WAY OF THE INSANE

By Akin Ojumu

Euripides, the ancient Greek tragedian, must have had Nigerians in mind when he penned his now famous adage, “Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.” You can’t but look at the excruciating hardship Nigerians are currently experiencing and not conclude that the gods have made the people mad.

When it comes to self-immolation, Nigerians are numero uno. In the history of nations, there are no people as self-destructive as Nigerians. The penchant of these stiff-necked people for self-destruction bespeaks of a loose screw flying around somewhere deep in their psyche. Their genetic predisposition to fouling up their own lives is nothing short of pure madness. 

Having been bruised and battered repeatedly over the course of their national existence by cruel and soulless vultures who rule over them, Nigerians insist on more infliction of pain and misery in the classical fashion of someone afflicted with Stockholm Syndrome.

Insanely, they beg their oppressors for even greater subjugation and more severe exploitation as they adulate and celebrate their tormentors for being the sources of their misery and the cause of their anguish. Like the chronically intoxicated gambler, they habitually toss the dice of fate, keep their fingers crossed, and hope that luck is on their side this time around.

The road Nigeria is on currently has a predictable end. It’s a dastardly end that’s going to be inevitably grim, gory, and grisly. People who plunge into this rabbit hole never come back to tell the story; they tend to become history. For Nigeria, it’s a matter when, not if. A word is enough for the wise.