Andy Akpotive
The entire Nigerian system has been hushpuppied and we all are playing the ostrich. You want to know how? Then take a few minutes to read this. Hushpuppy has become the metaphor for every wrong plaguing the society, a direct reaction to our collective actions as leaders and followers in this society. Leaders are either completely oblivious and at sea regarding what to do to re-engineer society for good, or (where they know) prefer to look the other way and not act because they think by how much they loot they would be immune to the terminal disease plaguing the society, which is sure to kill the society. Followers, on the other hand, are either too fearful, poor, stupid or naive to follow through with what they are supposed to do to make society better. Take the following few instances among the very many others highlighted below that are classical symptoms of a very gangrenous, hushpuppied society. Owners of banks and bank managers send young ladies and married women to go out and seek deposits at ‘all costs’, even if it means selling their bodies to potential customers.
The sad news is that after doing that, the customers would still remain the real owners of the monies; the bank owners and managers would only give these deposits to the extremely rich and powerful among us in the society as loans at the expense of building the real sector and the SMEs. These ladies would not be able to influence the dispensing of such monies as loans to their struggling husbands, friends or relatives who are seriously in need of the monies for one form of development endeavour or another capable of improving the real sector in the society. The bank ladies would at best be promoted, in very rare cases, and some made to repeat this cycle continuously without promotions or even any real gains or value coming to the country. Lecturers demand sex for marks from female students and money for marks from male students and, sometimes, money and sex from female students to ‘pass’ them into the society as graduates to come and practice what they are completely unaware of and untrained for without bothering or considering the impacts on the society.
The police take money and bribes from the ‘big men’ in the society to go and arrest an accused (often innocent), without proper investigation, damning the consequences of what those actions might have on the law enforcement and the psyche of the society. They stand on the road to collect money from riders of bikes, keke and motorists who constitute themselves as risks to other road users or who are just struggling to earn a living without considering the impacts of their actions on the society. Pastors and Imams insist that members pay tithes, seeds and offerings, and often, the ‘quality’ of such seeds and givings, is directly proportional to their levels and degrees of recognition in the church. This is done, without considering the impact of their actions on the society. They even give some of these so-called ‘givers’ awards and recognition of best partners even though they are very much aware that these individuals have no real jobs but are just thieves, 419ers, dupes and yahoo boys stealing from innocent people in the society through their various evil money doubling schemes.
Parents do not ask but celebrate their teenage sons and daughters (yet to leave secondary school) who are already spending money on expensive properties and lifestyle without asking them where they got all the money that they are throwing around. Even though they are aware that those children do not have qualifications or skills to even do any job that can pay them as little as N30,000 a month, most parents are still comfortable celebrating those children, ignoring the consequences of their action on the other children and the society. Politicians are busy thieving, stealing, kidnapping and ‘eating’ public money entrusted into their care by the people, not doing anything near real development of the people and the society for the four to eight-year period they are in office, come out eventually from the office, establish some ‘evil’ pension laws for themselves that would make them continue with the stealing of the commonwealth of the people without considering the impacts of their actions on the treasury and the society.
Citizens collect N500 or N1,000 naira or wrappers and bags of rice to sell their votes and turn back to pray for God to touch the leaders’ hearts to do good for the society without understanding the consequences of their actions on the society. University professors rig illiterates and verified agberos into offices and every year they, as ASUU, would keep going on strike, seeking better working conditions and improvement of the university systems from the same clueless people (who either did not go to school or settled their ways through school) rigged in there by them without understanding the full weight and consequences of the action on the society.
‘Yahooism’, a term that is almost more commonly known than text books or novels in the country, is trending across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and widely celebrated by almost half the youth population because the government is irresponsible and, may I quickly add that the youths are frustrated, lazy and naive of what actions to take to make society better. Today, society is without conscience: our parents are tolerant of it, nay, welcoming of it; the legal and criminal systems celebrate it; the religious and traditional institutions are applying deodorants on it and ‘the people’ have become victims of it even without their knowing. Oh! What a hushpuppied generation. Indeed, such hushpuppied generation where politicians (who are mostly without integrity, form or character) defect from one political party to another in a breeze like a woman on her menstrual period with heavy flow would change pads ever so frequently, merely because of ‘self’ and ‘what’s in it for me’ music that they must always dance to. These days what is left is for us to start seeing civil and public servants ‘defecting’ from one ministry, department and agency to a juicier one at least in their consideration. For instance, from the Ministry of Agriculture to CBN or NNPC.
Young girls go out of their homes to schools and other public places without wearing bras, exposing their bodies and nipples literally as if to say ‘I am available, you can come and take it,’ and wearing such super revealing clothes, calling it fashion and when they are raped (which is a terrible and beastly act and nothing should justify it), they go around shouting “rape! rape!! rape o!!!” without understanding that their actions have consequences on society. They do this trash and more because society has become so numb and perverted that nobody or very few tell them how profane their dress sense is. All of their actions have consequences on society. Do not even get me started on the health sector.
The doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists, Health Maintenance Organisations, National Health Insurance Scheme, the patients and even the corporate organisations. Hmmm… let me hold my peace here for now on this but please subscribe to my YouTube channel (Andy Akpotive) and follow me on LinkedIn to get very profound details of my opinion on the practitioners and those doing so much evil to the sector without their knowing the consequences of their actions or inactions on the Nigerian society
A society where politics is more profitable than industry, developmental discoveries and copyrights can not guarantee your daily bread because of the actions and inactions of our leaders, nay dealers, is one that would remain hushpuppied for a long time.
Nigerians only celebrate and share posts of those who expose and flaunt nudity on social media, skimming and passing by very meaningful posts without liking, sharing or commenting on them simply because there is no ‘vain value’ attached to them, without considering the impact of their actions on the society.
Oh hushpuppied generation, what can we do now to remedy her? While I wait for divinity and nature to quickly send us that Messiah like Moses was to the children of Isreal in Egypt ( Which I am beginning to feel is me, yes me Andy Akpotive), let me take solace in the Latin phrase ‘Dum spiro spero’.
