Stealing - A Normal Abnormal Act (A Few Nigerian Stories)

I woke up this morning with these thoughts and I felt like putting it into writing for others to read and maybe learn a thing from it.

Nigeria, my country is popular for her religious importance, diversities and even it's economy and my main focus will be around it's economy. I'm a Nigerian, a proud one but I will still join others to say that there are so many things going wrong that needs to be given attention to... I'm still hoping for that to happen.

We hear of corruption, bribery and stealing which are giving the country a bad name and making it more uncomfortable for people to live happily in it.

My main concern in this article is Stealing - An act of taking what is owned by someone else without the person's permission.

Taking One's Property is a Theft

Anything taken without the owner's permission is theft but it's here in Nigeria that I hear sentence like "Thief get grade - big thief and small thief" meaning there's a level of stealing from those who steal from big men in the country to those who steal their own parents money, some people don't see anything wrong in stealing one's parents money.

Let me put it to you that high grade of stealing started from the little theft done while men were kids. We hear of children who take their parents money to buy stuffs and play innocence when asked about it.... If they're not caught and taught a lesson, most of them become Agberos (hoodlums) stealing and even upgrade to committing atrocities in the country.

Taking One's Ideas is Theft

In Nigeria, we see competition between business owners where a person steals ideas from another to open a business for himself even before the owner of the idea gets the capital to do it. I saw that act for myself... A lady explained her ideas to her rich close friend and asked for help but the rich friend stole her ideas to open the business herself and started making so much money from it. She was caught but wasn't arrested, the business only crumbled.

Stealing ideas is an act of theft that needs to be stopped. Because of this act, so many play dumb and don't do much in the society while some just grow their money day by day.

Life Happens Sometimes - No blaming

I was watching a Nigerian movie where a first class graduate tried robbing people who attended a wealthy wedding party, he was blaming the rich for making life hard people like him who doesn't have job even with a good certificate. I'll say, he may have been growing such acts in his mind or he refused to be contented and find more legal ways to make money. The Government also have a hand in this as they've let corruption take over.... We see a low grade student working in a high position at an oil company while a first class student suffer in the streets. All these bring about the high rate of stealing and other atrocities in the country. But we can't put the blame on others and resort to stealing, that is so not their doings... You choose that path yourself.

People no longer feel safe, even money in the bank are not safe with some corrupt bankers in it. I heard of a story about a banker who debits every account of 10naira daily to add to his account. The money was very little but theft is theft, he was caught after he had made so much out of it... Stealing is becoming a normal abnormal act but we can still make the nearest future better.

I want to believe that we can control these from our homes, teaching our kids to value their dignity and self respect to be contented and tell them the dangers in stealing. Some tribes even go as far as burning alive those who steal, and we still hear of people stealing in those areas... So sad and scary.

Even though we hear of cases where children still become hoodlums after so many good home training from their parents and guidance, it's still worth it that we try our best to teach our kids and others to make money legally and teach against theft.