It is not new that the great name Nigeria is no longer respected anywhere in the world. Often times crimes are usually connected with Nigerians even when we know nothing about it. How did the disrespect started? who is responsible for it? how do we get out of the mess?

You will be surprised that the cause of the degradation of the name Nigeria is not the government alone as many of you will think. For many of us who had traveled abroad will agree with me that the country they visited is not made great by the government but by the people of the place. While i wont spare the government for not spearheading some action especially against corruption, i am sorry to tell you the problem is with we Nigerians ourselves. After all, the people in government are Nigerians and given the chance to any other Nigeria, they will probably do the same.

In the last few year, i have personally tried to gather information about the wrongs in our society and its possible cause and solution. In my course of study, i have found out a lot of problems that if i start to list them here, i will bore you as one problem leads to another. At the apex of these problems, i realized we suffer from 2 basic problems and if we can tackle these problems ourselves, Nigeria will experience a great turn around in fact before 2014.

1. LAWLESSNESS
i have come to realize that it is only in Nigeria that we make law and we hate to obey it. lets set the government aside, even within a household, parents make laws and children fail to follow and give excuses. lets take a critical look around us. In our offices, schools, churches or mosques or any gathering around us. Lets take an office for example. you are employed to work from 8am to 4pm and observe a 1hour break from 12pm to 1pm. I realize up to 70% or staff in most private and government work place hardly observe or respect this rule. staff make every attempt to cheat the company of this official hours either by arriving late and have someone sign or clock for them or leave before closing time or perhaps spend more than the normal hours during break and yet they expect to be fully paid at the end of the month. This kind of attitude is not tolerated in the western world as you will be fired in no time. But here in Nigeria, people do that and expect nothing to happen.

Another example is a case of traffic light and traffic disorderliness. The longest red light i have observed on the streets of Lagos and i assume anywhere else is 180 seconds which is 3 minutes yet motorist including private car owners find this time too long to wait. They either ignore or disobey the traffic light or try to maneuver to avoid stopping. Is 3mins to much to wait?

lets us all reflect in our daily lives and check ourselves, we will realize we have been lawless in one way or the other. Though we try to make excuses for our actions but the result is where we are today.


2 OPPRESSION
This is the biggest of all our problems. We love to oppress ourselves.
* Everybody including jobless students wants to use the latest phone, why? because they don't want to be looked down upon (oppressed).
* Every girl wants to date the richest guy around, why? so as to meet up with social standards and other girls (so as to oppress others).
* Everybody wants to work in a multinational company, why? you will be looked down on if you work elsewhere.
* Why are cleaners, mechanics, messengers, bus drivers looked down on? whereas our people spends lots of money to travel abroad to do these dirty jobs and nobody over there looks down on them.
* Why do we look down on low income earner? because we consider them illiterates? which is not always true.
* Why do we disrespect one another? so as to gain respect?
* Why must you ride a jeep or expensive cars? so that others will be respected and not called a criminal? or so that when you collide with a less expensive car, you will automatically be adjudged right? (oppression of the highest order)
* Why is inequality encouraged in our society? to oppress others of course!
* When did going abroad become a criteria to be rich or respected? its all to oppress in some cases.


I come to realize most crimes committed in Nigeria is with an intention to oppress. Why would politicians steal billions of our money if its just eat, wear and live in a house? why would someone steal money to but bullet proof BMW, or to buy latest stuff? no other reason but to oppress. In every of daily lives, we strive for no other reason than to oppress our friends, neighbors and colleagues.

if only we can follow some basic rules, Nigeria should turn around in no time

1. Queue up and wait for your turn in public places
2. Don't try to beat any system, its the back bone of lawlessness
3. Be honest to yourself, then you can be honest to others
4. Always keep calm. don't be in a hurry as it leads to aggression and leads to lawlessness in public places.
5. Obey simple laws.
6. try to correct 2 out of every 10 wrong doings you observe and do it politely if you want to make impact
7. Don't join the madness. the fact that others are doing it doesn't mean you should do it. if you cant beat them, join them or better isolate yourself.
8. Man shall not live by bread alone. You may steal to buy latest stuff. am sure next year there would be another version. Nokia 3310 was the latest sometime ago. You can never get the latest or the best in life...... all is vanity!!
9. Money can not solve your problems. this is the greatest truth of life. many people run around chasing money to solve their heavy bills and problems. but alas, only rest of mind from God can solve your problems. do things the right way and Godly way and you will realize you shouldn't be in that money demanding situation in the first place.
10. Who God has blessed, no man can curse. so, why do you steal, embezzle, defraud and cheat? ill gotten wealth comes with a curse. the more of the ill gotten wealth, the more curse you acquire. Politicians will tell you what burns them underneath.

Lets work together for change. please feel free to make your own contributions. all we need is change, but avoid derailing the topic

Unfortunately OP, its 2015 and not much has changed.

Its unbelievable that this excellently delivered post did not get any comments.

This is a good stab at an out-of-poverty blueprint grossly in need today but people somehow fail to realize this.

Truth is adopting all these wonderful points requires some level of personal sacrifice which the most of us see as a huge burden.

I am hopeful, but weakly so.