Human beings have the amazing ability to adapt to what obtains in their environment. It is the reason we have survived on planet earth this long. It is the reason we have inhabited this earth for so long and have adapted even as the planet changed as a result of our activities.
Change is a never ending process. In life, there's no static. Its either progression or regression; movement is constant either in the positive or in the negative.
One of the major causes of discontent in world today is as a result of dissatisfaction with self; broken dreams and the eventual disillusionment. The onset of life is filled with hope and optimism for a brighter tomorrow. A man born is learns to believe that things will eventually get better. What happens when things don't get better?
It is amazing that in survey many years ago, Nigerians were regarded as the happiest people on earth. In a country were nothing really works, you start to wonder what the criteria was to label Nigerians happy. I prefer the more appropriate term "Hopeless hopefuls".
I have come to believe that the rare ability to numb ourselves to the harsh realities of today and live in an imaginary tomorrow with improved conditions is the reason we are what we are today. How does the average gateman who earns -N-20,000 monthly with a wife and four mouths to feed manage to break a smile? It is the belief that his situation can change in the blink of an eye.
This is one of the reason a revolution is near impossible in Nigeria. Everybody is content to live with the pitiable status quo and wait his turn even though it may never come. This mentality is killing us because we have become pushovers. We have no idea what a good economy looks like so we sit and wait or devise means to get a shot at the national cake.
This is not the way forward.
Take the ASUU strike for instance. The impasse between the Federal Government and the Union just clocked a hundred days and the curious thing is I don't see no protests. NANS is busy pretending to be the mouth-piece of the unfortunate students by lambasting the opposition party about how they are using the strike to score cheap political points.
Cheap, they say.
Isn't the job of the opposition to criticize? We may not like how they go about it but isn't that what they are supposed to do? Somehow, NANS has conveniently forgotten that the Federal Government has reneged on every deal it has signed with the Union. Why don't they condemn this shady attitude? Your guess is as good as mine.
How about the unfortunate plane crash that happened in Lagos sometime last week. Not to make light of the tragedy but "deadi bodi get e accident, yekpa!". Didn't Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti see this coming years ago?
The aircraft conveyed the remains of former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu and, wait for it, former Minister of Aviation during the Obasanjo administration. It is mind-boggling that Nigeria has had not less than 18 incidents of air mishaps since 1999, with at least 3 happening in the last 2 years.
The real tragedy of the most recent tragedy was the statement credited to the current Aviation Minister, Stella Odua that air crashes are "an act of God". Any right thinking human cannot help but marvel at the obvious mental flaw in such line of reasoning. The only logical conclusion to be drawn is that something is horribly wrong with those who have run the aviation ministry since the inception of the 4th Republic.
As if the mediocrity espoused by the current Aviation Minister wasn't bad enough, another former Aviation Minister, Chief Fani Kayode sought to correct her by saying air mishaps were the hand work of the devil. In what could clearly be ascribed to incompetence, these Ministers decided to blame God and the devil.
Wonderful!
The NCAA responded by reactively suspending the licenses of Associated Airlines; and of course Dana Air which was responsible for the death of 163 persons in June last year. Only God knows why Dana was granted the license to ever fly again in Nigeria after such a tragedy of such humongous proportions.
We all are to blame for the continuous misfortunes that befall us as a nation. The Nigerian man does not think right; something is horribly wrong with his mind. It is the reason he accepts what he sees as his fate and continues to hope that some day, God will come down from heaven to change things for him. Why will God come down to change things for us when we believe that every evil that befall us is His will?
This hope for a better tomorrow has become a poison. A seed that has bred the spirit of indolence amongst us. Perhaps it is time to reduce the spectrum of that hope that binds us all in misery to realistic limits. We have been pushed to the wall but we use our backs to break the wall so that we can be pushed further. That is not the consciousness of a people that need change. Only fools continue to do the same thing in the same manner and expect a different result each time.
It is time to do things differently.
I am @saymalcolm on twitter.
My bible tells me God isn't a tempter neither is he man that he will fail. He also has no evil in him! This is a failed nation with a failing people who rather than renegade, run into the closet while there is an impender disaster.
ReplyDeleteThe country and its people are an havoc who despite the sqalour and poverty gliter in gold. It is a facade and a disheartening process that is simply exhihited by a people who are crass. Who rather than stand up for their right, look the other way and seek divinity to a human disease!