We (Nigerians) Are Strange People 

-Ugo Chikezie 

1. We make people believe that It’s very okay to be wicked, cruel and evil. Yes! It’s magnificent to misrule us, loot our resources, impoverish us, live in opulence at our expenses. Match on people’s heads. Kill them if they dare to demand results from you. When you die, we will eulogize you.

2. After all, In our clime, we don’t speak ill of the dead even if they were responsible for the hardship and untimely death of thousands of our compatriots. Immediately they take their last breath, we elevate them to celestial height. We roll out drums and begin to celebrate them.

3. We pray to God but we don’t even agree with God’s word in Proverbs 11:10b “when the wicked perish there are shouts of joy”.

4. I was a university undergraduate in 1998 when Sani Abacha died, his death gave some of us a sense of relief because he was a despotic ruler. Sadly, many years down the line, I saw our government giving the same Sani Abacha a posthumous award. Even the late Lawrence Anini had people that defended him when he was executed. Don’t we have we people defending Evans the kidnapper? It’s our style.

5. Our minds are so sick that we think anti-clockwise, yet we wonder what gave the Europeans the temerity to begin to toy with the idea of coming to use us as Guinea pigs to experiment with the coronavirus vaccine. The world don’t take us seriously anymore.

6. Stockholm syndrome hostage has made us become psychologically, emotionally, culturally and physically loyal to our oppressors. Now we feel more comfortable blaming the victims (our fellow citizens) for expressing themselves rather than actually calling out the oppressors.

7. We celebrate rogues… In fact, we claim ownership of thieves as long as they are from our tribes, religions, political parties, etc.

8. We encourage people in their bad behaviour. We give chieftaincy titles to thrives. We invent excuses for government failures yet we wonder why our country has remained backwards.

9. We are Cowards. We are willful slaves. We love our oppressors. It’s easier for us to attack ourselves than to attack those who are stealing from us.

10. That’s how we roll.
– We are strange people.
– Hypocrisy is our way of life.
– We are in love with our chain.
– Mediocrity looks like excellence in our eyes.