₦airaland Forum

ikanason: Our prayer is working

Really? Then why is Nigeria in this abysmal condition? If you think cash did not change hands, then you are naive!

njideoby: Our God is a prayer answering God and never fails.

May be your God is the problem of Nigeria or, havent you been praying, fasting and paying tithes for decades now? Use your head MA!

Bullshit!!! what is wrong with Nigerians? what is great about graduates taking over car washing business in Nigeria? after spending donkey years in school and paying hard earned cash to get educated only to come out and start washing cars....men this is BULLSHIT!! The comments above shows the cowardliness in Nigerians, you let the dog sleep on your bed while you sleep on the floor just because you do not want trouble, rubbish... its high time you chase the DOGS from your bed or better still share the bed with the dogs....change your attitude Nigerians, car washing is not good enough for graduates, this country has more than enough resources to care for all.

You guyz am sorry to say are talking thrash. The presidency is a public office and is open to be criticized by the electorates... whats your take about the ridiculous amount that is allocated to office of the precidency under different guise?

All this talk about protecting the interest of Nigerians by the minister of foreign affairs is BULLSHIT! How about focusing on making Nigeria a better place, creating a hospitable and business friendly environment where infrastructures really work and Nigerians are in no hurry to leave? it doesn't matter if the proposed policy is political, the British are tackling their problems headlong and they do not owe us any apology. If you must go to Britain, make sure you have business being in Britain. I wish other western countries would take cue and adopt this same immigration policy as Britain, its high time we stop being weaklings and fight for our right in our country. Nigeria is for all of us, though that is a proposition we are yet to assert.

This is the more reason you don't go about granting renowned state looters amnesty...Jonathan!

The problem of Nigerians is numerous ranging from tribalism to ignorance, but in a nut shell Nigerians are INDECISIVE.The day Nigerians decide to take their fate into their hands and become stakeholders in issues that affect their lives, the day Nigerians come to realize that good things must be labored, fought and struggled for, that day things would start changing for the better in Nigeria. Nigerians forget that it is ones interest that is at stake when ones neighbors fence is on fire! standing alone for so long has brought Nigeria to this pitiable condition.

Often I have quoted the self-reliance and resilience of Nigerians as a positive trait. They fend for themselves. I called this attitude creativity and sold it as a strong suit. After living in Lagos for three months, I am starting to reconsider.

A fountain of borehole water cascades down from my neighbour’s rooftop tank at least twice a day for twenty minutes. Watching this water being wasted so decadently in a world where fresh water is becoming a precious commodity that in time will be more valuable than gold upsets me every time. ‘Water is free’, says the Lagosian, and drills himself a borehole. Never mind the risks to health and environment.

When I fulminated against this attitude, one of my favourite Twitter followers answered: ‘What would u rather he does, Femke? Wait for pipe-borne water that NEVER runs?’ His response has been resonating in my mind ever since.

Often I have quoted the self-reliance and resilience of Nigerians as a positive trait. When something turns sour, Nigerians do not sit and wait for help. They create their own solutions, however crooked, barely legal or inherently damaging these might be. They fend for themselves. I called this attitude creativity and sold it as a strong suit. After living in Lagos for three months, I am starting to reconsider.

Fending for yourself in the Nigerian context, means when the water pipes stop running, you do not hold the State Water Agencies accountable, but hire a borehole specialist that drills another hole that eventually will cause a landslide.

Fending for yourself means whenever ‘they’ve taken light’, you and your entire neighbourhood do not go to the PHCN office for a mass demonstration.

Instead you endure the lack of electricity until you’ve saved enough Naira to buy yourself a pass-your-neighbour to join the concert of blaring generators as soon as the light goes off. Never mind the rising cases of asthma, lung cancer, and other serious heath problems because of air pollution.

Fending for yourself means sending your children away to a proper school abroad instead of insisting on quality education in your own country. The poor man’s kids can go and rot in the classrooms of the sub-standard public education system.

Fending for yourself means when you suspect four students of stealing laptops and mobile phones, you go ahead and take up the role of judge, jury and executioner personally, because you cannot trust a law system that is rotten to the core.

The question in all these issues is simple: when did Nigerians stop being stakeholders in their own society?

Their resilience to cope with a dysfunctional government has turned into complacency. Instead of demanding for change, acting for change, starting a revolution for all I care, the first thing that comes to the Nigerian’s mind when ‘the system’ fails him is: how can I (singular) get out of this? Not we. In the end, fending for yourself means just that: for yourself and no one else. Screw your neighbours, your countrymen, the people who are worse off than you. In the long run this reflex, in which Nigerians have trained themselves to perfection, actually worsens the situation run rather than making it better.

This is not a society. It is a collection of individuals fending for themselves. Nothing truly binds them together.

It is the most dangerous condition for a state to be in. It is a recipe for implosion.

No be small thing ooo!!

?

My people did well.

sorry for the double post.