Humanity Over Heritage
Unless you have been living outside the country, there is no way you have not noticed what seems to be a steady, all round increase in the price of commodities. The economy has been biting really hard and the realities of living are becoming less and less friendly. Prices have doubled (and in some cases tripled) but sources of income have remained the same. Disposable income is shrinking and the middle class is getting slimmer and slimmer by the day. A major factor in the current state of the economy is the devaluation of the naira. Being a country that heavily depends on imported products, the galloping that happened to the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar in the last few months meant that the effect of the rate change has trickled down to the most basic of consumables because we produce very little of what we consume.
Personally, I am not a fan of either of the traditional camps but I understand that the model of governance in the country was becoming too expensive. I also understand that for changes to happen in the positive direction, certain sacrifices need to be made. The only challenge with the making of the sacrifices is that the wrong class of people are the ones being forced to make these excruciating sacrifices and this calls into question the sincerity of purpose for the sacrifices we are being told to make. However, that is not where I am going. The matter is for discussion sometime in the future.
Let me get back to my initial thoughts. If you regularly visit the market, one thing that has been constant has been the unpredictability of prices in the market. I was at the market recently and while haggling over the price of an item, the seller bluntly told me to accept the hike in price. Her reason was because "I was part of the people who put our current leadership in position". I was so shocked, I could not hide my amazement at her thought process. So, because I speak the same language as someone, you automatically assume I belong to the person's tribe. I felt like engaging this woman but I did not have the time to. The fact that she thinks I am Yorùbá because I speak Yorùbá is the first mindset I would have loved to correct. A bosom friend of mine speaks my tongue so fluently that many of the people who think they know him often assume he's from the southwestern part of the country.
That aside, even if your assumption is correct and I am from the same extraction as someone, it does not mean that I share the same ideas with the person. From her disposition and the way she judged me, it was safe to assume that she did not care that the new prices hurt my pocket. Just because I come from the "same place" as the person leading, I have no right to complain about how high prices currently are. If she could punish me and every person in my tribe for the perceived sins of one man, she gleefully would. I only wish this woman knew that many people from this man's tribe did not even accept him as a candidate.
This woman is a typical example of many Nigerians today. Many of us have been brainwashed to think that where a person comes from is more important than who the person is or what the person has to offer. Apart from poverty, the two other things that "they" constantly use as tools to control us are the religion and tribe cards. People no longer want to offer opportunities to others based on merit. The person's tongue now plays a vital part in negotiations. Many of our parents are guilty of this but with the level of civilization now, one would think that more people would have disabused their minds of this mindset that has done nothing good for us as a nation.
As humans (that we first of all are), we are supposed to exhibit our innate capacity for empathy and compassion, allowing us to understand and resonate with the experiences of others. This should then fuel altruism, create societal bonds and forge a sense of unity and shared humanity. Sadly, this is hardly what we see around. We display compassion to heritage and not to humanity. Remember, we are all human beings first before the tribe or race that makes us. Relating with other humans because they are humans should be the foundation of our relationship, not because of where a person comes from or what language the person speaks.