by Cheta Nwanze

“I also don’t believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn’t do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, ‘I have powders; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing.’ So they can’t resist.”  — Don Zaluchi in The Godfather.

The default state of the human being is to be lazy. It’s that simple really. Why work hard if you can get the same rewards doing nothing? Or next to nothing. Thus it is that when you are in a position of relative trust, all sorts of characters will approach you and make you offers that you can’t refuse. Offers such as a nice cut from almost 2kg of crack worth about N180 millions…

There are only two known ways to keep that kind of laziness/poverty/greed/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it at bay, and those are either the death penalty, or a verrrrrrrrry long holiday.

Still on the theme of laziness/poverty/greed/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it, in Owode, Ogun state, to pay his kids’ school fees, Agboola Kolawole, aged 40, took the skulls of 4 of his relatives who no longer needed them and sold each for N8 thousands. More reason for me to be cremated when I’m gone eh?

Bits and bobs

No one can accuse pastors of laziness. In this Op Ed on YNaija, Victor Ikeji attempts to analyse the church’s aggressive drive for customers.

Hakeem Ogunniran has been awarded N5 millions by a Lagos court based on the emotional trauma caused by Air Nigeria’s negligence. Here’s hoping that this will open the door for more suits against them and other airlines in Nigeria who regularly cause people trauma “due to operational reasons”.

According to the Vanguard, the NGF may soon have two chairmen as a result of “subterranean moves” by the Prez. Yes, you read right, and I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Meanwhile, in a nation at war, it has emerged that Oo Nwoye was dead right. Libyan weapons found their way to our shores.

Right of reply

Chris wrote,

I have issues with your evasive approach to issues, generally. Please don’t sound like el rufai or take a sophist bent. You polarize ur view points simply based by points raised. Take a concrete stand sometimes, after all Newspapers Editorials boldly do that

Chxta responds,

The only reason I put this here is so that hopefully someone would send this to Uncle Nasir. It’s kinda interesting to learn that he has an evasive approach to issues. Generally. And polarises his view points simply based by points raised. And doesn’t take a concrete stand sometimes as newspaper editorials boldly do.

Orhie Oddiri wrote,

There is NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER for the terror, mayhem and carnage Boko Haram is unleashing on this country. I don’t care if they murdered their leader and their next of kin.

Is that the right response to perceived hurt inflicted on one’s person? Is it ok for the families of kidnap victims to take guns, go into the forest and slaughter everyone in there? Is it ok for the militants in the Niger-Delta to vandalise pipelines because they believe the Niger-Delta has been marginalised?

You’re condoning vigilanteism and worse. You yourself once said that the response to the Fulani herdsmen was not to drive them away from Delta, but to report whatever grievances they have. That’s what should have happened in the case of Boko Haram.

Chxta responds,

Err, I don’t remember justifying the terror, mayhem and carnage that #BokoHaram used to unleash (they have been put to bed now). What I pointed out is that when you fail to address the root causes of a problem, and consistently leave a group or groups with a sense of unjust treatment, there is a very high possibility that they will eventually take up arms to get “justice” for themselves.

I believe that I have given examples in previous write ups.

Yusuf Sani wrote,

If a country wants to grow, law and order must be where it should start from, unfortunately for us in Nigeria, that’s not the case.
All of us who believes in Nigerian, let us use the next opportunity that will come our way in 2015 if at all it will come, to vote out the present government and hope for better days.

Chxta responds,

Yusuf, the first part of your statement I totally agree with. On the second part, our country will not improve simply by voting out the present government. To be honest, if the opposition fails to present a sensible candidate, then we would be on a hiding to nothing. The price of freedom/democracy is eternal vigilance. What we must learn to do is to watch our leaders regardless of who they are, and bring them to account regardless of what part of the country they hail from.

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