Opinion: Makurdi floods and Nigeria’s hypocrisy

by Micheal Ace

 

It’s so disheartening to realise that almost every citizen of Nigeria is a hypocrite. That is the exact truth and that is why there is nothing strange in our leaders’ negligent attitude towards state issues. Whenever disastrous events storm a particular country or city in the world, as long as it’s across the ocean, Nigerians become empathetic showing undoubted concerns on Social medias and even on news blogs.

I remember the attack in France recently which made every Facebook user upload the country’s flag as their display picture. Another disaster was that of Haiti when Nigerians become so devastated, I read poems dedicated to their survival then; everyone seemed so concerned. The recent bomb blast in Manchester is another typical example. The London bridge that collapsed a while ago is another one. I also read a lot of articles concerning the flood in Texas, USA and some other prominent areas in the world. But no one seems to care about the same happening at home.

Months ago, some areas in Lagos including Lekki experienced a grave flood that almost swept the city to dust. Right on Facebook, I came about an article where someone commented “that serves them right” just because it was believed that only the cream of the society lived there. Only those affected by the flood talked about how devastating it was and Nigerians kept silent. Aside from that, the Northern Nigeria has been greatly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency for years now and sometimes I hear pastors in the southwest pray that no such disaster will find its way to them.

The most heartbreaking of these all is the current Makurdi flood which has submerged quite a number of cities and villages in Benue state. According to statistics from The Executive Secretary, Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), it was revealed that about 25 communities have been submerged with livelihood left at peril due to wasted household equipment and foodstuff. 100,000 lives have been rendered homeless and still, no one seems to care.

The excessive rain which fell for four consecutive days has attacked even the state capital Makurdi with numbers of vehicles and houses submerged. Still, Nigerians seem too busy to care.

Whenever things like this happen, the stories are left untold except for the constant and incessant cry of the inhabitants. No one is ready to render support and even social medias, blogs and newspapers are quite silent about it. Now let the same occur in a faraway land which is not even within Africa, Nigerians become so empathic that you’ll think they all have relatives there.

According to a wise man’s prediction, a time will come when Nigerians will turn against one another and begin to eat themselves. There is so much hate among ethnic groups, tribes and religions that one man’s doom has become another’s blessing.

The state called Nigeria is nothing but a home of hypocrites.


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

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