By Geraldine Onyenweaku
Years back, growing up as a little girl, I was taught the importance of love and extending kindness to people and even strangers. As a young Catholic girl, attending cathechism classes, we were told that this act of kindness to strangers originates from God , who in various examples in the Holy Book, the Bible, gave explicit instances of men and women who, through expressing love and kindness to total strangers, have experienced great miracles in their lives. The Bible is replete with such stories; there is Abraham, who offered refreshment to the angels, the widow of Zarephath, who shared her last meal with prophet Elisha and in the New Testament, the story of the ‘good Samarithan,” and the list goes on.
All of these touch on the importance of being good to others, which for me, is the basis of our Christian faith. I am yet to see a religious faith that contradicts this principle. We grew up on this principle and it helped us become better people with good and loving hearts that can disarm even the worst of criminals. Consequently, we enjoyed relative peace and much less evil than what we see now.
Today, we witness little or no empathy and no one is willing to extend a helping hand. The adage that you be your brothers’ keeper has been thrown to the winds. People readily kill their brothers’ for a plate of porridge – simply selfish reasons. Little wonder, there is a prevalence of evil all around us. Death has become a common sight in our world today, in total contrast to years back when we saw very little deaths except those who die of natural causes or old age. The mere thought or sight of a dead person made us squirm – it was not a thing we were used to. Those days what was common was the sight of carcasses of dogs, chicken, cats and what have you. But, this isn’t the case now, as human bodies have taken the place of dogs and cats, to the extent that it seemed like their lives are now more sacred than those of humans.
Every day, in the news we are bombarded with news of ritual killings, deaths caused by terrorists and book haram operators, government sponsored killings, assassinations, premature and untimely deaths at the hospitals owing to the carelessness and negligence of the health givers. Others are extortion, fraud or yahoo yahoo, robbery and so on. We hear of innocent and unsuspecting commuters thrown off a moving bus after having been robbed and stripped of all their belongings. The scenarios are endless. The decay is such that people have seized to bat an eyelid at the sight of a dying person lying helplessly and in agony at the roadside. The apathy towards those suffering and in pain is so disheartening that it is not uncommon to see people bringing out their phones to take pictures of those in distress instead of offering a helping hand. These incidences have continued to stir up a deluge of press coverage as well as anguished conversations about the contemporary Nigerian values. The question then is: Are we losing our values?
Many have blamed the perceived callousness in people towards their fellow human beings to the Nigerian mentality and the get-rich-quick syndrome prevalent in the society today among the young and not-so-young, which has in effect created a moral vacuum. Interestingly, parents who are supposed to teach these morals to their children are the ones encouraging them to engage in fraudulent activities in order to make fast money. In the news recently, there was the news of children between the ages of 11 and 15 who were sent away from home by their guardians to go and make money any which way. We hear gory tales of teenagers killing their mates or girlfriends for money rituals. There is also the recent case of the young lady who boarded a government owned public transport at the close of work and was allegedly raped and killed. All these have constituted a heavy blow and a strain to social trust. Social live is being hampered by these bizarre happenings. Compassion and public acts of kindness appear to be of medieval times and no longer of this age, as wickedness and cold heartedness take their place; thereby marking the dearth of a civil society.
This has raised the calls by well- meaning citizens for a reintroduction of religious knowledge in our schools. Children must be taught at home, school and Churches or Mosques as the case may be of the importance of showing love and kindness to others. Parents and teachers alike owe it to the society and posterity to instill the tenets of hard work and discourage the quest for growth –at-all-cost. The older generation should see it as a moral burden to live by example. The government must address this conundrum and must do all within its power to protect its citizens and visitors alike; strengthen the law and stop the incessant killings. People caught in these dastardly acts must be punished accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others. And government must show its commitment to ending this trend by words and actions. Rehabilitation centres should be established to accommodate underage children involved in these nefarious activities with a view to rehabilitating and re-orientating them.
In order to achieve some reasonable level of sanity in the society, government must look critically at revamping the economy and ensuring that there are jobs for the people. An idle hand is a workshop for the devil. Everybody must be kept busy, engaging in profitable ventures. At the end of the day, it is not only the individuals or citizens that gain, but the country also gains enormously. We are all hurting from this evil and it is the duty of everyone to introduce love back into our lives. The time to start is now.