By Ovundah Nyeche.
Maybe one day we will have the courage to discuss about how our system enables fraud. I drive somewhere with my #2 car, and out of the blues someone who is impatient on the road who likely does not even own a car, shouts on top of his voice, “You no go carry this carton wey you dey drive commot for road!”
I decide to use public transport and someone I know who is in the same bus with me, frowns and shakes his head and mutters under his breath, “Chei see as doctor dey use public transport,na so e bad reach…Tufiakwa.’
I decide to walk, or ‘carmel’, and someone sees me and shakes his head…and those with courage say, ‘Na wah see all your mates wey start with you don build house finish, you still dey carmel…na wah oh, we need to pray against family curses oh.’
The boy without any traceable job, nor inherited properties, who does not come from a very wealthy family drives pass with a brand new Range Rover SUV, he also just bought a house in a posh area in town, and his name changes to master, as people scramble to get his attention. Those who dare ask how he suddenly came in contact with riches are branded haters, and to rub it on them, they are asked, “You did not ask of his source of poverty, but you wish to know the source of his wealth…bad belly.”
He throws Shekels on some members of his community and unexpectedly he is made a High Chief and given the title of Youth Ambassador and becomes the village/ community icon. In his religious setting, he is given a special chair and everything rises and falls on him…as young people pray to become like him and parents tell their children to become like him or be counted as failures.
Musicians fall over themselves as they compete on who would sing a better track to honour him and of course anyone who wins his attention is likely going to win the jackpot. When he goes for events, comedians and comperes alike shine more attention on him. Some ladies and the like use him as the SI unit of success and actually dump people in relationships with them, as bees flock around the new honey.
An online army is created to defend him at all cost, as many young people conclude that the only way to be recognized is to make money, and make big money irrespective of the source.
They see it, the man that steals a phone is given a long sentence, and the man that steals what generations cannot spend gets a good lawyer and obtains a plea bargain or runs to a remote country, buys their citizenship and is hailed as been too smart. They see that the law is so strong against the poor but so weak against the rich…and will do everything to be rich.
The young man also observes that in almost all settings, he can barely count the number of people honoured by individuals corporations, by communities, by government for showing or displaying integrity or a good work ethic, or for displaying or inculcating values.
Nothing just happens, are we ready to resuscitate values from coma or smother it to death;unfortunately you cannot drink garri, and vomit fried rice and chicken.
#Selah #HearWord #OvdSpeaks #HearWordSeries