We have reached a stage in Nigeria, where it is normal to be bad, where it is expected to be unproductive, where it is abnormal to be normal and wrong to be straight forward. If you held public office and retired to your village, with nothing squandered to show, you most likely would be chased away and derided by your people. You score no points for having been an honest citizen of Nigeria and a diligent representative of the state. Your achievement is measured by how much you stole, appropriate or squandered!
In Nigeria, bad things simply are normal, necessary, probably even needed. In Nigeria, bad is good, evil is better and demonic the best.
Bribery is normal in this country, it is anticipated, it is expected, it is given particularly in government and largely in the private sector. Most people are tipped, bribed, kicked back, or settled! Or nowadays are blessed. Our love for material things of any kind, even when they are useless to us, makes us so amenable to compromise. Our greed and desire for things we have not worked for, not earned, make us all so susceptible to wickedness. In Nigeria, to be fair is to be foolish, to be straight is to be late, to be upstanding is to be down trodden, to be honest is to be rejected.
Bad driving is normal in Nigeria; it is expected for people not to obey traffic signals, disregard the lights and where possible ignore the policeman or traffic warden. It is not normal to give way to any traffic whether it is on your left or not and quite normal to drive with your horns blaring. It is normal to drive an unserviceable car, so it can break down on the bridge and cause traffic jams, normal to fight your fellow Nigerian after a minor accident. It is normal to stop in the middle of the road to greet a friend and quite normal to block the road so no other car can pass. Indeed, it is quite normal to be most destructive.
It is normal not to have constant electricity and it is expected that one owns a generator. In fact it is a great source of embarrassment not to own one. It is quite normal for there to be no diesel, no petrol and no kerosene. It is usual for the generator to break down and be unserviceable, and usual for there to be no parts for repairs.
Pot holes and bad roads are normal in Nigeria, very normal. Thank God for Fashola in Lagos who with his magic wand or ‘fly whisk’ has ‘wished’ quite a number away but even then a lot of rough surfaces remain.
It is quite normal for most projects to be left uncompleted for there to be so many abandoned projects for the government to waste a lot of money on. A lot of all that wastage is a lot of normal expectation.
It is normal not to find any staff from messenger to minister on seat, normal not to expect any normal value for a normal day’s work, normal not to get anything done, normal to expect the normal bureaucracy and the usual delays. Normal to be unable to book an appointment or to keep one, normal to not see the normal oga.
Corrupt officials are normal in Nigeria; it is normal for most people including directors, ministers and important people in government and society to live beyond their visible means. It is normal for them not to be probed, for them not to explain and quite normal for them to wantonly display this illgotten wealth. Not only normal, it is expected, demanded, anticipated, provided for, encouraged, and cheered!
It is normal for a Nigerian to be a Nigerian and that means that he is rude, arrogant, averagely dishonest, corrupt, aggressive, unfair, unfaithful, flagrant, irritable, excitable, averagely loud, and unstraight forward. It is normal for most Nigerians to be unfaithful especially to their wives and now more recently to their husbands. It is normal to go to church, attend the mosque and also consult a witch doctor or carry some witch craft marks or wear talisman.
Settlement is normal in Nigerian, in fact it is applauded and the beneficiaries are envied. It is not normal to hold your head up high in defense of your honesty in an environment where even your wife will say – ‘Na you alone be honest man, Na honesty we go chop?’
Yes indeed, it is normal for everyone to want to chop, chop, and chop until there is nothing left to chop. It is normal to lie, tell a fib, be dishonest, unusual to be straightforward, genuine, and dependable. It is normal not to give value for money, normal to compromise, and reduce your erstwhile abnormal standards.
It is normal to be a 419 person. Normal to make money illicitly through armed robbery, drug deals, uncompleted contracts and the like.
It is not normal to have a good police force in Nigeria, simply just not normal to have a properly functioning hospital. It is not normal for the Airport to be well maintained, air-conditioned, and efficient.
What then is abnormal in Nigeria? Everything else which is good, which is proper, which should be applauded, which should be congratulated, which should be rewarded, which should be encouraged, which should be normal.
Any wonder therefore that we found ourselves in such a mess over the years? God have mercy. Nigeria is an amazing country where aberrations, abnormality and the unusual reign supreme!
Where there is confusion and disruption, the devil thrives. Who does not therefore know, who normally rules Nigeria? May God take charge of our affairs.
