None of My Business (NOMB) — A Nigerian Story
If optimism has a middle name, it’s likely to be called Nigeria. That was then.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
~ Holy Bible (Genesis 4:9)
None of My Business — A Nigerian Story
Optimism, as defined by Meriam Webster’s Dictionary is an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.
In that case, if optimism does have a middle name, it’s likely to be called Nigeria.
Whaaat?
“You must be kidding me.” I can hear you say.
In a 2011 poll, Nigeria was tagged as the world’s most optimistic country.
That was back then. These days, and sadly so, Nigeria is a bye-word to even her citizens.
Hyper-religious as we are, these days, many of my fellow countrymen pray (seriously), “May Nigeria never happen to you.” And, irrespective of your religious or no religious persuasion, you must say amen to that. “Because, when Nigeria happens to you, you will know.”
None of My Business (NOMB) — A uniquely Nigerian problem
In Nigeria, nobody cares. NOMB is the pervasive body language in all actions, and interactions of most of our people. From the government to the common man on the street, the atmosphere is saturated with NOMB.
NOMB describes the reactions of typical Nigerians to unpleasant circumstances, situations, or actions of others that should normally elicit strong outrage or disapproval from those nearby or the community.
People typically react to any auspicious event that doesn’t instantly have direct or immediate impacts on them with the attitude of “it is None of My Business — NOMB.”
Here are two recent scenarios that best explain Nigerian’s nihilistic NOMB philosophy
A Masquerade Turned Against the Poor and the Weak
It was on Christmas day. While the Christians were celebrating and doing their thing, others were doing their traditional celebrations. As part of these festivities, many young boys paint their bodies in white-red colours, chanting and dancing around the town,
On that day, I’d already covered more than half the distance of my long My Home was still about a kilometre away.
That was when I met this painted-up boy. As part of his celebrations, he was dubiously threatening and extorting money from other youngsters. A helpless smaller boy was unlucky to cross paths with him. Whichever way the boy turns, the other assaulted and hemmed him in.
Exasperated, the helpless boy finally reluctantly surrendered his money.
The 100 naira currency note might have been the only money he had left. Still, the opportunist squeezed it out of his hands.
The miscreant had an old unsheathed dagger tucked in one of the rear pockets of his tattered mis fitting denim. Suspecting he might have been high on alcohol or some other mind-bending drugs, I knew better than to challenge his effrontery and extortion.
But my spirit won’t be subdued.
I confronted the ragamuffin wannabe masquerade.
“Look, that boy hadn’t got much money, otherwise, he wouldn’t have resisted you barricading him for that long. What you’ve just done is daylight robbery. Yes, brazen wickedness.”
The boy pretending to be a masquerade is probably less than my youngest son. Yet, he dared to pelt me with a lump of his damp white-red chunk. The missile landed on my face, slightly bruising my forehead and staining my shirt and trousers.
There were onlookers, at least four adult men. They all knew too well that what the assailant did was uncalled for. The victimized boy could have been their child. All the same, none of them raised their voice to support my act of defending the defenceless.
They preferred to not care or lend their voice against daylight robbery. Why? Because it was none of their business.
The last time I witnessed a similar scenario was during Election 2023. At my polling station, I saw many Nigerians stand aside, looking the other way while brigands and election riggers forcefully made away with ballot voting materials.
It was none of their business.
In Nigeria, we are accustomed to being “unshocked”
Most Nigerians have inoculated themselves against the evil of man’s inhumanity to their fellow men.
During the last general elections, Nigeria witnessed so many gory blood-cuddling incidents. I’m sparing you the details in the following narrative.
The people (we) are so cowered that none dare say, “No, this is inhuman and not right.”
Sane people everywhere and from anywhere will be disgusted at the sight of a goat’s head so callously severed. One will expect no less at the sight of a dismembered fellow human head displayed in public.
One by one, the throng of cowered people nonchalantly carry on after throwing a furtive glance at the unfortunate dead head. I can hear some of them whispering, “Thank God it is not me or mine.” “It’s none of my business… “, and all such callous inanities.
We are all marked for death in this nation. And our docility and insensitivity (as a people) are killing us all much faster than any AK47-wielding arrant cow herder, bandit, or bloodthirsty gang killing in the name of their religion, tribe, or politics.
The reign of kidnappers started in the Niger Delta. Now, this devious ill wind has taken over our country. Some now use it as an assured source of foreign exchange — dollars. Insecurity was bound to nosedive right from the day the first “kidnapping for ransom” victim was abducted. Now the chickens have come to roost and we are all inhaling the noxious fumes of banditry and men-stealers.
