There is a Thief in All of Us

Article

There is a thief in all of us and this thief creeps out when the plague of poverty and hunger falls upon the land like a blanket of darkness…. Esiaba Irobi.

One of the biblical stories that fascinated me while I was growing up was the story Esau and Jacob. I believe that story, or should I call it a folktale, is one of the most popular and realistic tales in the Bible. The tale of Esau trading his birthright for a porridge of yam. Everyone condemned Esau, especially me, for mortgaging his future on the altar of immediacy, immediate hunger. No how he would have died of hunger, he could have held on and consequently retained his birthright, I will surmise in my inexperienced mind.

Little did I know then, that no price is too high to pay to satisfy the gruelling and biting longings of the stomach. If you have not been truly hungry you will never understand why Esau did what he did. If you have never been truly hungry, you will never understand why youths are recruited daily into; militant groups, criminal gangs, prostitute rings, fake pastor trend, and clandestine circle. If you have never been truly hungry and not really sure where your next meal will come from, you will never understand why we sell our conscience every four years for a bag of rice or for 500 Naira note.

In a country where wealth is adored, adorned and worshipped by all, you dare to be poor? Come on, that is a suicidal attempt. Nobody cares about how intelligent you are these days. Nobody gives a two hoot about what you graduated with, nobody cares about your utopian dreams and castle in the air ambition. What we care about is money. The final joule to measure your success is your bulgy bank account, no matter how you made it. Woe betides you, if your account is not fat and shapeless (apologies to Ice prince). Chimamanda Adichie will posit in her new book Americanah, “Nigeria is a country where truth is a luxury”.

One of my bosses once told me, “on the judgment day, GOD will use a different yardstick in meting out judgment to Nigerians. So, WHATEVER you see your mates do, join them in doing it”. If an elderly person could tell a younger generation of Nigeria the afore quote, what do you expect from him, the younger Nigerian? His case will be like the proverbial son sent to steal by his father, he doesn't come in tiptoeing into his victim's house through the back door, rather, the son comes in confidently, breaking in through the front door. If you truly understand this, then you will understand why my generation will outdo this present generation. Then you will understand that the hope of a better Nigeria is a dead faith. You will understand the extent our government has failed us.

I told someone that I have stopped praying for our political leaders long ago. That in fact, if by an act of omission or commission I see myself in church and you raise such prayer point I will gently take my seat or better still change the prayer point. The person asked me why and I explained:
I was born into a prayer conscious family. Since I was young , we have been praying for Nigeria but Nigeria is not getting better. Rather the leaders are emboldened the more or should I say more creative and daring in their plundering of our common wealth. Either GOD is sleeping, on a sabbatical leave, does not answer prayers by Nigerians about Nigerian leaders or that punishing and correcting our leaders is not in the exclusive list of GOD. My friend murmured; that things have not changed does not stop you from praying for Nigeria. I should remain steadfast and persevere. Well, I wished him luck in his prayermania.

One might wont to ask, how does the government contribute to the hunger in the land? The answer is simple. The idea of Government as a concept was instituted in ancient Greece to cater for the greater good of the public. If government cannot creatively create job, or create a level playing field for the multitude of her unemployed citizen to start something on their own, then the unemployed citizen will create jobs for themselves. Suffice it to say that, government laxity begets unemployment, unemployment begets hunger, hunger begets survival instinct, survival instinct begets primitive tendencies and primitive tendencies bring out the predator in human.

As a long standing member of the Association of Resourceful Unemployed Youths of Nigeria, i have submitted CV's in numerous companies; I have successfully attended two interviews where I have been successfully rejected. I have fasted and tithed for illusive jobs. I am now in the stage of survival instincts. If you see me in street as an arm robber, or as a militant, or as a kidnapper, or as a political sycophant, or standing at the red light street, or with my sugar daddy, or my sugar mummy, do not be quick to point fingers at me as I did with Esau. If you have gone through what I have passed through. Then and only then you will realize, that in the game of survival, when worst comes to worst, that, the thief in you will come out, to save you from the pangs of hunger and annihilation.