Who is to blame?

Our Nigerian attitude. 

Nigeria is a mix of many things, a mix of cultures, languages, peoples, ages, races, colours, food, music, traditions, religions, lifestyles and the list goes on. It was originally a country made up of 3 distinctive regions, which through time and autonomy, had other distinct regions within regions. The white guys surely understood this but didn’t care, Nigeria was a land of abundance, another gold mine on the dark continent to lay claims to.

Our ancestors were like I always say, most likely enjoying life, doing whatever they used to to at the time, from drinking fresh Palm wine with local chicken soup, fanning themselves with plantain leaves and playing with wives under the hot sun or young lads chasing local damsels in the village streams, whatever the case, they didn’t sign up for what was about to come next.

Mongo Park.

Just imagine the insult, my ancestors were going about their normal day to day lives, living in the same place they said Mongo Park found, when in fact they watched his boat trespass into their lives and our collective history. I go all the way back because, a lot of things need to be unbundled, unlearnt and re-visited, something like a very Controversial issue like, if Jesus was of a telling of a Jew, which happened closer to the Middle East, why are all pictures of Jesus, Caucasian white? And shouldn’t it be more of what was described in the Bible? Darker skin and woolly hair?

We were fed a lot of conflicting truths, and we all know that half truths is technically still a lie. The romance of our 3 regions in Nigeria after the colonial masters came was consummated with the amalgamation, and from then on, we’ve been trying to rub off on each other ever since, in every way. Our lives as Nigerians has greatly changed from years of intermingling, forged in jest, competition, hatred, war and peace.

We’ve been through so much together, good and bad, a journey that has made us who we are and shaped our attitudes, our natural line of thought, our doggedness, our docility, a fictitious pride.

I once read something about a Nigerian who went to Japan and a Japanese person gave him a piece of his mind on why we Nigerians act and think the way we do, it was simple, it was embedded in our tradition. The Japanese fellow said “Nigerians are the way they are, cunning and scheming, because right from birth our childhood tales are of the cunning Tortoise who schemes his way through everything and cheats, lies and destroys” and the tortoise became a silent hero in our subconscious mind.

When you grow up later in life, you realise that the tortoise should have been arrested and tried for his crimes and deceit. Thankfully most tortoise stories I know and remember often end with a remorseful note on the part of the tortoise learning from his mistakes and amending his ways. That’s not to say that some people didn’t emulate the tortoise, some did and still do in our day to day lives, at work, on queues, as leaders in public institutions, as service men and women, as parents, as friends, we all have attributes of the tortoise sometimes.

For all the peace we enjoy, there was a generation who saw the wars, their historical recollection of the war has been etched in books and in the hearts of every region. For some in one region they were the victims, to another they were the victor, and to the other regions they feel like they were pawns in the grand scheme of things or had their hands tied throughout the period. You can hear the tone from narrations from each region as the tales are retold, some telling a horrific experience, others oblivious to the actual extent or effects of the war.

For the generation that witnessed, they shaped other generations with their standpoints, and silently prayed never to witness such again. Regardless, close to 3 millions souls or more were lost, without restitution, compensation or remembrance, just a footnote in time, swept under the rug.

Another generation after the wars witnessed the true Nigerian boom, where Nigerias name was really the marvel to the world, they had a focus like none other, a focus to build, build and build. It is known that if you want to engage a people, you let them build together, and yes they did, they built till they even built a name for themselves, “the giant of Africa”, and everything was good, until the next generation came abruptly with the scarcity mentality.

A deviation from the path of success started to creep in with bad leadership and resulted in very bad scarcities. Bad leadership caused scarcities so badly that people started to turn to hoarding and greed which also metamorphosed into embezzlement in public and private offices. The greed became endemic and would be past on to later generations unborn up into the new millennium.

Later generations came with big dreams of going back to greatness, but with the messed up ideologies past down from older generations who either didn’t believe our unity would last, or tried and failed to return Nigeria to its former glory or others that had seen the degeneration of Nigeria from its glory days. A real alogarithm of the various generations and how they think gives better insight to expectations and believes for the future of Nigeria. It shows an interconnected confusion and uncertainty that scared a lot of people into the diaspora to become happy refugees but sad statesmen. 

Land of confusion. 

So I ask……

Who is to blame when we have an exam but fail to read and instead are in the mosque or church praying our eyes out instead of reading But when elections come people are praying at home instead of going out there to vote their preferred candidates?.

Who is to blame when an entertainment show gifts 90 times more price money than the highest educational show?

Who is to blame when a mob sets a man ablaze for stealing food to eat but a politician caught red handed stealing and embezzling, there is no mob to pull him out of his house or office and set him ablaze?

Who is to blame when a young lady molests a boy child and goes Scot free, But when the molested boy child grows up demented and does same that was done to him with an underage female child, he is castrated and burnt alive?

Who is to blame when one generation says Nigeria will waste your life, stay at home and don’t protest for your rights, while another shouts it loudly, I have a dream, they can kill me if they want, years later the ones that didn’t protest are unemployed and have become street thugs and hoes in order to make a living. 

Who is to blame when the congregation of a church or mosque is eager to donate to the preacher to help buy him his 7th car but the woman whose husband died since 5 years ago in the same establishment is begging for money to save the life of her daughter?

Who is to blame when instead of reporting your colleague who is stealing or cheating from within your company you complain that the politicians are stealing and cheating the country?

Who is to blame when one generation recalls when they were treated like royalty in university but will not lend a voice to ending university strikes?

Who is to blame when, didn’t speak up against the secretary who asked for a bribe but you are bribing a security guard at the bank to help you jump the line?

Who is to blame when our sons and daughters, friends and colleagues go missing from ritualists but you are hailing young unemployed boys on your street who just bought a new Benz.

Who is to blamed when, all our life is so highly sexualised, our tv, and music, our social media, our online influencers, and we expect not to hear children doing all kinds of weird unprintable things.

Who is to be blamed when a child is brought into this world out of love, but cannot be raised in love but raised instead out of duty, just providers, never there to care and nurture, often sending babies to day cares as early as 2months old to be taken care of by others instead of the ones who bore them?

Who is to be blamed, when a road journey in Nigeria is the new death sentence, if you don’t die of accident you die from armed robbery or kidnapping? But you know the road contractor and even attend his festivities in the villages or cities.

Who is to blame, when the you go to a public office hoping to get a service, they keep you there the whole day because their excuse is “no network” but they are updating their social media and sending chats on their phones.




Who is to blame?







Written by Mundez

edmundez@me.com