Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Melancholy

I originally drafted this post on 9/6/2006 but never posted it.
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I've just watched a one hour video with excerpts of interviews from Maaman Vatsa's widow and sons. Its just so sad. One of the things that make my blood boil is our denial as a people. My father and I had a heated argument about contemporary Nigerian culture a few weeks ago. According to him, one has to be careful, because western values are eroding our society, and lie at the root of our problems as a nation. I just could not hear that calmly. Western people have public structures in place, universal education, enough food, regular electricity and clean water for all their people. I don't care what they are doing wrong, I'd like to have a part in it!

We in Nigeria on the other hand are God-fearing - the number of Public places of worship is unbelievable- yet we cannot provide education, portable water, constant electricity,etc, etc, yet we have the audacity to sit on a moral high horse about other people's values. We have such a huge LOG in our eyes, so big that we are 3/4 blind, yet we claim to see the gnat in other people's eyes.

We claim to be godly, but obviously we do not adhere to the saying "cleanliness is next to godliness", as the amount of rubbish on our roads can attest to. We are such egoists that caring for number one is uppermost in our minds. We get slighted at the slightest hint of disrespect. "Don't you know I'm so and so". People are content to live in their mansions surrounded by stark suffering. We wallow in our ability to throw crumbs under the table to our fellow Nigerians. We claim that we are decent and regularly express outrage at the morals of westerners, yet anyone who has ever been to female halls of residence at a Nigerian University knows that our exclamations are a case of pot calling the kettle black. At least, the Europeans mostly do it for love, or desire. What do you say about a nation of people who worship the god of their bellies. What about using every means possible to extort money from fellow human beings. We are not the poorest nation on earth so we cannot claim that we are the way we are because we are poor. And a lot of our people are well educated, but the education seems only to make them worse.

Many times I despair for our nation. Every nation has its ups and downs, but how do you retrive a people whose morals and ideals have been corroded away by selfishness and greed? Is there still a chance to pull us back from the edge of the precipice or have we already fallen over?


Nobody can convince me this was how our cultures were. Just a little glimpse back into my relationship with people who have since passed impresses upon my mind that it was not always this way.
We have become a people with no ability to "cut our coat according to our cloth" not as individuals, not as a nation. We are a nation of suffering people, yet at the slightest opportunity, we carry out orgies of spending, regardless of where we get the money from.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice. I have had the same argument with my parents and their friends over and over again.

Frances Uku said...

church, turn to the person next to you and say AMEN!

internationalhome said...

i agree completely...it is surely a shame!

TY Tha Mos Magnificent said...

tru word. wotever the oyinbos r doing i want 2 be part of it. They seem to have gotten it right while we r still crying over NEPA and a missing palne

joicee said...

Well written...Thankfully there are people like you out there

I think for us to move forward as a people we need a complete mindset overhaul

naijaleta said...

Easy, please take it easy. I believe in Nigeria and I believe Nigeria will survive.I feel your pain anyway.

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

I am preparing a post on 419 and remembered that we had a discussion about it here, so I came by to take a look and hopefully link to that post. However, I noticed this post and read it and I feel where you are coming from.

I have been asking people about what Nigeria's values are due to a question posed to me by the administrator of the Afro Beat over a month ago and in general, we all refer to golden ideals that seem to have gone by the wayside a long time ago.

There is no collective push in Nieria to return to the good ideals that our parent had. Instead, the good aspects of our culture have been corrupted while the worst attributes are being placed on a platter for all to see.

Western culture is not destroying Nigerian culture, selfishness and greed at all levels has destroyed Nigerian culture and destroyed the Nigerian spirit. We have no idea who we are anymore. We are all simply hustling trying to get from day to day. Now, I am not judging anyone in particular, I am only expressing what I see. If I am mistaken, I openly ask anyone to correct me. Swing by nigeriancuriosity.com and let me know where your thoughts are so can see where you are coming from.

Nigeria needs to include a push for better morals and behavior in all parts of society. It will help pull all the solutions we need to improve our great nation together and make it easier to accomplish our goals. Boy, I'm ranting and that means it is time to stop. So, Marin, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I appreciate your ideas and am happy I have the opportunity to read them.

Take care.

Anonymous said...

yes i feel ur pains too,
I think Nigeria will still survive
We just have to keep praying...

Anonymous said...

we just have to get ourselves focused

Anonymous said...

We Nigerians know our problems, and we know the solution to our problems but i think the major problem is that we are not willing to start solving them, we prefer to just point accusing fingers on one another. while leaving the main issue unaddressed..

Anonymous said...

We must look into ourselves and find ways of improving ourselves...

I think thats what would make this nation greater.

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

Marin, where are you? Are you guys okay?

Take care.

NIGERIAN CURIOSITY
IT WAS SO MUCH EASIER WHEN I ONLY HAD ONE

ivy said...

dear marin, just wld like to drop u a note saying thank u for leaving a msg, and best wishes to u

ivy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

was so happy to see you 'surface' at Nigerian Curiosity, lol!

Stay blessed!

Monef said...

You still blogging?

Marin said...

I am still here, just have been suffering writer's block and have had a lot happening privately. Thank you all for visiting my blog and for your comments.

BLOG WATCH!!!! Don't forget to give credit if you borrow anything from this blog.