Nigerians, Corruption And Idealism 2

Everyone is corrupt

In Nigeria, corruption has become a lifestyle, and when it’s time to appoint blame we’re quick to point fingers to the leaders, but the truth is each and every citizen of this country is to blame, yes everyone is corrupt. I heard about a song by Lagbaja a while ago but being who I am I completely forgot about my decision to download it and recently after hearing someone at work singing another song by the legend I just decided to go online and download some of his songs and yeah I came across the song and finally downloaded it, it’s called 200 million mumu. The song talks about the mumurity of us Nigerians and that if we want to blame anyone for the poor state of our country we should go far since we all have mirrors. I agree. Everyone in this country is corrupt. I was on an okada the other day and we were flagged down by two policemen, after almost twenty minutes was spent inspecting the okadaman’s papers one of the policemen was like

Chairman just drop something make we no waste your time.

I thought he was joking, we had been in the sun for twenty minutes and now he was talking about not wasting our time, the okadaman later handed him 150 naira (without my knowledge of course, I for don para) and these are the kind of people we have watching over us. When the people that are meant to combat injustice are openly engaging in it then what hope does an average citizen have.

And even the people steal from themselves.

 Nigerians have this mind-set of getting what you can whenever the opportunity presents itself, even if it’s not exactly legal, and anyone that decides not to take advantage of these ‘opportunities’ is seen as a dull or slow guy. So when people start screaming for justice and punishment for the corrupt they might not be aware they're also calling for their own punishment as was beautifully expressed in the song 200 million mumu.

"KILL THE CORRUPT" you say, might just be asking for your own death

Now the only way this nation and its people will be able to cure the disease that is corruption is idealism. Idealism is believing in a perfect outcome and working towards that outcome even if its not likely. If Nigerians start developing an idealistic mindset injustice would not be tolerated, the government would not get away with corruption because with an idealistic mindset the people would rise to fight corruption at any level, billions would not go missing and security wouldn't be as big of a concern. I know its not possible for all Nigerians or even half of the entire population to take up idealism but if even a small fraction take up idealism there would be great changes everywhere.

I know i can't expect a significant fraction of the population to just change their mindsets so suddenly so the hope of Nigeria i will say lies in us youth, we should be idealistic and stand against injustice. The 'Don't Dull It' mentality is not what we want to build on. Lets put  real meaning to the words 'Proudly Nigerian'.