Jason Hamaan
I for one a Nigerian man. I could list as many social problems in Nigeria as possible, but don’t have much time. Some social problem were open and some were in hidden. While you may already knew the obvious social problems in Nigeria, here are few hidden ones you won’t detect unless you lived years in Nigeria.
Poor mind-set & Skill-sets
Many failures in a country originated from people with poor mind and skill-sets. The number one poor mind-set i have found with Nigerians is pessimism.
Most Nigerians lack the optimism, they are more of suiting one’s desire now than preparing for the greater future. There is this pessimism saying among Nigerians that “why would you create greater future when you will die and leave all that behind, or the world will end and all that you have built’ll perish.” They backup their wrong notions analogical mis-quoting from divine scriptures from its original meaning.
They Failed to acknowledge that it’s the people of the previous generations that’d made the world great at its today. Had been Thomas Edison, the sole inventor of general electricity and light bulbs, was pessimist about making future great, he wouldn’t have created general electricity and the world would have still been in darkness, and there wouldn’t be modern world. Failure to realize optimism are under poor mind-set towards life, which many Nigerians had.
We also find Nigerians were thought from home in Selfish not selfless. At home, school, in village, the world of a common Nigerian is centred around him/herself. We wouldn’t have thought so if we had no examples. Otherwise would a stereotype!
Reading the news you’ll find how Nigerians could be so selfish to loot for himself money worth of 50 years of Nigeria’s budget, abd being deposited in personal foreign bank account. A good example is the Military Dictator Sani Abacha loots, which has not yet been fully recovered since his death in 1998. Loots so large that it takes more than thirty years of recovery!
Nigerians loved to use Ignorant approach instead of knowledgeable to resolving problems. In Nigeria, we learned the word “I will try” after he fully aware that he had zero expertise and zero experience to what he’s are trying to do. Moreover, you find Nigerians, especially the school teachers, lashing out kids randomly so they could learn fast; it appears Nigerian tutors incorporated Taliban teaching techniques to modern teaching😁. How could kids learn in pain? The pain inflicted could distract kids from learning, i my the only one thinking this?
Besides being ignorant to solving a problem, Nigerians embraced the habit of blaming the tool ss instead of learning how something is done in a right way. You will find a Nigerian trademan damages your item and blame the manufacturer for producing counterfeit product. Or being mire deceitful, where the trademan repair one component in the item and purposely damage another so to have you return the same item for repair; in Nigeria such scenario is famously known as “go come work”. All these are under the category of poor skill-sets which pulls Nigerian society backwards .
How to resolve poor skill-set and mind-set?
We will first explain how to resolve Nigerian poor mind-set, the parents, neighbors, school teachers and federal government of Nigerian must cooperate to eradicate Nigerians habit of pessimism, selfishness and ignorance through general awareness on the effect these bad social habits, and they should encourage/rewards the opposite of these bad habits.
To resolve the problem of poor skill-sets, the Government should bring in foreign expertises to reinforce Nigerians workforces and tutor Nigerians how things is done properly and accurately.
Nepotism
Prioritizing one’s member of family over other members of the same society in the same country when it come to rendering opportunities is what is known as Nepotism. It’s not a habit the rich alone do, but a habit all classes of Nigeria’s society do.
In Nigeria, one will find family who put themselves into favorable governmental positions, and the position be revolved within the family as long as wasn’t detected or care to change it; this occurs in all Nigerian organizations from top to the buttom. One may think as though Nigeria is a business of few families.
How to resolve Nigeria’s nepotism?
Nigerians who were thought nepotism is a fair choice must understand that Nigeria is a republic not a family business entreprise, and that nepotism is the root cause of bloody revolutions occurred in places throughout the world. Nepotism is a criminal injustice that must be eradicated by criminalising any one or family guilty of it.
Cronism
Cronism is a more flexible version of nepotism. This is by offering opportunities to family and friends instead of general public. Cronism has been a big societal habit among Nigerian families.
We recall when former Nigerian presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar was asked during 2019 presidential campaign who will his government favor if he’s elected as president (disclaimer, not word-to-word quoting), and Atiiku Abubakar clearly stated that he will offer his friends and family members opportunities, and he will sell NNPC (the federal government oil and gas company) to private individuals.
This explains how most Nigerians think. Because the best out of you becomes your leader. See, Mr. Atiku Abubakar wouldn’t have been selected the presidential candidate for the first place, if Nigerians never agreed to his belief and agenda.
To resolve the problem of Cronism, A social awareness program should be established about the social effects of Cronism couple with policy from Nigerian government that
criminalise anyone found guilty of Cronism.
Tribalism
In Nigerian society, every tribe is onto their tribe. It like a combination of ignorance and insularity! “My tribe first” that’s what they often say. Not minding what that implies to the rational minds. It means any one who believe and publicly supported tribalism still have his mind sticked to the age-long barbarianism.
Am i too hash to say this? No. Because barbarians only accept their tribe people and alienate anyone belonging other tribes, and could do and undo for the benefit of their tribes.
Why would somebody think only of his tribe when Nigeria is made up with over 250 tribes and 200+ million people. Wasn’t that big injustice?
Even though members of your tribe are the most eligible for the opportunity, there’s always members of other tribes who as well eligible for the same opportunity. Being tribalist is calling for chaos that transcend from disunity to disorder, and societal unrest and even could escalate to tribal war. I think that’s why there was long tribal wars in Nigeria and Africa.
Your tribe isn’t the only tribe deserving national opportunities!
To resolve tribalism, the government should encourage inter-tribe marriage through rewarding couple of inter-tribe marriage with social and economic incentives. And the government should strive mold an egalitarian society, particularly, where all tribes enjoys the same right as every other tribe regardless of their population or contributions to nation’s interest. Additionally, any individual or cooperate encouraging tribalism or guilty of offferring more opportunities to certain tribes in expense of others shouldn’t be punished and barred.
