One of the glorious things about Lagos that makes it tick is its traffic and a hell of it too. Coming back to Lagos was a nightmare but since it was where I invested all my money earned from difference occupations, I needed to come. I was in traffic one day and one escalated idiot drove right out of his road into a major road without looking to be sure the road was clear for him to enter. I was the closest to him and so it was near fatal accident for me. I drove level to this man and he stared at me as though what was wrong with me couldn’t I move on? And as he predicted, I moved on.
We leave home early in the morning by 4:45 to get to work that starts at 9 am. On the same road (Epe- Ozumba Road) at this hour are bankers, insurance staffs; people including lovely young ladies and guys who appear rich, well educated and well placed. Once there is a small go-slow on this road, the greater percentage of these young folks quickly cross to the other lane and begin to drive against the traffic. When I first encountered it, and the massive nature of it, I was shocked and stared in utter disbeliefs. As a social activist, these are the same people I join forces with others to make noise that we are protecting from political and social abuses. When we make campaigns, we speak of the future of our youths and make bold that in all consideration, we aimed at better Nigeria for the sake of the people coming after us. These same people are the noisy, manner less, impatient, rude, impolite, and lacking any sense of dignity and honor in them. By the way they move, hundreds of cars behind those of us who have sufficient dignity and honor to wait in line, they come out from our back, drive into the opposite lane, and link up on the available space in the original lane. So then ours stopped moving, theirs continue to move and after almost an hour, we look stupid and un-wise for waiting in line, on the queue to shift a little bit. When they drive and look at me to give way for them, they neither show any sign of remorse nor guilt of any wrong. They are so shameless. But are they wrong? Is it their faults that they behave in like manners?
The same situations is seen at filling stations. You are patiently waiting on the queue and some young boy just drives in and takes your space and then hooting starts and people shouting. At the end, the wise counsel becomes, leave him alone, God will deal with him. At that point, no one wants to fight, no one wants to insist on the right thing, no one wants to care anymore, like in ALL situations in Nigeria, do not worry, let it alone, becomes the last words! And if you insist, then folks will descend on you and it is now (ti e poju: yours is too much)
Countless are our attitudes and behavior that we commit and have become things that identify us as crazy people yet, we hardly see anything wrong in them. Countless are those things which make leaders, heads of governments become ineffective because to govern over these levels of indiscipline and inequity requires miracles and another grasp of reality different from what one gets in saner societies.
Many often a time, I wondered if these people are really to blame for what they do and how each and every offender contributes to the decaying and filth of Nigeria
The thought of who to blame in this wise becomes unclear. These same classes of people see other Nigerians particularly those ones who were paid or hired to maintain law and order breaking the laws so flamboyantly and carving all manner of innuendoes to beat their illicit acts (like in the case of the disgraced erstwhile minister for justice Anadoca. ) the Men of The Nigerian Police Force are never ever ashamed or embarrassed to drive on the wrong side of the road, or pee by the road side, or remove their belts while drinking beer even when they are wearing uniform. The Police even use siren to chase away law obedient road users that they are coming and everyone else to, –so to say, go to hell. So who is to blame?
It is such a pity when one reads about blatant betrayals of Nigerians by the members of the political class and their supporters. You hear of huge monies stolen, ballot boxes hijacked, billions of unremitted funds, and then no one is held accountable or made to feel guilty for the obnoxious acts or used to be seen by the public as example of how not to behave. Like in cable tv parental protection, who protects our young professionals from bad influences and to remind them that there was once a country where there was dignity and honor? They see on tv and read on the pages of the newspapers how from high and low, honor had disappeared from our land. They see and read how Sanusi was fired because, like Reuben Abati said, the government that hires can also….. suspend. They see that after pursuing criminals, Mallam Ribadu himself was pursued out of the country that he claimed to love by criminals. Oh, these young folks see what happened to Mallam El Rufai after leaving office and how he is being haunted around the country for daring to keep Abuja structured. They saw on television how Nigeria treated the Police IG who stole billions of pensions of his men and women who labored for this land. They notice how people deceived the late Yaradua not to transmit his leave letter to the assembly so that GEJ could act as president in his absence and how the entire country stood still for months because one man in the presidency was sick! All the lies, deceits, cajoling, and falsifications of truth, just because people want to be in power and control of power, all combine to show how much this house call Nigeria has fallen and continues to fall. These same people who went on the streets to protest against the unknown cabal to let GEJ act as president were the same people GEJ allowed soldiers to chase off the streets when they came out again to protest against him too for daring to increase the fuel pump prices. All these unusual things that have become usual and normal for us to be disgusted about have now become forces that turn into one supra form of cloud of demons suspended in the air. And this supra form, enters into every willing agents in Nigeria who knowingly or unknowingly evoke its descend. This is why people thing they alone matter, they alone are in a haste, they alone have appointments to make, hey alone are the custodians of power, they ethic group alone has the monopoly of violence, they alone have the natural rights to be privileged or specially treated in every consideration. This supra form of cloud of demons is airborne. This is how one can explain why Nigerians are so grossly law abiding and orderly the soonest they enter and internationally bound airplane from MM1. The moment Nigerians board any plane to leave, the pressure of the cabin sucks out these demons and we become normal and human again. How else can one explains why Nigerians are so orderly abroad but noticeably different upon arrival back to the venue of the supra cloud of demons when they land on the tarmac of the MM1 again and the unprofessional sleepy voice of the announcer soliloquy saying Welcome to hell (sorry, Welcome to Nigeria)
Who is to blame?
However, while we seek who to blame in this grand structure of faulty tower called Nigeria, every man, woman and youth, who deliberately drives the other side of the road when there is only a short traffic is to blame for this house that has fallen and carries curses of different measures on the head. The joint forces of heavens warriors will keep vigils over the demons on such heads and ensure they do not leave him or her. Every man or woman that is born of blood and flesh who divert monies meant for, drugs in the hospitals or equip hospitals to function, to mend roads, to fix broken bridges, to repair falling structures, to equip libraries, to replace fuse in electricity transformers, to change engine oil of a constantly used airbus, to provide succor to the poor, to give strength to the sick, to provide homes for the orphans, to pay pensions of retirees, to give the rig
ht entitlements of the weak, benefits of the not-so-well to do and so on but kept into swiss accounts, such humans shall receive the damnation of the heavenly and the hosts of heaven will combine to bestowed on such persons comfortable spaced and permanent residence in hell. It is time to issue curses and cursed be unto all those who take part is compounding the supra cloud of demons on the Nigerian air spaces to make this house fall!
