"Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves". Stephen Kendrick. 


 I always look at the rate at which we display our selfish nature and see the main reason we are the "giant" of Africa. Anything that is not directly affecting us negatively is always viewed as "normal" but when we are directly affected especially negatively, those things are then termed "alien" to the society and must be treated with fastest possible measures: our middle name should be "selfish". 
According to a Yoruba maxim that magnifies this selfish nature of ours which goes thus : "bi kinihun ba pa omo talika, ohun buruku lo nilu sugbon bi kinihun ba pa omo olowo, ohun buruku wolu" ( if a poor man's child is killed by a lion, bad things have left the land, but if a rich man's child is killed by a lion, bad things are in town. That is the nature of our selfish reasoning that has been making us "grow" since independence. 
When unemployed youths complain about the rate of unemployment in the country, the employed ones ( which happened to be constituted by majority of beneficiaries of nepotism and cronysm) find their outcry as "noise".
When contract staff voice how incensed they are about the treatment they are "enjoying" from their employer(s), the permanent staff ( that most of them are doing almost nothing and yet are getting the best treatment) term their agitation as insurbordination. 
When polytechnics graduates narrate their ordeals about the Bsc/Hnd dichotomy, most degree holders always look at their points as tendered ballot papers in an election. 
Medical practitioners feel they are the only ones that deserve the best treatment and respect forgetting the fact that if it happened that  a law or engineering graduate today was admitted to study medicine, he would have graduated and probably better than most today's medical personnel: we all can never be in the same field. 
When a biafra protester is shot by police, a Southwesterner or Northerner always have the feeling within himself like "Na God catch am, wetin dem dey find up and down? " but if such happens to our own people, that is when we will remember the lines like : " the policeman responsible must be brought to book, Nigerian police are known for extra judicial killings, the are the best in shooting harmless civilians" bla bla bla....
Whenever bokoharam strike in the north, majority of us in the south will be quick to say the usual "they should be killing themselves o" forgetting the fact that most of the victims of these bomb blasts are innocent Nigerians like us dying for what they know nothing about. 
When our brothers from the south-south region call the attention of government to the level of hardships they are encountering as a result of oil-related environmental hazards, people from other regions look at them as hired mourners: Ken Saro Wiwa's  warnings, a case study. 
When our female counterparts express how disgruntled they are about what they pass through on daily basis (from school to job hunting, working place and the society at large), our only response will be "thank God say I no be woman". 
Just like in that epic movie, Troy, when the king went to Achilles to release Hector's corpse to him and Achilles said he would not release the corpse because Hector killed his (Achilles) cousin. The king asked Achilles that did he know how many people's cousins he (Achilles) has killed?  
Fellow Nigerians, let us drop this baggage of selfishness and embrace the spirit of "injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere ". 
Treat others like you will like to be treated and see us co-existing harmoniously once again. 
A greater Nigeria is possible with individual right attitude towards one another. 
Adegboyega Adebiyi
alphasalvador117@gmail.com

Trutalk op.
FTC,though im not fighting for it but if it comes my way i gonna grab it.

hmmmm.

You have a good point BRO,

But in this country called NIGERIA , " ki olori di ori e mu ni". Mind and faCE your own palava.

If me, my Friends and family are doing great, I have no business with anybody but that doesn't mean I won't give helping hands if I am chanced and capable of rendering my help/favour.

If you carry naija mata for head, it's just like a course you will study for years without graduating.
Selfishness is everywhere and most people don't care about others because wetin dey their head pass to put another man pikin own join.

lalasticlala where u dey see food for FP

Hmmmmmm!

@op,

You're a real human being not like some of the wild animals running around here.

Great post.

Curlieweed:
@op,

You're a real human being not like some of the wild animals running around here.

Great post.

Thanks

Hyper-capitalism has turned many of us into determined monsters. "Wage slaving" is a trending term reserved for a mentality proscribed for people who strongly believe in a society in which you must work your fingers to the bone for monetary compension you or anyone does not control. Not even Buhari can help Nigerians here. You're right OP, many of us are conditioned to look down on those who aren't wage slaving

Don't get me wrong, if you don't hustle you don't eat. You'd be surprisingly alarmed at how many social facets hyper-capitalism and cronyism has negatively impacted aside from selfishness.

