MY PAIN



I'm pained and consoled at the same time.

I'm pained that those who supposedly pride themselves with the "I am educated/civilized" title do so not for it's truism but to simply win an argument. We want to make the opponent look stupid_ 'as e con be say na only you civilize, who I be wey go argue with you?'. No! I'm sure if you listen to yourself in the heat of the moment you'd hear yourself say, 'I don't care if you learn because I'm not here to teach you. Yes! I'm here to impose my idea on yours, I'm here to suffocate you and make sure your opinion doesn't count. (Why?)  'Because I'm civilized and you're not.'

That's how lowly our 'know all(s)' have sank. We now argue to win. No compromise. God forbid! 'a whole me, loose to that empty vessel?' how now? We've got no space to accommodate, empathize and then teach or learn. Our minds are made up even before the debate is nigh. "My '6' is and will always be 6." and so anything contrary to preconceived notion about the topic of discourse holds nothing.

I'm even more pained that we seem to have exhausted the political and ethnic phases to arguments and have now condescended to throwing religious punches. This particular area has paused my pen for some time now _I've been thinking about how we seem to have killed our intellectuality with religious 'bigotism' (pardon the English). Truth be told, I respect people a lot until religion sets in.

I'm pained because down south, the fight (for who get sense pass) has taken a new dimension along religious lines. I'm either deemed unintelligent among my Christian folks simply because I'm a Muslim or that you're simply intolerant or one-sided in judgement simply because you're a Christian. The bruises are manifest in the heightened level of hatred cum the malignant relationships we nurture.

'that Muslim boy just too wicked',  'those Muslims too dey dirty',  'that mallam na boko-haram. 'That Pastor na thief', 'that reverend no dey forgive', 'that apostle too proud',  'I hear say he dey do juju for India come take run miracles' are a few familiar vilifications that make our day every day. Here person no fit be person again o. No way, we must find a religion to associate h/her with and rain abuses on the lot just so we can be called civilized by those who pitch tent with us in this lowly low.

We now seem to know more about a religion we don't practice nor even have interest in simply because we want to hurt the faithfuls therein. A Muslim judge cannot preside over my case because he's perceived an enemy. A Christian lawyer may not defend me well in a case between me and his Christian brother.

Meanwhile, the government we voted in is busy not being responsive to reasons we filed up under the rain and in the sun to put them in charge. They are busy failing/dashing our expectations.
Meanwhile, service providers like the telecommunications and the banking sector are busy extorting us. They have the effrontery, temerity, guts to perpetuate incessant acts of stealing_ collecting tiny illegal charges (that culminate into billions of Naira everyday) from us and we are unperturbed as even the judiciary who are supposed to know better are busy protecting thieving politicians.
Meanwhile, lying ministers are on TV _boasting of projects they never did. Insulting our collective intelligence and so on.

I'm pained!

I'm pained that no matter what I write about how low we've sank, nothing tangible will be done to stem the tide.
I'm pained that we care less about things that matter.
I'm pained that some elements have gone rogue are are busy acting as if they have the licence to kill at will while their brother who we entrusted our security to has done nothing to curb their excesses.
I'm pained that unintelligent people are playing GOD.

I'm however consoled that (though we are heading there gradually) we've not resorted to acting the script that once played out when the Northerners were busy murdering Southerners (and this was termed a Muslim (North) fight against the Christian (South _Igbo massacre) in the said territories of Hausa/Fulanis.

There's so much to say but Nigerians will rather settle for jokes than things that really matter.

What do you call a people who rush to petrol stations with jerry-cans to buy and store fuel at exorbitant prices simply because they fear the hike might heighten and again for the fear of scarcity but are quick to judge a fellow based on religious grounds simply because they presume themselves civilized humans?

I leave you to your thoughts.

__Jeremiah Kadiri ACICRM
                29/12/017

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