This very insighful article was written by Femi Popoola and I have decided to put it here with his full permission, and I must say that I agree with the message contained here.

It is long but, trust me, the message is powerful:


My first post on this blog was on the 26th of August 2013. That’s roughly about 48 weeks ago. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. I didn’t imagine I’d still be in medical school by now but then, shit happens. I’ll leave the stock taking till some other time.


You see, I’ve been working, doing some really hardwork to develop a paranoid mentality so as to fit in. 90% whatever percentage it is, quite a number of people nowadays believe that they have haters somewhere whose only job is to feel bad because they are making it in life. So why should I be any different? It’s when you’re different that they’ll start saying you’re weird, creepy, or something.



Here’s to my haters. This is my 22nd blog post in 48 weeks. That’s almost a post every fortnight yet you lot accuse me of being inconsistent. What more do you want from me? A post every day? Am I Messi? Or Cristiano Ronaldo? The stats show that I’ve posted something on here almost every 2 weeks.


Statistics don’t lie. Or do they? Actually they do. The stats don’t tell you about the times when I didn’t post jack for a month or two, or the times when the posts came in a flurry. See? Statistics are like mini skirts. They give you good ideas, but hide the most important things. There’s no other place where this is more evident than in Nigeria. Not only do we roll stats off the tip of our tongues as if they were made of enzyme ptyalin, we have also learnt to manipulate them to suit our whims, whip up sentiments, or massage our egos, depending on the objective we set out to achieve at a given time.



The missing money from CBN, or is it NNPC, we don’t know if it’s 20 billion dollars, 12 billion, or whether any money is missing at all. Maybe America will know. 54 years after independence, we still don’t know the exact number of barrels of oil we produce per day. And we want to head OPEC.


Heck, I don’t even need to travel so far back in time. Almost a 100 days after their kidnapping, we still don’t know the exact number of the missing Chibok girls. We quote different numbers at different times as long as it’s within the range of 200. The saddest part is not so much in the way we crunch, juggle, manipulate or conjure these numbers, but the fact that these numbers distract us from the most important things. The missing girls are much more than just numbers. They are human beings who have families. Families who are in distress at losing their loved ones.


Numbers don’t describe the pain, the torture they go through every day. The reason why we don’t value the sanctity of human lives anymore is because we fail to look beyond the numbers. The Chibok girls are more than just numbers, the thousands of displaced people in the North are more than just numbers, the victims of the senseless faceoff between Hamas and Israel are not just numbers.


They have names, families and friends, lives they were living which have become permanently altered. When we understand this, we’ll come to know how ridiculous it is to shoot 295 people out of the sky to make a political point. Statistics do more than deceive us, they pull wool over our faces. Perhaps this was what caused Mark Twain to say that “there are lies, damned lies, and then, there are statistics.“


I’ve tried to avoid the issue of the Israel-Hamas faceoff for some time. Now I have failed. Permit me to rant. And no, I’m not going to rant about why Israel is killing Palestine women and children. Neither am I going to go into the 60 year old argument of who is right or wrong.


The truth is war does not determine who is right, only who is left. As far I as I’m concerned, both Israel who murder innocent civilians in the name of self defense, and Hamas who use civilians as shields, are guilty of war crimes. But like I said, that’s not my business.


My grouse is with a section of Nigerian Muslims. Now I know I’m stepping into murky waters, but what the hell. I’m tired of seeing BBM updates, tweets, facebook posts, and several others about the injustice going on in Gaza.

I’m tired of being inundated with gory pictures of bloodied children that offend my sensibilities. I’m tired of hearing about how we should stand up for our Ummah. Fine, it’s good to stand against bloodshed wherever it’s happening in the world. Afterall, it’s a global village. But how can you come and be crying more than the bereaved?


There is fire on your mountain and you’re carrying water to douse another person’s building. Thank God it’s just noise you’re making. Thank God you didn’t resort to violence like you did when a cartoon was published in faraway Denmark.



Your attempts at trying to complicate everything with religion is disgusting, distasteful at best. It’s an Arab-Israeli issue, not a Muslim-Christian one. To think that there are even more Muslims than Christians in Israel.


This is not about religion. Sure people are being killed. Innocent people at that. But it’s not because of their faith. Okay. Wait. Let’s assume it’s a religious issue. So now we won’t hear word again because Jews are killing Muslims?


In Syria, Muslims are killing Muslims. In Iraq, the Shiites are being massacred. Most of the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria are Muslims. So if Muslims are dying, is it okay if it’s Muslims that are doing the killing? I’m not saying you shouldn’t condemn acts of wickedness and their perpetrators, but quit the hypocrisy.


Our girls are still missing but you’re bothered about Palestine. Or is it because the news don’t report it anymore? Yesterday, a village in Borno was still ransacked. Scores were killed and thousands displaced from their homes. They are Ummah too. While praying for Gaza, don’t forget to pray for Nigeria. Charity begins at home.

NB: Half of my family is Muslim. I have many awesome Muslim friends who I cherish and respect their views a lot. This article is about the minority, the extremists who have a seige mentality, believing that everyone is against them. And mind you, these kind of people exist in every religion.

http://thedreamreaper./2014/07/22/lies-damned-lies-and-statistics/

Some of us truly have a psyche of hatred.