Tag: kindness

Nigerians have sacrificed their humanity at the altar of their greed for very filthy lucre.

This is kindness week. In Nigeria, however, it is no longer fashionable to be kind. You give people rides or money or clothes at your own risk or at their own risk. Going by the stories I hear, the whole thing has me confused. Should I run from people or should they run from me? There is so much preoccupation with ‘making it’ now that no life is sacrosanct – not mother’s, not father’s, not brother’s, not friend’s. Nigerian streets have become places where you ‘proceed with extreme caution’ because the ides of march truly walketh abroad. Now, whenever a relative of mine takes a taxi or Okada in any Nigerian city, I cry, ‘beware… beware!

The why is pretty straightforward: Nigerians have descended to pure and downright cannibalism. It is said that there is no country in the world where you cannot find Nigerians. Even the moon has one or two. It is also said that wherever they go, Nigerians excel, in the most marvelous ways too. Yet, those of us remaining at home just persist in going at cannibalism, ancient style. I think they call it the Nigerian virus.

I don’t know what this virus looks like but I can swear it is deadly. Right now, I have a message in my phone about someone who had taken an Okada ride which broke down along the way. Pronto, a taxi showed up in which there were already two female fares or passengers as we call them. It turned out the taxi was taking them all on a ride to hell by a previous arrangement; that’s right, a ritual killers’ hide out.

At the hideout, so the story goes, the females were raped before being killed and the narrator said he was ‘rejected’ because the ritualists had enough ‘male body parts’. The taxi was asked to take him to a ‘branch’ of the den in another city. Again, he was ‘rejected’ and directed to be taken to yet another ‘branch’ in another city where he was again ‘rejected’ and finally allowed to leave and live.

So, we now have a Nigeria where kidnappers are so established they are regarded as ‘Kidnappers, Plc.’ They are regularly wined and dined by the high and mighty and appealed to for financial donations into socially beneficial causes. We also now have ritual killers who have become so overtly confident they are establishing ‘branches’. Yep, it’s Ritual Killers, Plc. And they are said to be ‘making it’, because ‘body parts are in demand’. Seriously, how bad is this virus?!

Very bad. Just the other day, it was reported in the newspapers that a student in a tertiary institution had been kidnapped but released after being forced to drink blood. According to the report, the student did not know the source of the blood. I think it’s bad enough that he was kidnapped and made to drink blood, any blood, in the first place.

It is a bad virus that does not make us even recognise kith and kin in our pursuit of happiness. Most Nigerians have now quite convinced themselves that it is only when they have money aplenty that their happiness is complete. So, there is now a frenzied pursuit of it out there that quite literally befuddles the senses. People are ready to sacrifice anybody near or far at the altar of self-worship. And it’s because we have lost the ancient paths of kindness, the only thing in life that does not change character.

Take the family, that eternal seat of unquestioning love. When Lady Macbeth in Macbeth bemoaned the fact that she had lost what appeared to be the milk of human kindness, many wondered if she ever had the duct that produces it in the first place. Many are wondering the same thing about Nigerians right now. They have sacrificed their humanity at the altar of their greed for very filthy lucre.

Sacrifices can take many forms. The most common one is slaughtering an animal. For instance, many husbands have gone to bed thinking all is well between them and their wives only to wake up in the morning and find that a price has been placed on their heads by the wives. Sometime in the busy day, many a wife has managed to contract out her husband’s head to hired killers. The same thing goes for many wives. While thinking that all is right with the world, many wives would not thus hesitate when their husbands say, ‘let’s go somewhere.’ That somewhere may turn out to have an Okija shrine priest waiting at the end of it.

Same way, many children have been thrown up in auctions (if they’re lucky) or killed. Brother has done it to sister and I have a message in my phone to back this up. All of these killings are sacrifices to the hungry god that is said to bring in the fortunes and allow the survivors to live lavishly. Whether it actually does is no point here, but surely, you can’t believe…

There are other types of sacrifices that kill kindness. Discipline in the family can be sacrificed at the altar of wealth. Spoiling children and allowing them to have access to everything they want is not kindness. Indeed, it is the greatest unkindness. Sooner or later, that child is going to want the head of the parent on a silver platter.

Many government officials have frequently sacrificed the well-being of the nation to their own greed. At that altar, the nation bows her poor, lovely head when the official’s greed cannot find any boundaries. I think they say ‘it knows no bounds’. It is actually kindness biting the dust.

Many places of worship have been founded on the lives of many young people sent to early deaths by pastors greedy for filthy lucre. The discovered sculls of the youngsters tell the stories. Social media also does. I have a message with pictures about a young boy who was found buried inside the walls of a church under construction. He was lucky; he lived. I guess the pastor had dreams of a superstardom kind of life, complete with private jets, fleets of cars, overseas travels, endless hotel stays, etc., even if he had to kill kindness to get it.

I still wonder though why Nigerians think that by making money the focus of life, somehow, things will be all right. A money-centred society has never been shown to be all right. It is only a work-centred society that thrives. This is a society where everyone does his duty not in hope of unlawful gain but as a matter of justice, i.e. working for the day’s pay. I think it should be clear to all by now that the only way to true wealth is hard work. I’m not the only one saying this. Listen to these people: ‘You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want’ – Zig Ziglar. ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get’ – Mike Adenuga Jr. ‘Luck is the dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get’ – Ray Kroc. ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work’ – Thomas Edison.

There are many more of these quotations telling us that we do not need to descend to horrific acts of unkindness in order to ‘make money’. No one needs to sell or kill anyone in order to make money. We just need to work hard, at the job and at kindness. Very often, kindness begets kindness and if you don’t believe me, ask Sir Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. His father was said to have been kind to Winston Churchill in his youth and Winston’s father took up his education. Let’s kill this Nigerian virus, and let kindness rule again, ok!

