There is one distinct characteristic of every Nigerian. I am not an exception, so calm down. I observed that we do things that are ordinarily beyond imagination. Those things can't be done by an average man without the aid of some banned substances. People like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and David Mark are, however, not Nigerians.

Subsequent paragraphs will justify my assertion.

Today, somewhere in a famous market in Lagos, loud noise erupted from a shop. One need not be worried. The nature of the country has normalized the anomaly. This time, it is a group of able bodied men chasing after a petty thief. I don't want to bother you with the details, he was caught and the irate mob only beat him to death and merely set his lifeless body ablaze. Passersby gathered round the burning body and savoured the scent of the roasted body. It is nothing, except you are not a Nigerian. He committed a sin, and the wages of sin is death. Isn't it?

Mr. Okonkwo, a friend once told me how a young girl accused of stealing a BlackBerry phone was caught by a group of men. As is often the case, these perverts surrounded the poor lady like famished vultures around a decaying corpse. They took delight in tearing off her dresses, starting from her breasts down to her waist area. They took turns to molest her. She went down on her knees, hands up in the air pleading for forgiveness. The men uniformly murmured something like 'they would show her pepper.' Several people, including ladies like her flipped open their phone cameras to take shots of the nude girl. You will agree with me that they need it for traffic on their blogs and media outfits, except you are not a Nigerian.

This morning, on my way to work, I witnessed a session of arguments between two people. One saw the Nigerian president as weak, he gave reasons for his assertion. In rebuttal, the other man simply replied 'but do you know he is richer than your forefathers.' That is a good point to defend an allegation of being weak. A Nigerian would agree with me. If you object, you don't belong here.

Recently, I have observed that to a great extent, the attitude of Nigerians to every situation does not reflect what is obtainable in other parts of the world. Forget the excuse of saying those countries are advanced and we are not. This is not even about the bad roads, poor power supply, decline in the quality of education etc. I am taking about our attitude to the next man. Our brain is not powered by the electricity generated from Kanji dam, so drop the poor power supply point. It is no rocket science to figure that beating a fellow human to death is not humane, so lack of education is no excuse. Reflect deeply, in recent times something is amiss with your thought process? Is there not?

There was a time you could not withstand the sight of blood, but now, you are used to scrolling through the graphic pictures of shattered bodies after a bomb blast. The problem is manifesting in you. You once believed that every human must be dignified in the way people treat them, but now your mobile phone is a compendium of nude pictures of ladies stripped naked for theft. My friend, it is a symptom of the problem. You had dreams to become a fulfilled lady, to go places and make positive impacts, but over the time, you settled for just clinching to a man and follow the trend of being a mere baby mama.

It is a political problem. A problem of the invisibility of hope in the future we see. It was present in your birth into the political reality of Nigeria. When you were born, you did not have the problem, but when you had a rebirth to the understanding of the nation, you got stuck to the problem. You would be glad to watch a petty thief set ablaze because you know you laboured too hard to buy the goods he stole. If the political atmosphere had been such that your labour would have been reduced, you would have perhaps made a less rash decision. If your birth to exposure was not in a nation where lawlessness prevails, you would flee from stripping a person accused of stealing a phone. Our problems are many, they vary and we all have a share.

People like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and David Mark are not Nigerians- they won't witness us setting each other ablaze for petty items. They won't buy their goods where they would see a lady being stripped naked for theft. They won't board a public bus where they would discover how much damage poverty has done to our ability to be humane. They won't know how passionate we are at stabbing ourselves because of Chelsea and Arsenal.

It is easy for Mrs Okonjo-Iweala to impose harsh economic policies and secure that with a threat of resignation because she is not like us. We must serve as a litmus test for whatever it was that she was taught theoretically at Harvard by her professors. But I doubt if Ngozi's erudition in economics is as sound as her understanding of Nigerians. For David Mark, it is easy to say that he will give anything to secure the unity of Nigeria because he has nothing to give. That is the habit of people who promise a lot, they have so little or nothing.

There is a problem with all true Nigerians. I mean the average man that works for his pay, the student that reads for his exams, the lecturers that upholds fairness, the lady that can't stand at Allen Avenue at night. We know we have a problem, but we live in its denial. David Mark, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and others are lucky. They are lucky that we have more important things to do than checking them. We have season films to see, a lot of football matches; we have nude pictures of Blackberry thieves to laugh at. Too many important tasks are keeping us busy. Like our ladies are busy fainting at P-square's show and the energetic young men are in the contest of the latest sneakers. The day we have a break from this important work will spell trouble for aliens.

Someone will come on NL just to book a space,,na land??

Tailors will tell u to cum 2morow and u'll still be going there for the next 2 weeks

MTN sends your more message than the ones yu get on yur birthday

Danfo drivers fear agbero pass police

Bla bla bla


I love Nigeria

Op, you deserve my respect.

brilliant piece

Nice one op.

I'd like to add to your point of "burning thieves". Most of the people who do this are Christians but they are quick to generalise Islam as a violent religion. Apparently, they have failed to realise that they are even worse because I have never heard of a Christian/pastor preaching against such acts.

The situation of our mentality in this country is truly depressing

Food for thought....we really need reorientation as Nigerians. Serious one! It's not about illitracy or poverty. It's about common sense and civility. A blackberry fone is never worth a person's life. Even if we were to live by 'an eye for an eye' principle....then a stolen bb should be replaced and not taking the person's life.