Share the National cake,
You chop your own, I chop my own
Our government will not suffer.
These are part lyrics from Mama G’s famous song "National moin-moin". The song which glorified corruption and its vices was well recieved by Nigerians. People danced to this song in public places including schools and government parastatals with reckless abandon. What baffles me even today is why this song was not banned by the NBC.
A few days back the British Prime Minister, David Cameron was heard saying that Nigerians were fantastically corrupt and I totally agree with his analogy. I also think that Nigerians suffer from varied cases of the "okpolor eye" syndrome. Nigerians are greedy, greed has become part of the culture, it has sadly become the norm. It is Nigerian to want more than has been served on the plate, its Nigerian to be expliotative.
In Nigeria a man can not own a modest bungalow and two cars and be called a rich man. Everything must be done over the top and in the most flamboyant and bourgiose way possible before you can get any form of respect or for your opinion to matter.
The Nigerian Idealogy of the rich man is the quintessential obessed, slightly potruding bellied man, with over ten state of the art cars, properties in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, most times he is expected to fly in a private jet but if he flys commercial he declares eye popping sums in his finest baritone.
When he goes to his place of worship, he is given the best sitting arrangement even when his lifestyle is worse than that of the people of Sodom and Gommorah, he pays his tithes to his church from the 2billion US dollars he just stole, he also makes sure to give the prophets offering. He is his pastors favourite church member.
When he travels outside the country( usually on government funds) he lodges in 7 star hotels as anything less is beneath him. Musicians sing his praises, he is a role model, he is invited to events to "share his wisdom", he is highly respected, he's name is spoken in homes with reverence as one would a diety. He is the "big man" every Nigerian aspires to become.
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