up first and then roll our sleeves up. Is God the answer to Nigeria’s problems? Absolutely. I believe He is the answer to every problem. But He isn’t a magician. He needs us to stand up, partner with him, and do something.
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