Africa. West Africa. Nigeria. Population: Two hundred and Twelve point three million. Tribes and languages: Three hundred and Fifty plus. Common national language: denial
Not one of those Two hundred and twelve Point two million people can admit to suffering a psychological disorder. But don’t be deceived: it exists. This disorder is peculiar to Nigeria—and any other nation where people prefer irrationality to rationality. It’s called Post Traumatic Nigerian Disorder
Ask a Nigerian a simple question say, where you dеy go? They’ll likely respond with: Why you go Dеy ask me where I Dey go? We suppose go together na him i no tell you before? It takes a question of destination and turns it into a question of integrity, memory and authority. Nigerians love to ask questions. But we always seem to be asking the wrong ones. Why, for instance, do we never wonder why we can’t enjoy stable electricity? Why have we been conditioned to accept power outages as a fact of living? Why do we think roads that kill us deserve to be funded every year with the same results? Why do we believe the government shouldn’t care about us simply because we don’t care about the government? What is the cost of resilience?
Fellow Nigerians, it’s time to acknowledge the disorder. So we can stop blaming each other for a disorder that is common to all of us. So we can start asking the right questions of the right people. So we can start discussing solutions. Because you see, these streets? They have joy, sadness, hurt, celebration, lessons, wisdom, foolishness, consequences. Because these streets are all of us. And we are all of them
Post was written by Aruna Olanrewaju Kabiru.
Mooseylion released Post on Fri Dec 17 2021.