It is true that the only constant thing in life is change and technology has indeed contributed massively to the transformation of the globe. However, just as everything comes with its good and bad sides, the place of what a society represents or believes in would always be the strength to fall back on when the chips are down.
There was a time in Nigeria when our value system was alive and active…when having less or being in lack were never used as an excuse to steal. When our sense of moral uprightness was at its best and when we cared about one another and acted as checks to one another to keep our values strong and alive. It was indeed a matter of concern to the entire community for a man to have an unaccounted for source of wealth or become an overnight billionaire. In the good old days, the fear of the castigation and disconnection from the whole people would often make such lifestyle and ways unattractive. These days, many people hardly care about your source of wealth especially if you smartly become a charity source in some way or even build houses of prayer and donate generously. It doesn’t matter if you rob a bank or do rituals or take to some despicable vices so long you succeed at it, and donate to the ‘’right places’’… you’d become celebrated. Why and when did we disconnect from the beautiful communal lifestyle peculiar to us as Africans? Where did we trash our sense of true values? These days, people compare their lives on social media and some go as far as presenting fake lives virtually, such that some even end up being ”socially” depressed and disconnected from their immediate environment. How and when did we lose our essence?
There is no doubt that civilization came to us bringing with it, the good, the bad and the ugly and we embraced everything and allowed our cultural values to be eroded. Civilization came with religion and today Nigeria is said to be one of the most religious nations of the world. Well, one would expect that being such a religious people, our sense of value as a people ought to be solidified but it doesn’t seem to reflect in the things we do – not even in our ways of life as a people. To a considerable extent, we lack the least sense of brotherliness and our sense of self-love flows like an ocean. How much of injustice do we have where justice should be found? And how much of peaceful co-existence, love, and unity do we possess in our day to day relationships even with our level of religiosity? So many prayer places (churches and mosques) with affluent congregation leaders, yet so much poverty in the country?
As a very religious people, why is there so much corruption in the land? What are we learning from the many places of worship you find in every nook and cranny these days? Why do we do things with a sense of impunity even when the teachings of the Holy Books communicate the opposite? Didn’t the Holy Books call such dispositions that of hypocrites? Are many of us hypocrites? Perhaps, it is time to return to the good old days. It is time to go back to the foundation and set things well. Having many prayer houses and places of worship should be a good thing but has that had any impact on us as a people? Can our value system become worthy of emulation among the League of Nations? If you are truly religious, then let your ways show what you stand for. You will neither give nor receive bribes in order to cut-corners in getting things done and you’d not be nepotistic but would promote the place of merit. Guess what again? That’s the only way to put things in order and stop living as a mediocre. You will live for what you stand for.
That being said, in this age of AI, the wind of change is blowing in the global space but let us not be blown away, rather let’s allow our selfishness and greed and any other circumstantial vices be blown away while we consciously rebuild our value system and take the positives of the change and grow. It begins with you. With that, we can have a sane and a saner society with people who live and practice what they truly stand for. our religiosity should not be disconnected from our reality, else, we pass as hypocrites. We have built more than enough places of worship, it is time to allow it to have impact, it is time to build ourselves as a people so that the wind of positive change can come. It is time to build industries so that the youth can get jobs and be too busy to be used as instruments of violence. Stand for peace, for love, for unity and for justice. That could be a sure way to bring back the good old days.
Remember, you will not be able to change the world but you can change yourself and become a better version of you and if you do that and I do that and we all do that, we could change the world – it really just begins with you. There can always be a light at the end of the tunnel and a hopeful nation if you and I decide to do what is appropriate, worthy of commendation and emulation.