We never mustered the courage to say enough is enough. Why? Because “it was none of our business.” So we thought.
Now, all of us are being hunted and haunted. There is no place to hide.
For, to the extent we “stand by and look” while our fellow humans are being dehumanized and brutalized, to that extent we dehumanize ourselves. To that extent, the sanctity of our own lives ends. Because we all cowered out claiming, it’s none of our business.
Why do many Nigerians love NOMB?
1. Multidimensional Poverty
Ours is a multi-dimensional poverty-ridden country.
Living from hand to mouth many Nigerians are struggling to survive. Everyday.
Most of our people are living in quiet desperation uncertain and unsure of tomorrow.
In this jungle of “eat or be eaten”, many people prefer to look at the other side. “Who wan’ put his head for another person’s problem.?”
Here, they will advise you that, it is none of your business, to stick out your head in another man’s troubles.
2. No accountability and no consequences
From head to toe in Nigerian society, people break the law at will.
The law is made to serve the rich and the powerful especially the rulers and crooked politicians.
Even in rare moments when law enforcement agents stop you for any petty or big offense, all you need to do to regain your freedom is to “settle them” and you will be on your way. Settling them means you part with a few thousand naira notes instead of having your day and time wasted for menial or trumped-up offenses.
3. Yes, we are our own worst enemies
Even the people you are trying to save are unaware of their shackles.
Some are so accustomed and at rest with them that they will excoriate and turn their wrath against those who are trying to rescue them.
Fighting for the weak, voiceless, and defenceless is no easy walk. Even the weak often look the other way, never raising a finger to defend themselves.
4. Desensitization and Dehumanization of the people
Daily and at all levels, Nigerians are being pummelled by all forms of social aberrations. Just when you thought you’d seen the worst imaginable, you discovered there is no end to this heart of darkness into which our people cannot sink.
5. Nigeria, an “every man for himself” country
Many Nigerians have either left the moral side of their religion aside. Or rather, many of them live and breathe inhumanity as part of their religion or culture. So long as the evil being perpetrated is being done by minions and mis-rulers from their religion and tribe against others, many Nigerians rationalize and okay it.
Why?
Because they are not at the receiving end.
In Nigeria. we are reaping the fruits of what becomes of a society where every man is for himself and only a few (or none) care about the common good of all.
Welcome to the jungle.
What is Your NOMB Index
Can NOMB be measured? Yes, it can, on a subjective scale, from 0 to 100%.
A NOMB index of 100% means you don’t care what happens to others or around you so long as it doesn’t affect you directly.
The best end of the scale is towards 0%. Meaning you are highly concerned and considerate of what happens to others and how your actions or inactions uplift or worsen our society.
Where do you fall on this NOMB scale?
Whenever you see cases of police brutality and harassment and passers-by squirreling away not daring to ask what is amiss, NOMB is at work.
Next time your neighbor in the next compound is screaming and you refuse to find out why, you’re operating at 100% NOMB index.
Many Nigerians demonstrated their maximum NOMB dispositions in the last presidential elections (2023). Instead of them rising against a few bunches of election riggers and miscreants, they NOMBly folded their hands, telling you “Leave them o, that is their way. We knew they will rig the elections. Don’t put your life at risk resisting them o.”
On the day armed robbers attacked my house it was the timely response of my neighbor that confused those robbers. Before they could force their way into the rooms, I was able to make a “last minute” call to alert my neighbor. On picking up my call, my friendly neighbor threw a sizable piece of rock that landed squarely on the roof of my building. The armed robbers on hearing the sound of the unexpected “man-throwable” missile, quickly dispersed before the police arrived. My good friend had a very low NOMB index. He came to my rescue.
The lion felled and strangulated a wildebeest to death before proceeding to devour it. All this while the formidable wildebeest family in their scores and hundreds just kept looking on NOMBly. That is the story of our people. That tells the story of our slavery of past centuries. And it forms the template for the crooked politicians and misrulers that are under-developing our land.
Every Nigerian must do an honest self-assessment of where they fall on the NOMB index.
In Nigeria, NOMB (none of my business) sooner than later catches up with its adherents.
And unless Nigerians make U-turns from their collective and self-immolating it’s none of my business acculturation, this ill wind will spare no one.
All of us will be consumed.
It’s just a matter of time.
For evil to flourish, it only requires good people to do nothing.
As Nigerians, we must upgrade our values and humanity. All of us must step down from our self-devaluing pedestals of it is “none of my business” “NOMB”. Otherwise, our country will forever be cowered and herded from pillar to post by the worst among us.
SOURCE: Nigeria: The happiest place on earth
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