This Is The Tap Root Of Nigeria's Problems

Many people are wondering why I refused to tell you my name. Now I tell you: it is because if I tell you my name, I am 99% sure that your tribal sentiments would militate against the message I have for the country.

But the message I have is far more important than to be wasted on the altar of self-importance. Indeed, the message is so important that the messenger is of zero consideration in relation to it. 

So, you don't need to know my name. I am not important here. My message is what is all-important. Therefore, Nigerians, give it every attention it deserves. If not, there is a calamity of great proportions that is coming upon this people and place called Nigeria.

Let the above paragraphs serve as the introduction to my current message on the tap root of Nigeria's problems. 

DON'T COMPLAIN IF YOU CAN'T ACT

DON'T COMPLAIN IF YOU CAN'T ACT BECAUSE ALL WORDS AND NO ACTION MAKES YOU LOOK SO SILLY. 

I know Nigerians as a complaining people. We are mostly all words and no action, at best, feeble action. That's why feeble old men have been able to clamp down on and mortgage the future of millions of young able people for donkey years.

But those young people - generation after generation - are all there complaining and fighting one another. That's why Buhari called them lazy young people and they were angry. Yet, the old man only said a bitter truth. 

After all, Buhari ruled a country in his 30s. He returned and took power again after 40 years. So, in his 70s, he ruled again and Nigerians who were as old as he was when he first ruled, and even older, were worshiping him and egging him on just to get some morsels from his table.

So, who says Buhari did not have the right to show open disrespect for the Nigerian young population? He surely had the right, and only a self-deceiving young Nigerian would say otherwise.

So, What Is The Tap Root Of Nigeria's Problems Then?

As we know, the Nigerian problems have often been described as hydra-headed, multifaceted and complex.

But, after years of interactions and reflections, I daresay that the tap root of all this labyrinth of problems is in the mindset of the people called Nigerians today. There is no doubt about this and I know you must already understand what I mean by this...somewhat at least.

I keep seeing profound mindset flaws among the Nigerian masses affecting everything else about Nigeria so adversely! From politics to poor electricity supply to high insecurity levels to lack of innovativeness among us and more and more and more. Hence its qualification as a tap root in this message.

It is a very wide area. But permit me to start with what I call "an epidemic of low emotional intelligence" in the Nigerian society. There are other mindset, or for that matter, mental epidemics like this that I'm going to be talking about with time. But let me start with what I consider the most serious of them: an epidemic of low emotional intelligence.

It's actually a mental case so persistent and wide-spanning in the Nigerian society from generation to generation. It's such that I think it has qualified as a regional mental pandemic instead. A predominant paucity of emotional intelligence among Nigerians.

For instance, compassion and empathy are at the heart of what is identified as emotional intelligence. To the extent that you can feel and care about the suffering of other humans, only to that extent you are a human being yourself. Otherwise, you are just a beast in human shape.

Or, how many times have you seen a cow or a goat caring whether you live or you die? That's because cows and goats are expected to be equipped with no more than low levels of emotional quotient just like intelligence quotient too.

Now, here is a recent experience I had proving how much Nigerians as a people may lack the qualities of empathy and compassion...

I made a very poignant finding recently. It concerns a baby who is going hungry with his mother. From what is behind the misfortune of this family, I was able to deduce that there must be at least thousands of other families in their shoes.

I made some efforts to share the story with a couple hundreds of people online. I shared a piece of idea I have on how to help such families across the country. Unfortunately, none of those I shared this story with seems to care.

Nobody commented. Nobody shared. And nobody came into the inbox to make an inquiry.

You can see how lifeless the situation of the economy has made us massively. It's such that we lack empathy and compassion as a people as a culture. A mental culture that has transmitted into a social culture and then transmitted into a political cum economic culture.

Hence, we are going around an eternal vicious cycle as a people from decade to decade. It will soon be from century to century as our children down the generations continue the stupidity that we started.

Of course, it must be like parents like children. That's until we decide to take the bull by the horn and say "enough is enough".

Our So-called Leaders Are Nothing But Samples Of Us

To the extent that you lack empathy and compassion as a human being, you are a beast. Take it from me. You are a beast!

But in Nigeria, people take it for granted that they are heartless, that they are hurting someone. Nigerians upon Nigerians even show that they are proud of this. Hence, you will often find a Nigerian celebrating someone's misfortune by saying things like "e pain am".

Isn't it the same mindset manifested by President Tinubu when he callously announced the removal of subsidy on his first day in office without caring who might die as a result of it. 

And,many have been dying -especially women and children. Or didn't you listen to the gory stories of what Nigerians are passing through as recently told by New York Times? And it got so bad only in a year of only one man being on the saddle.

And this is just President Tinubu's own way of expressing the pandemic or epidemic mindset I mentioned before. Before him, Buhari was there and the way he manifested the same mindset was to release his kind into the country to kill fellow citizens with impunity. So, he used what should have been security apparatus as terrorism apparatus.

Surprisingly, Buhari seems to be at peace with himself right now. I wonder where his Muslim conscience went when he was fermenting those troubles for those he was supposed to be protecting! 

So, Only Grounds-up Mindset Transformation Can Change The Situation

Yes, only this! Otherwise, we should get ready to spend eternity being a useless country. And it doesn't matter whether we keep breaking up until every family is a country of its own. If this happens and our mindsets are still what they are, those countries will all be useless.

For instance, Nigerians seem to have this attitude as a permanent culture: We talk about God a lot but we care about God so little!

I've just mentioned Buhari and how he spent his 8-year presidency fighting a war that nobody knew existed before he came. The old man was apparently waging a war against his own countrymen, I mean it was more than obvious. Yet, he daily professed a religion that pride itself as a religion of peace, even by its very name!

Talking about the generality of the Muslim Umar in Nigeria, I am very surprised at the widespread attitude of open brazen support for outright injustices fomented against people of other religions and regions. Yet, their holy book states it clearly as follows:

Courtesy: The Muslim Vibes

Although you can't rightly say that all Nigerian Muslims are guilty of this. Yet, we all know that it is a preponderant attitude of Nigerian Muslims.

For instance, during election, an overwhelming majority of Northern Nigerian Muslims are likely to vote for someone not because the person is the right candidate to take the country to its promise land, but because the person is Muslim, or at least, Northern (because religion and region is such an odd mixture working against the collective progress of the people called Nigerians).

Unfortunately, The Christian South Is Actually Worse

In many Christian families in Nigeria's South, there are serious quarrels going on. And what is the cause? it is often as a result of two brothers, sisters, a brother and a sister being members of different denominations of Christianity.

Ever so often, the fights actually get to mortal stages. Quite often, the children of the original fighters continue to engage in the inter-family wars borne of interdenominational beefs.

All this is done in absolute disregard of what their Lord, the Prince of Peace, instructed them to do for example at the Sermon On the Mountain. So, it is clear that no one cares about what their prophets taught them even as recorded in the holy books they recite on a daily basis.

How Then Can We Begin To Effectively Change Our Mindsets So As To Actualize Our Destinies?

This is the most important question here? And so, I would like us to answer it together.

Oh yes, expect a follow-up to this current message. In that follow-up, I hope to address this question in detail. But first, I need your input to the answer. Yes, it is so important - this question - that I can't attempt an answer to it without first hearing from YOU.

So, kindly think and pray on this before you comment your contribution below. After going through your contributions, I will decide whether I need the follow-up or not because I expect that you are likely to have better answer than I do.

Thank you!