Nothing
holds bound than ones mentality, thus, you are only as free as your way of
thinking.
I am
always amused each time I meet a modern Nigerian youth who upholds beliefs and
way of life that generation before had used to keep people in bondage. Beliefs
like, a woman's place is in the kitchen, your child must fear you to respect
you, there’s a white man in the sky called god
and a black man under the ground called devil.
By
perverting religion and exploiting ethnic divides; devious individuals have
been able to make Nigerians see themselves in fragments and not as one, which
makes it easy to barbarically kill each other in name of religion. We also find
University students being maimed by host communities in the name of culture.
This fragmented way of life does allow injustice and corruption to thrive in a
society without any seeming opposition. In fact, those who rise to challenge
obvious socio-injustices are tagged trouble-makers by same people they speak up
for. Notable activists like Tai Solarin, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Gani Fawehimi and many
more suffered this fate of a sheepish mindset that makes Nigerians worship
their leaders, spiritual or political, despite their wrongdoing.
In this
type of society, myths turn facts, even though obvious: Nigeria beat India 99 – 0 in football. Chief Awolowo turns into an
insect, flying home to have dinner with his family while in detention. Even
educated people believe these tales and pass them on to their children as
facts.
More
barbaric is the stigmatisation of children as wizards and witches, obviously
traumatised children are taken to priests and priestesses to be flogged and
sometimes body parts burnt to confess. Also in this society, there's a
systematic act of making women vulnerable to men by encouraging them to
completely depend on their men for socio-economic survival, hence, a man is
able to have up to 10 sex-mates called wives under one roof without any form of
resistance. This child and women abuse is seen for nothing, they say it's their
culture.
The world
has evolved and so have Nigerian communities, they no longer live in little
huts and caves, they use modern gadgets at homes and in offices, newly
manufactured luxury cars from Europe, Asia and America litter the streets of
Nigeria, but the most important part of their being the mind hasn't evolved. They display sociopathic and psychopathic
tendencies, intimidating and manipulating each other to suit personal desire
and gluttony.
Politicians
and Clerics are shamed everyday over one evil and corrupt act or the other yet
they walk tall in the communities without remorse. This is because they have
damaged minds – or how else do you explain someone stealing billions of dollars
from government purse sending it abroad only to be seized by foreign
governments? Similarly, asking poverty stricken people to donate endlessly to a
private-owned church and watch the same people die of starvation and malaria
every day, or turning young children to terrorists in guise of religion.
A
classmate, Mr. Charles Oyibo, who lives in America, wrote on his Facebook page,
and I quote “The reason we don’t hold our leaders
accountable for mass corruption and gross injustice is because we’re hoping to
be them someday”. I sighed deeply when I read this because it is true –
Nigerians who nurse ambition of being religious leaders or political leaders in
future secretly do so out of the
“untouchables” lifestyle they have seen predecessors enjoy, forgetting that
a leader’s duty is actually to serve the people they represent. Corruption
becomes a way of life with this mindset.
But
surely I tell you, a generation will rise in Nigeria (and now it is) that will
correct all the wrong that has been done to Nigerians, man, child and woman,
from times past. A generation of free thinkers who will match the nation to her potentials, a generation who
sees Nigeria and Nigerians as one and not fragments of religion, culture and
tribes. This generation will lead a radical revolution across all spheres of
the federation, not a revolution of violence but a revolution of the mind.
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