It is 2:30am and all I want to do is to surf twitter until sleep takes me away but a retweet catches my attention. I click on the link and I burst out laughing, ‘President Jonathan’s 11^th private jet!’ Obviously, my first reaction to this was humorous because it goes against all form of sanity in any modern society, but then again, this is Nigeria, not any ‘sane’ society. The evidences of insanity in the Nigerian government are abundant; the subsidy scam that occurred in the early parts of 2013, the saga between Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi and the First Lady (each party duly represented by beneficiaries.), the Stella Oduah scandal, the fiasco within the ruling party – PDP, the recently ‘concluded’ strike by public universities, the comical display of immaturity between GEJ and ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo… The list goes on, and it appears every month there is a new situation for the common Nigerian to ‘observe’ and ‘lament’ on.

Sadly, it ends there for the common Nigerian. Waters are stirred, a few bloggers take to social media sites and attempt to capitalize on these nuisances and eventually, nothing happens.

This is not an effort to stir the common Nigerian to rise up and fight for justice, transparency in government, accountability of our leaders, and all those endless lists of demands that one should ordinarily expect from a sane government, no. Nigerians could not care less about another article pointing out the deficiencies of our government, nor would the government give a damn about a Nigerian sitting somewhere, wondering why and how these sufferings are left unabated. Honestly, I feel Nigerians love the status quo; the constant bewilderment at the effrontery of our leaders to constitute utter nuisances, the narcissistic belief that we are the ‘Giant of Africa’, the pernicious hope that things will get better. It thrills us, we thrive off it and we are unfamiliar with any other way of living. As a matter of fact, suggesting a better alternative to our chaotic lifestyle may throw the nation into further abyss. This anomalous behavior of Nigerians toward our national affairs may baffle an outsider, may even cause others to ridicule the nation; as witnessed in President Jonathan being made a laughing stock in Kenya, but Nigerians are happy. We will ‘jaiye jaiye’ nonetheless. Bless the government for being a continuous source of entertainment and most especially, kudos to the common Nigerian for being such a staunch viewer.

 I echo the words of the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti, ‘Shuffering and Shmiling’, ‘na your fault be dat.’

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