Bacteriocin:
"Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves". Stephen Kendrick. 
 I always look at the rate at which we display our selfish nature and see the main reason we are the "giant" of Africa. Anything that is not directly affecting us negatively is always viewed as "normal" but when we are directly affected especially negatively, those things are then termed "alien" to the society and must be treated with fastest possible measures: our middle name should be "selfish". 
According to a Yoruba maxim that magnifies this selfish nature of ours which goes thus : "bi kinihun ba pa omo talika, ohun buruku lo nilu sugbon bi kinihun ba pa omo olowo, ohun buruku wolu" ( if a poor man's child is killed by a lion, bad things have left the land, but if a rich man's child is killed by a lion, bad things are in town. That is the nature of our selfish reasoning that has been making us "grow" since independence. 
When unemployed youths complain about the rate of unemployment in the country, the employed ones ( which happened to be constituted by majority of beneficiaries of nepotism and cronysm) find their outcry as "noise".
When contract staff voice how incensed they are about the treatment they are "enjoying" from their employer(s), the permanent staff ( that most of them are doing almost nothing and yet are getting the best treatment) term their agitation as insurbordination. 
When polytechnics graduates narrate their ordeals about the Bsc/Hnd dichotomy, most degree holders always look at their points as tendered ballot papers in an election. 
Medical practitioners feel they are the only ones that deserve the best treatment and respect forgetting the fact that if it happened that  a law or engineering graduate today was admitted to study medicine, he would have graduated and probably better than most today's medical personnel: we all can never be in the same field. 
When a biafra protester is shot by police, a Southwesterner or Northerner always have the feeling within himself like "Na God catch am, wetin dem dey find up and down? " but if such happens to our own people, that is when we will remember the lines like : " the policeman responsible must be brought to book, Nigerian police are known for extra judicial killings, the are the best in shooting harmless civilians" bla bla bla....
Whenever bokoharam strike in the north, majority of us in the south will be quick to say the usual "they should be killing themselves o" forgetting the fact that most of the victims of these bomb blasts are innocent Nigerians like us dying for what they know nothing about. 
When our brothers from the south-south region call the attention of government to the level of hardships they are encountering as a result of oil-related environmental hazards, people from other regions look at them as hired mourners: Ken Saro Wiwa's  warnings, a case study. 
When our female counterparts express how disgruntled they are about what they pass through on daily basis (from school to job hunting, working place and the society at large), our only response will be "thank God say I no be woman". 
Just like in that epic movie, Troy, when the king went to Achilles to release Hector's corpse to him and Achilles said he would not release the corpse because Hector killed his (Achilles) cousin. The king asked Achilles that did he know how many people's cousins he (Achilles) has killed?  
Fellow Nigerians, let us drop this baggage of selfishness and embrace the spirit of "injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere ". 
Treat others like you will like to be treated and see us co-existing harmoniously once again. 
A greater Nigeria is possible with individual right attitude towards one another. 
Adegboyega Adebiyi
alphasalvador117@gmail.com

I like @bold and will have to borrow

AAinEqGuinea:
Hyper-capitalism has turned many of us into determined monsters. "Wage slaving" is a trending term reserved for a mentality proscribed for people who strongly believe in a society in which you must work your fingers to the bone for monetary compension you or anyone does not control. Not even Buhari can help Nigerians here. You're right OP, many of us are conditioned to look down on those who aren't wage slaving

Don't get me wrong, if you don't hustle you don't eat. You'd be surprisingly alarmed at how many social facets hyper-capitalism and cronyism has negatively impacted aside from selfishness.

Hmmmmmm

AAinEqGuinea:
Hyper-capitalism has turned many of us into determined monsters. "Wage slaving" is a trending term reserved for a mentality proscribed for people who strongly believe in a society in which you must work your fingers to the bone for monetary compension you or anyone does not control. Not even Buhari can help Nigerians here. You're right OP, many of us are conditioned to look down on those who aren't wage slaving

Don't get me wrong, if you don't hustle you don't eat. You'd be surprisingly alarmed at how many social facets hyper-capitalism and cronyism has negatively impacted aside from selfishness.



I like @bold and will have to borrow

No wahala