THE FEAR OF POVERTY - THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIANS (Part 1)

THE FEAR OF POVERTY - THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIANS (Part 1)

Some years ago, a Law lecturer in a legal symposium once told us something that sounded like a joke but which was very instructive and indeed made a lasting impression on me.
 

God when creating the different countries of the world, said he,  chose to both bless them with different blessings, especially natural resources and leave with them some natural disaster to counterbalance the blessings of the nations of the world. It was in this mission He (God) and His holy angels began to move round the countries of the world - one after the other - with blessings first. On His arrival at any given country, He(God) would ask His angels to drop just one particular kind of blessing with such a country, but whenever it was the turn of Nigeria, He would order His angels to double the blessing and so it continued until He finished blessing the countries of the world with the various blessings as they have today. Some angels were really not happy with this as it appeared to them that God seemed to favour Nigeria above the rest countries of the world. However, they only murmured amongst themselves but could not muster the courage to ask God the reason for the double blessings on Nigeria at each of the rounds of blessing.
 

Then came the time for the distribution of the natural disasters. As in the first distribution of blessing, God went round the nations with His angels one after the other ordering them to drop some particular kinds of disasters with such nations, but when it came to the turn of Nigeria, to the utter amazement of the holy angels, God forbade them from ever dropping the least natural disaster - at a time when they were all thinking Nigeria was going to have a double portion to counterbalance their double portion of blessings. At that point, the holy angels could no more hide their dissatisfaction with the whole arrangement the Almighty God and Father was making. So, they all in one accord came closer to ask Him why He was seemingly being partial in His dealings with Nigeria as against His nature. The Almighty's answer was that He knew that the angels would not at that point in time understand what Wisdom was behind His actions towards Nigeria until far much later in the history of the world. He further added that Nigeria needed all the blessings she could get from Him as a country but no natural disaster at all as the people that would occupy the territory called Nigeria would prove to be more than enough problems for her.
 

I went home pondering the story and till date, the lessons and deductions from it have not left me. Indeed, one may now ask, was the storyteller right in his story about Nigeria? Are we not truly blessed with abundant resources both natural and otherwise as a nation? Indeed, how many natural disasters have we had as a nation? The answers are obvious or aren't they? So, why haven't we as a nation truly developed and measured up with our counterparts in the world?
 

Now, do we need any prophet to tell us clearly that WE ARE OUR OWN PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA ARE NIGERIANS AND THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIANS IS THE FEAR OF POVERTY
 

Though we have myriads of problems, the root cause, I mean the very true root cause is and have always been THE FEAR OF POVERTY. 

....to be continued