I can point you to many cities in Nigeria where we have edifices of ego such monies have bought sitting in the sun in waste. The owners are long since dead, the monies for the houses were stolen, the children have been too ashamed to own them and the people have been too afraid to use them.

I don’t know about you, but I am beginning to believe that this ‘Fake Arms Deal’ probe will never end. It is becoming clear to me that the inquiry is gathering something like a snowball effect where one participant in the Dasuki game of err, ‘sharing’ is leading us to another one. My only hope now is that this long trail does not one day fetch up at my house, what with the way names are just popping up on account of the millions and billions they are said to have shared.

Unfortunately, the hand handcuffs, (they are called ‘bracelets’) the police are ‘inviting’ people with seem to fit all sizes. They shouldn’t. There should be special ones for the people who are said to have got millions, billions or trillions. The bracelets for those in the millions category should be sapphire encrusted; the cuffs for those who are said to have got billions should have diamonds and for those alleged to have got trillions; they should get gold-encrusted bracelets. The police should look into this possibility.

I read the other day that they are now making some fine, coloured and attractive handcuffs. I think those ones are for female suspects who get only thousands as their ‘share’. The women can get to choose the bracelets that match the colour of the dress, shoes and bags they are spotting when they are arrested. Now, that’s what I call respect.

Anyway, as I said, I hope the probists don’t fetch up at my house next when they have run out of houses to suspect. You never can tell; that five naira gift may not be as innocent as you think. As it is now, just hearing that 333bn or so was shared by participants in the Jonathan administration for spurious purposes is making me mumble everywhere I go now: why, oh why, the deuce was I not part of that ‘Government of Sharing’?

In all honesty, I was invited, I think, to take part. There I was sitting down quietly in my house one day in that era when a message came into my phone that I had been pencilled down for one government appointment or the other. I didn’t laugh; no, I didn’t. I simply forwarded the text to the knowing one around me and asked him to use his magical powers to detect its four-one-nine quotient. Being more cautious that the rest of the human race, he simply threw the name I had been asked to contact in the presidency into the net and came up with… nothing. Naturally, I withdrew my enthusiasm as I have since learnt to take life’s many lessons to heart.

Oh, life is always teaching one lessons. For instance, I have learnt that picking the pocket of the pick pocket is no small pocket picking job. What that means has not quite been revealed to me yet but please be my guest at cracking it. Also, when I am boiling eggs on the stove, it now pays for me to write a small memo to myself on the matter and include the hour I light the stove, and also the date. It is so easy to forget things these days without even trying. More importantly, I have learnt that Nigerians are placing higher and higher price tags on kindness. Nobody does anything out of kindness for anyone anymore in this country.

Have you noticed that when Nigerians do a favour for you they expect you to pay for it? You just try it out anywhere you go in the country. When you are given a special privilege, trust me, it is only because your benefactor thinks you can pay for it. It used to be that people would fly to help you change your tyre for nothing. These days, thank you will not do. First, you are assured that it is only because it is you that the deed is being done. Next, people expectantly look at your bag or purse as you say thank you. Failure to do the needful earns you the sobriquet of ‘an ingrate’. Many times, I have failed to correctly interpret the word ‘favour’ to mean ‘chargeable privilege’; I have instead interpreted it to mean ‘favour’. Who knew such a simple word could carry so many meanings?

But, I am not alone; Nigeria is with me in this misinterpretation game. Over the decades, this country has invited many of her citizens to partake in governance. I think the country has usually imposed only one interpretation on the word ‘governance’ to mean ‘service’, believing that somehow, hand joined in hand would produce the best system of public transport, the most efficient access to power, the best utility system, and so on. The idea behind it is really not too hard to guess. Generations yet unborn would benefit from the largesse of the brains that God in his infinite wisdom has given the citizens. That way, the country would be passing untold kindness down a thousand years.

It is not as if the country were asking a hard thing. It has been done in Europe, Asian countries and the Americas. It is heartening indeed to note that what is being enjoyed today in those places were put in place by people similarly invited to build their country. They went into governance, saw, and willingly donated their kindness for posterity to enjoy. For them, it was enough that they had been recognised for their potential.

Unfortunately though, many of those invited into governance since the 1960s in Nigeria have interpreted the word ‘governance’ to mean ‘ravage’. Resources meant to be employed for building public acts of kindness that should last through the ages have been plundered by its very protectors. When the house guard turns round to plunder the house, what is to be done?

No one has as yet explained to Nigerians exactly what these monies have been used for. Some have said they have been used to build houses of vanity. I don’t know but I find even that hard to believe. I mean, I can point you to many cities in Nigeria where we have such edifices of ego such monies are used for sitting in the sun in waste. The owners are long since dead, the monies for the houses were stolen, the children have been too ashamed to own them and the people have been too afraid to use them.

Some have said these monies are used to purchase houses abroad. Again, I don’t know but I can point you to many properties abroad owned by Nigerians which have become millstones round the owners’ necks. The cities where they are situated have eaten themselves fat on the taxes they attract; the children have no use for them even if they live in the same city, and sooner or later, have gone to be sold for a song.

Again, I have heard that monies ‘shared’ thus have often been stowed away in Swiss banks or Cayman Island banks for rainy days. Seriously? Who among us knows exactly where rainy days will meet him or her? I can also tell you that many such monies have gone unclaimed because the stowers have died, the children have been ignorant of the stowaway monies and the country has been the poorer. That’s why that little island is richer than many countries in the world.

Let us decide now to begin to give the gift that goes on giving. Building the country will be giving the kindness that can last through the ages. The country must prepare for tomorrow today.