Unpatriotic Syndrome

UNPATRIOTIC SYNDROME AMONGST NIGERIANS


Brethren, pardon me; I wish to begin with loyalty. From my humble perspective, loyalty is one’s firmness in his/her friendship or support for someone/something. In other words, loyalties are feelings of friendship, support, or duty. I put it up to you that you can never be loyal to any body/thing if you don’t truly love him/it. Thus, love begets loyalty, or loyalty is a product or one of the products of love.

Let’s have it this way; loyalty signifies obedience or respect. And respect can never stand or generate if there is no love. Most times people believe that respect should only be discharged by the younger, junior, subject, or servant as the case may be. But it’s a big lie or wrong conviction because respect is reciprocal as it’s popularly cited. Sorry for that digression, though it was necessary. But, the sole purpose of this paragraph is to inform you that respect which signifies loyalty can never hold in any love-free society.

Then at this juncture, we are expected to ask ourselves, what is love? Few seconds before I started writing this edition, I received a commercial sms on my phone from Airtel network which the first sentence reads, “Love is just love, it can never be explained”. After the perusal, I welcomed the sms with a huge smile. But my question is, does the message really make sense? And if a privilege ought to be granted to me to give the exact answer to that question, I’ll answer Yes and No. It’s not a paradox. It’s a fact. The Yes part of it is that truly, love is just love; there’s no two ways about it. There’s only one finite/basic definition of love. And such definition holds in any recognized dictionary and the holy books. You only say you love someone/something when his/its happiness/existence is very important or matters so much to you. It’s only in philosophy that you can find different definitions or types of love. But I wish to utilize this opportunity to inform you that there’s no different types of love such as agape, eros or philia as its being cited in philosophy. Love is just love. You can only find different kinds/types of lust. Secondly, the No part/side of the above answer is that love can be explained instead of how it was stated in the sms that it can never be explained. Beloved, love is never complicated; it’s a very simple term that everyone is bound to comprehend irrespective of his/her age or status especially in this moment of love popularly known as “Valentine”.

We’re discussing unpatriotism among Nigerians. Patriotism is one’s love or loyalty for his/her country. In other words, unpatriotism is your hatred for your country. Q.E.D. It’s so pathetic to see millions of people parading with an unsympathetic character due to absolute ignorance. This time, kindly permit me to speak in a high voice because personally, I’m boiling.

Penultimate two Sundays, 10th of February to be precise during the AFCON finals that took place between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Stallions of Burkina Faso which I was viewing in my apartment at Owerri, one of my neighbours who happened to sit beside me exclaimed, “After all I’ll still have my dinner even if Nigeria is being defeated” having heard other viewers lamenting over the non-challant attitude of some players. You needed to see how I glanced at him with pronounced cruelty. Tell me, what does food got to do with one seeing his/her country emerging the winner of the day; wasn’t that statement crazy? Apart from similar lackadaisical attitudes display by most Nigerians in their everyday lives, some still go a long way cursing or wishing the country bad luck whenever she intends embarking on any competition with other nation(s). What is actually wrong with us; have we grown banana or something? Let me not conclude that this is insanity because God is watching.

It doesn’t even stop at that. The issue of laying more emphasis or interest on foreign made goods than the locally made ones is fast becoming a pain in the ass. The level of patronage of virtually all Nigerians towards the indigenous goods/commodities is no longer sad but extremely disgusting and alarming. How can one loves his/her fellow than him/herself. Pathetic indeed! Yes, such gesture is a product of low mentality. I’m sincerely sorry to say it. Even the holy book asks us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and not than ourselves. I must tell you, we’re seriously derailing.

Honestly, no one is exceptional or exempted here because we all are in one way or the other filled with either a drop or huge amount of this destructive and unproductive blood. Frankly speaking, unpatriotism is wholesomely destructive. And the last time I checked, any destructive syndrome is definitely unproductive.

Brethren, why can’t we be loyal to our country of origin; a country we find ourselves or were born in; a country whose blood flows in our respective veins. Every member of this nation, be it by origin, birth, adoption or affiliation is expected to adore or respect the nation, rather than spitting at her. When shall we wake-up from this long lasted siesta? Yes, a word is enough, but only for the wise. Maybe our problem is lack of wisdom. I know as a country abundantly and richly blessed with both natural and human resources, we’re expected to grow faster and larger than our present socio-economic and political status; but that shouldn’t call for sadism, rather fellowship. Think about it!

Meanwhile, congratulations Super Eagles; you have really flew to the peak, and therefore have made the patriotic ones proud. You all deserve the national honours granted to you. Bravo!!


_________________
 FRED NWAOZOR

Social analyst & activist