Nigeria is seen as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and this is not because every citizen of Nigeria was tested and proven to be guilty of the trait of corruption but it is because of our leaders.
Those rich folks do crazy and abominable things up there and we the citizens who also suffer harm as a result of their decisions get punished by other countries for that very reason.
It is like receiving double punishments for an offence you didn't even commit. The annoying part is that sometimes those leaders don't even receive the shame, the lash always falls on the citizens.
This gets me wondering if the average man made a mistake by being alive. I am not trying to make anyone emotional but that is a fact.
Influential people who live on money all their lives, commit crimes; steal, manipulate, kill and then instead of the punishment falling right on them, the people under them receive the bad name and it stays on them like a permanent stain.
Wherever they go, they are reminded of such offenses and even denied opportunities in the worst cases.
This makes the proverb that “one bad bean spoils the rest" makes sense to me right now. But is that how it ought to be?
Taking that prover for instance, do you know that even among spoilt beans there are good ones? Take your time one day and experiment this.
Take those beans condemned and marked for disposal and carefully go through it seeking for good ones. Sometimes you may end up discovering that there are more good beans in there than there are bad ones.
Because the head is bad doesn't mean that all members of the body are bad. This thing isn't just about countries, it happens to families too.
There are families whose children are suffering from the acts of their parents. Sometimes the parents are even late, but something they once did wrong, still affects their children to date.
But things don't have to be like that. It is so unfair, the person who commits the offence is supposed to be the one to suffer the aftermath of his/her action and not those under him.
I consider that kind of judgement inhumane and hate inspired.
It is just like a father eating a bitter leaf, instead of him feeling the bitter taste directly, his child is the one feeling the bitter taste. Does that make any sense?
Unfortunately this is what most citizens are going through. Because of the mistakes of their leaders, everyone is suffering even those who are trying to pursue their dreams and become something reasonable.
Once you are detected to come from that country, you are already marked as a threat. This is something very painful but I won't blame anyone for treating us that way.
Sometimes we are the cause of our problems, since we are aware that whatever our leaders do affects us directly, it's time to be wise when picking leaders.
For a country like Nigeria, it's time to let go of the issue of tribalism, religion and so on and elect God-fearing and competent candidates.
As citizens, we should participate fully in politics and be ready to remove any bad government should the need arise. But unfortunately, I don't see that happening because we have sold ourselves to the government, we have traded our power for money and appointments.
I read in the news a few days ago how China sentenced one of its ministers to death for taking bribes.
I am not in support of tough judgements like that but imagine that these top leaders are punished for their wrongs, do you think the rest won't learn?
But we treat them like gods, we worship and pamper them just to get bread, why won't we suffer?
Well, I pray for better days. I hope that someday, things will change and the citizens would realize that the government doesn't belong to the leaders alone.
N.B: All Images Were Generated By Meta AI