Cheating the system...

Why do Nigerians like cheating the system?
We Nigerians have created and cultivated a very negative image of ourselves to the world.
Everybody likes the good things of life but we have an insatiable desire to acquire the very best of things the world has to offer. In trying to acquire these stuffs, we go to unimaginable lengths in trying to do so.
What got me thinking a few months ago is the yahoozze culture that an alarming proportion of Nigerian youths are involved in…IT has now become a way of life insomuch that a lot of people have perfected the art and now people undergo training to become certified yahoo dons…
Even People who are not into ‘yahoo’ have a tendency to do the wrong thing needlessly as if we have been accursed with the spirit of wrongdoing.
We always try to find a shortcut to do things in and out of the country. We don’t ever want to go through the normal channel…A Nigerian believes there is always a way round everything.
For days, I mulled over the question, why do Nigerians like cheating the system?
I wondered if it was malfunctioning gene in our genetic make-up that is responsible or we were made to be so by the Creator?
Perpetuation of bad acts is not peculiar to Nigerians, home and abroad alone. Nationals of other countries also engage in nefarious activities.
The main reason why we get picked up on is the fact that our country is seen as the arrow-head of the black race. Therefore, Nigerians are expected to blaze the trail in the socio-economic & political landscape on the African continent and our country, Nigeria is supposed to be a good model for other African countries.
Unfortunately, such is not the case.
Nigerians like cheating the system because the system has never been fair to them.
The system has been manipulated to favor an elite few while a lot of people out there, out of the establishment suffer the brunt of their misdeeds.
So, if a naija youth does something to skirt the system and he is successful, he’s happy because in his own thinking, he has been able to conquer the system.
That is why Nigerians are ever so ready to break laws or experiment with law breaking because it gives them a sense of victory over a system.
It doesn’t matter in which system you find us…Rules are meant to be broken!

May 5, 2008
Olukunle Samuel Sogeke