The Problem of Nigeria is the People — Ife Anyi

A Nigerian man identified as Ife Anyi has given his share of thoughts on what he thinks is the problem of Nigerians.

When the question “what is wrong with Nigeria?” was asked on Quora, he contributed immensely by pinpointing the problem to the people and their mindset.

He wrote:

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The people! Nothing but the people—and with that said, let me show you a brief glimpse of the typical type of human beings we have in Nigeria. I am not saying I’m not one of those people causing Nigeria her numerous afflictions. Let’s go to my story, shall we?

I had a friend who lived with me in Lagos. He had a job on the island, and we lived on the mainland. His daily commute used to eat up a large chunk of his salary every month so he decided to look for a bank that will give him a car loan facility. The plan was he’ll purchase the car using the loan and then work Uber during the weekends to pay off the car loan.

In the end, he was able to get an unsecured salary loan from a shark lender (Ren Money Nigeria — 46% interest on loans below N1m). However, during that same period, he met a girl on Facebook. The girl came all the way from Awka to coop with my friend in my apartment. I felt terrible, but hey, he was my friend, so I didn’t make my protestations known to him until after the girl had spent one week in the apartment, and I was getting oedemas on my feet from sleeping on the couch.

The loan was disbursed two weeks after application. I expected my friend to go straight ahead and purchase the car, but instead, he started spending heavily on the Facebook girl. Before long, he was buying gold engagement rings, exquisite matching outfits, and shopping sprees for the girl. The car question became a distant shadow in his mind.

Within the next five weeks, he moved out of my apartment to a bungalow he rented so that Facebook girl could have some privacy. The car by this time had become totally forgotten.

In January of 2016, He invested the remainder of the loan in MMM hoping to use the investment’s payoff to complete the money for the car. We all know what happened next: MMM crashed. He lost his job (surprised? He introduced everyone in the office to MMM). Shortly after the MMM crash, the Facebook girl broke up with him. So he ended up with no money and no girl.

The average Nigerian is like my friend: they go stark mad when they come in contact with money or a position that brings wealth. No current moral code can inhibit this streak in Nigerians. That hunger to become a big man is the heartbeat of the ordinary Nigerian.

The urge to be larger than life and appropriate the commonwealth; or, perpetuate corrupt acts is the life-force of elite Nigerians.

The average Nigerian is manifestly impatient to experience the good life. The Nigerian on the street may be very poor, but he definitely has a gnawing desire to live ‘large’ and become a ‘big man.’ By hook or crook; pure or impure means: it doesn’t matter. Do you know that thing they say about Yam and Goats? Former president Jonathan told us his father’s version while he was in office.

Basically, President Jonathan said that you shouldn’t keep goats and yams together because the goat will definitely eat the yam as a result of it [the goat] not having any inhibitions against doing so. The average Nigerian, while not being a goat, definitely cannot help but munch on yams left in his care. The yam doesn’t have to a large tuber, it just has to be a yam. In the same vein, we as a people are given to indiscriminate yam eating.

Manifest impatience leads to all sorts of issues in the country. Impatience is the chief factor giving Nigeria grief. Though we hate the status quo, there is no will to actually change the situation because we know that we can exploit the crooked construction called Nigeria to our advantage if we’re lucky.

Rebuilding things will take time. ‘if you get to Abuja, grab your slice of the national yam, don’t look back’ is the dominant mindset. Note that this does not only apply to the national yam, it refers to everything. It applies to everything such as the ministry official who has to be given kola nuts before he can submit your tender; the Road Safety officer who will collect N1000 from an owner of an unfit vehicle and wave him on, endangering lives in the process; the policeman who has made N50 collection his primary duty and not the security of lives and property. You get the gist. The scenarios are endless.

I want to apportion blames, but I do not even know where to start. I wish I had enough informed judgment to be able to say “hey, let’s blame this set of people or this generation.” I do know, however, that the problem is in every one of us.

If you didn’t already know about our unfortunate penchant for manifest impatience as Nigerians, take an in-depth look into yourself and tell me if it exists or not.

I am waiting.

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Would you agree any less to this? Kindly share with other so we can all learn and move Nigeria forward with that knowledge.