Monday, 16 November 2015

Shame on us. All of us.

I had promised myself not to say anything but watching Obama's news conference just now has moved me. Please watch it and learn.
This weekend I felt so ASHAMED to be a Nigerian. I've always known our homegrown capacity for crass insensitivity and tactlessness but rarely have I witnessed us export it internationally in such a disgraceful and disgusting way.
To gatecrash your colleagues father's funeral to loudly complain that her guests did not attend your father's own last year - and worse still to start sharing tshirts with your father's picture on it - then set up your own canopy at the funeral grounds to conduct a rival service - is it possible to descend any lower? Have we no shame?
It is simply immoral to attempt to capitalize on someone else's sorrow and grief for your own personal gain and to push your own selfish agenda. There is a time for everything. We couldn't even wait a week before exposing ourselves!
God forgive this country of empty soulless religiosity. If it stinks so much to me a human being I wonder how heaven is coping.
If you really do not get how pitiful this is - how heartless this has made us look in the eyes of the world - then I really cannot help you. You are beyond such human decency. But for the sake of the few, I will try.
Get this into your head: ISIS/ISIL is an international threat. A worldwide crisis. Your Boko Haram is still classified as regional. There are more than 30 countries all over the world that have been battling regional terrorism for years. They don't come crying on social media for sympathy. They deal with their issues. Countries which are - let's face it - far more important and relevant to the rest of the world go through problems everyday without this kind of public indecency.
The enemy of my friend is my enemy. ISIS has killed and is killing Americans. So of course America and American companies and American interests will rally round their oldest friend and ally with whom they share a common enemy. The same way you would be more concerned and involved in issues involving your immediate family and close friends than about a stranger like me you merely met on Facebook. What is so difficult to comprehend in that???
The irony is that most Nigerians in the South never felt an ounce of pity or concern for the Northerners who were being oppressed by Boko Haram until the attacks moved closer to their 'interests' in Abuja. 'let those muslims be killing themselves there' was and - still is - a prevailing sentiment. Admit it.
And yet we expect total strangers to care more about us than we care for each other.
This just goes to show why we are where we are, why we are who we are and why we will probably still be here for many moons to come. Let us continue praying empty prayers in our places of worship. Those self-centered prayers will simply turn to harmattan breeze to torment us at night. We need to examine our hearts first and discover what it really means to love God and our neighbors as ourselves.
Shame on us. All of us.

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