A Harvard study said the most
gullible people in the world are
the Filipinos. The study said,
“The causes of this gullibility
include the inability to question
information and an over-
reliance on interpersonal
sources.” The study also said,
“For Fillipinos, a tsunami
warning from the government
does less than a mother’s
directive to avoid the sea
because of syokoys (mermen).”
According to the Mosquito Press
that reported it, “The study
involved content analyses of
over 500,000 historical
documents from 300 societies.
The documents were then
evaluated according to a
quantitative metric called the
Gump Index.” The study went
on, “What’s curious about the
Filipino condition is despite a
respectable literacy rate, many
of its people still believe that
condoms cause cancer – or that
Appolo Quiboloy, CEO of
kingdom of Jesus Christ, The
Name Above Every Name, Inc. is
the son of God.”
The Harvard Institute of Socio-
political Progression may have
gone through a rigorous effort
in arriving at the Filipinos, but
the same can be said of
Nigerians. Recently, a 62-year-
old male patient was brought to
us by his son who was not
satisfied with the treatment he
was getting in a ‘home’ in
Cotonou in Benin Republic
where the children had taken
him for treatment because the
man was “behaving
abnormally.” What amazed us
was that we were the ones who
pointed to the injuries which we
discovered on the man’s body.
Apparently, the old man had
been traumatised to ‘remove’
whatever was ailing him. And it
took our pointing these out for
the man’s relatives to realise
this. The face, the body and
even the genitals were all
assaulted, for the dementia we
found he has.
All too often, Nigerians fall easily
to swindlers, especially money
doublers. Usually, the customer
brings a small amount of money
say N10, which they hide under
a scrap of cloth. The trick is for a
few customers to win small
amounts to convince those with
big money to play. Those who
win the small sums are smart
when they take their winning
and walk away. But the greedy
will stay and stake a bigger sum.
The customer is given the cloth
with the money and warned not
to open it for a given period of
time. When the customer opens
it, he finds no money but scraps
of paper. And when he returns
to complain, they lay the blame
on him, he must have opened it
before the given time. Even
now, Nigerians will go for
‘wonder banks’ that promise
unreasonable returns.
Aristotle said, “Youth is easily
deceived because it is quick to
hope.” In Nigeria, the youths are
lured easily by politicians for
their own selfish purposes. And
when the politicians have no
need of them they discard them.
Looking for work to do, and
finding none, the youths
become a menace to the society.
At no place than the church is
the gullibility of Nigerians most
manifest. Nigerians, believing
that whatever the pastors tell
them is divinely inspired, accept
everything in ‘faith’. People
have been flagellated to
exorcise their purported
demons. Men have allowed their
pastors sleep with their wives
believing that it would be the
solution to the couple’s
infertility. Nigerians, seeking for
any means to get wealthy, go to
witchdoctors who are poor
themselves. Idolaters carve
images and call them their god.
Nigerians have an unrivalled
herd mentality. Suicide bombers
have continued to bomb their
own fellow Nigerians in the
dubious belief that they are
carrying out a divine injunction.
And because of gullibility, there
is no shortage of recruits.
Without asking questions,
without examining facts,
Nigerians gang up to mob and
burn fellow Nigerians alive;
petty thieves, anybody whose
voice cannot be heard allowed,
with the Aluu Four the latest
victims. It has happened many
times where Nigerian men,
women, children, or even a
whole family follows the leader
who has gone to vandalise oil
pipelines or gone to scoop oil
when it has burst, as if they are
all in a trance, and getting
roasted in the event.
Tribalism is not left out of the
consequences of gullibility.
Nigerian children grow up
hating other tribes because their
parents told them that those
other tribes are their enemy.
When the children grow up,
they pass it on to their children
and the cycle goes on. It is this
deep-seated prejudice that has
made Prof. Chinua Achebe’s new
Civil War memoir, “There was a
country”,

Interesting.