In August 1973, a botched armed robbery, turned into an hostage situation! For six days, there was a standoff, and it was observed that during the ordeal, hostages developed empathy for the kidnappers, and even went as far as defending them after the ordeal!
The hostages took the lack of abuse from their captors, for an act of kindness! It was another incident that unveiled the depth of illogical emotions, and actions, people undergoing a stressful situation are capable of!
One day, I asked my friends on Facebook, if Nigerians love the taste of "shit"? "Shit", in this regard, represents every inhuman treatment we are subjected to by our elected officials, despite which we still remain docile, and even pray for them!
This illogical, Stockholm Syndrome-like situation, has led to the widely held belief that God, has a purpose for Nigeria, hence, our continued survival in the face of countless man-made situations that have caused other nations to go to war, or witness other cataclysmic upheavals!
I have declared several times, that God is our problem in Nigeria! Not in the sense that he is the cause of our woes, but that He has been used by many Nigerians, who show so much piety, as the crutch we lean on to excuse our laziness in confronting our government, and demanding that Nigerians too, should be privy to good governance!
Is it possible that we are actually witnessing a Stockholm Syndrome on a nationwide scale? A situation never before seen anywhere else!
Could a whole nation be so twisted as to now mistake bad politics, and policies, as a learning curve?
When will we then graduate, if we are "ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth"?
Why do we mistake bad roads for formula one race tracks, and take them for granted?
Why do we now accept, that generators are the de facto, and accepted, means of generating electricity?
Have we suffered so much, that we have become familiar with suffering, and it has become pleasure to us?
Are we now like the man who lives beside the railway track, who no longer hears the passing train at midnight, because he has become accustomed to the noise?
As I listen to people discuss national issues, and hear them articulate their inarticulate defense: I shudder because it seems our people do not get it: that the rest of the world do not live like us, that we are abnormal in our choosing to "suffer, and smile"!
The belt of suffering has been tightening, and new deprivations are emerging everyday: when are we going to finally realize it, that everything that has a beginning, has an end?
Or is our own situation different?
Until we demand an end to our present condition, a new dawn of progress will continue to elude us!
MAY DOD BLESS NIGERIA FOREVER!
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