Nigerians can risk their lives.
Nigerians can take risk with their lives but not with their money. If the way Nigerians risk their lives they are willing to risk their money, probably we'll have smart investors, people that can translate and teach success factors. Today I experienced something that reinforces that belief.
This weekend, I was planning to attend a burial of my neighbour's dad. The burial was to take place in Ile-Oluji and we have arranged for a bus to convey all the street neighbours to go there. We took off as usual and some telling signs surfaces immediately. The bus refused to start, it took some spanking of the battery before the bus was ignited. We got to Ile-Oluji safely and met the church service. From the church service we went to reception. The reception was still on when we decided to take our leave. Actually it was about to rain and the driver was apprehensive. He wanted us to take our leave. We couldn't read much to it because we had been fed by our neighbour. There is no need for us to be staying back and it is about to rain. So we informed our neighbour about our departure and the wife gave us souvenirs. To cut the long story short, we took off and it started raining. As we hit the road, the reality dawn on us. The bus we chartered had no wiper and the rain had started. It got the women in the bus on their nerves. They were pleading, shouting even screaming for the driver to stop the bus and allowed the rain to stop before continuing the journey. He didn't listen. I didn't say anything at this moment because it was light shower and the road was still visible. The women continued to urge the driver to stop but the plea fell on deaf ears. We got on the road and it seems it was getting heavier and the driver continued and was now thinking, what is happening and why is he not stopping knowing fully well he can't see well the road ahead. I gave it a deep thought and I concluded that the fact he is not stopping when he had the chance might be because the vehicle might have more problem or he thinks he could risk it. The journey continued for a while and I couldn't think straight. So I place my head on the seat in front of me to relax from the slight ache I'm feeling. After a while seeing the persistent of the driver, I concluded that something must be very wrong with the bus. Eventually, I finally figured that the reason the driver refused to stop was because of a bigger problem than not having a wiper. The headlamp of the bus is not working and it will be a nuisance if he listened to us. If he should wait till the rain stops, it might rain till dark and that is where the problem lies. Without headlamps, he won't be able to move in the dark and if the rain should continue by that time, we will have to wait in the bus till morning.
My question is, why do we Nigerians take such a reckless decision with our lives but tend to be conservative in terms of money?
How can a man risk the life of many on a whim?