Just as there are many Nigerian spinsters who don't know how their fiances make money, so are there many Nigerian wives who don't know what their husbands do to make money. Even worse is that in many cases, Nigerian women don't care to know.
And it's not just women. It's everybody. Men, women, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, plus pastors and imams, kings and chiefs, friends and associates. In today's Nigeria, money doesn't have to explain itself; The more you spend, the more you are justified.
Nigerians, we are useless people as a whole. Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Traditionalist, Political, Apolitical, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Itsekiri or Ibibio. We are not alright as a people. We have lost our way.
It is only in Nigeria a wife will expect to be pitied upon the ridiculous excuse of not having known her husband's source of income. And she most likely isn't telling a lie. Yet, that is because she most likely never cared to know.
After close to two decades of marriage and five grown children, she never bothered to investigate or demand to know. The husband has no factory. He has no patents. He has no employer.
Yet, he pays school fees. He builds houses. He clothes her and their children. They travel abroad. They live in a duplex. She drives a car. There's money to spend. And she doesn't know.
Even more terrible, she actually is finding the sympathy she hoped to find. It tells of how useless Nigerians have become by default. Unlike our ancestors- All we do is worship money. How it came about is not an issue.
Take a look at this picture. It shows proof of expenditure of some fellow who has no identifiable means of livelihood. Yet, he is capable of spending N3.3m in one night on drinks at a club. Under the post from whence this inglorious and odious picture was grabbed;
You will find many Nigerians praising, hailing, admiring him and begging him for a taste of his mysterious wealth. The same Nigerians who just a week ago were berating Evans 'The Kidnapper' Onuamadike.
In many extended families, as in many churches and mosques, in many towns, villages, streets, associations, friendships or gatherings- In today's Nigeria, the most important voice is easily that of he or she who spends the most. Logic of reason, tradition and age, have become shaky bases for claiming right of decision making.
Evans, Evans' wife, politicians; ex-this and ex-that, amongst many others with inexplicable wealth are the symbol(s) of shame to all Nigerians. And even more poignant to our shame, is our own worship of these otherwise odd fellows.
Shame on Us!
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