By Jude Atupulazi
When the popular pop music group, P-Square, came out with their hit track, “Wahala Dey”, some years back, they probably didn’t know that the main wahala wasn’t even born.
Then, the person overseeing the Information Ministry in the Federal Government, the late Mrs Dora Akunyili, took exception to the track and said there was no wahala and enjoined the P-Square brothers to think positive instead.
But down the years, events have proved that the P-Square brothers were right, while Akunyili was very wrong. Nigeria has since gone from bad to worse, with wahala bouncing up and down.
There is just nothing positive that works in this damned enclave called Nigeria, except crime and corruption. In fact, to stay in Nigeria is to die, unless one is a thief. But then, the thief also dies when caught. The type of death only differs, depending on who the thief is.
If it is a public servant or politician that does the stealing, the main thieves and kidnappers await them on the streets and either shoot them or kidnap them for ransom. If it’s the common man that steals, when caught, they are given a necklace of tyres and burnt on the streets. Thus, it doesn’t even matter if you’re rich or poor, honest or corrupt. The same gruesome fate awaits you.
While the rich are prime candidates for kidnap and armed robbery, the poor are slowly dying of hunger and when the two meet, the result is catastrophe.
There’s no joy in this country. You work hard but the evil ones will not allow you to reap your reward. You steal the commonwealth of the country and kidnappers and robbers come after you, ensuring that you don’t “enjoy” your loot.
It is indeed a vicious cycle. Of course, the falcon has since failed to hear the falconer and chaos has overwhelmed everybody. Brother does not know brother and things have crazily fallen apart.
The streets are filled with the walking dead. You may be driving and looking at someone ahead of you and believing they are seeing you, only to realize at the last moment that their mind is far, far away and by then, it will be too late for you to step on the brake.
This is why I take special care on the rare occasions I drive (fuel money costs). I do not speed and I always blare my car’s horns to be sure I’m heard and seen.
When I go by public transport, I always sit in the front where I can monitor the driver closely. I once boarded a bus in which the driver veered off the road because of sleep and I had to caution him and thereafter, kept an eye on him till I got to my destination. I would not have known what happened if I had been at the back. Being in the front also enables me to alert the driver of any danger he does not see.
Everybody is feeling the heat in the country and normal people are acting abnormally. Just the other day, a young man who boarded the bus I was in, got to his destination and jumped down and ran. He did this without waiting for the bus to stop properly and it was at a very busy part of Awka (Regina Caeli Junction).
Imagine if he had fallen down and another vehicle ran over him. It was obvious he had no money to pay and the fare was only N300. On another day, he could have gotten himself killed for a mere N300.
Very often these days, you find passengers acting funnily. The other day too, a gentle looking man, on getting to his destination, gave the driver money and waited for change. When the driver made to drive away, he shouted at him and demanded his change and the driver asked him if he did not hear when he, the driver, told him the amount to pay.
As the bus moved off, the man dragged at the passenger’s side door where I was in the front, attempting to open it by force. He didn’t realize that if he had succeeded, it was me that would have probably fallen off and not the driver. No doubt, the hard condition of the country had made him act irrationally.
Indeed, since I started using public transport, I have learnt more about human nature and each day brings new lessons and material for news. On the days I can afford it, I pay for one or two people who look like they need help and I urge every other person to be doing this.
Even though the fare is not much, the relief and feeling of gratitude I see in their faces usually make my day. It is always good to remember that no matter how tough things may be for anyone, there are others out there with tougher problems.
An incident touched me the other day yet again. A young mother who looked a bit haggard was walking with her son of about five years. As they passed where they sold children’s bicycles, the boy coolly detached himself from the mother and jumped on one of the bicycles and made to ride it.
When the mother tried to take him away from it, he started crying and continued crying as they left. My heart went out to him as I placed myself in his shoes and felt his pain. From the look of his mother, that was one thing the boy can never hope to acquire. Had I the means, I would have paid for the bike. Poor soul, he doesn’t know the pains the mother goes through.
Like the child, many Nigerians are in same predicament. There are a lot of things many want to have but know they can never do so, except in their dream. You can be passing a restaurant and perceive the sumptuous aroma of the food being cooked but know you cannot afford to enter and buy.
In most restaurants now, a plate of food is not less than N4, 000; even the places regarded as ”Mama Put” have upgraded, so to say. Sometimes you wonder why they are still called that name, given the price of food there. In fact, I’m envisaging a situation where people can run away with pots of soup. That is how bad things have become.
I’m sure that if it was possible for those who died as late as the 1980s to be brought back to life today, they would faint and plead to die again, when they see how expensive things have become.
I remember that in 1984, our flat in Enugu cost N120 a month. If anyone had told us that a time would come when a loaf of bread would be worth six months’ rent, we would have dismissed that person as mad. But that is the grim situation today.
I also remember when graduates were paid N400 monthly and I was seeing that salary as huge. Today, that monthly salary cannot pay for a plate of food. It cannot even buy a loaf of bread or a bottle of coke. People are thus devising ways of surviving these days.
I have a friend who jokingly told me where we usually go to watch weekend football games that one of the reasons he liked coming there was because of the sweet aroma of fish barbecue he perceived there. He said after perceiving it, he would feel as if he had eaten it and would be okay. Funny? But that sounds like what many others may be doing.
In view of these things, it has become necessary for the well to do not to engage in a culture of waste. Anything one has but doesn’t need should be given to those who need, them. It is also for their own good because hunger can drive people into doing things they never thought they could do or which others never thought possible. Your neighbours may be the first to attack you and steal your things.
Tough times are turning many young men into desperate animals and that is why despite the instant jungle justice meted out to those who steal, people still engage in it. Their mantra seems to be, ”Give us this day, our daily bread, no matter how we get it. Tomorrow will take care of itself”.
It is difficult to remain sane in this country and sometimes I pity those who can’t remain so. It is Christmas and many will only be perceiving the sweet aroma of food coming out from their neighbour’s house. Are you a well to do person with a poor neighbour? Do not wait to be told. Share some of your stuff with them. You never know, you may be saving a life or stopping someone from stealing.
Many Nigerians have lost hope of the country ever coming good. But then, everything is in the hands of God.
