The Real Colonizers

The more I consume all manner of content online — read and watch everything and anything on my feed — the more I'm drawn to the thought that we colonized ourselves.

Yes, this sounds weird, but follow me as I try to make it make sense.

I believe we first colonized ourselves, and that's why it was easy for the British to rule us using what I see as the "divide and conquer" method, or, in more common terms, the 'Indirect Rule' method.

If my educational memory serves me right, based on what we were taught in school and on what's readily available on the internet, there was no unity among "Nigerians" back in the day.

Think about it: if you were a colonizer, which state would you consider easier to conquer?

A. An area where everyone bands together as one and has strong democratic leaders,

OR

B. An area where there is no unity within the area as a whole or within the tribes…an area where everyone is fighting to be known as the richest and most powerful?

Obviously, the latter is the easiest to conquer, which is why indirect rule worked perfectly. There was already a power struggle and slavery before the colonialists came along.

Sadly, in present-day Nigeria, things are still the same. Nothing has changed.

We still divide ourselves based on irrelevant things like status, class, religion, wealth, and, believe it or not, health, amongst other things.

I watched a video on TikTok the other day, and the topic was "The average Nigerian is a classist", and I couldn't agree more.

Looking back at it, the people who worked directly with the colonizers probably felt bigger and larger than their own people. They thought the British people would treat them with regard, so they worshipped the ground they walked on and sold their people out in exchange for God knows what; I do know what, but I just can't remember it right now.

The sad part is, we can still see that mindset in play today.

A while back, there was an uproar about a Chinese store in Abuja that Nigerians weren't allowed to walk into. You see how that sounds?

Let's take a look around. Bad things are going on, but the bad people are still here.

The perpetrators are freely going about their daily lives as if they didn't just cause deep sorrow and sadness to some families. E.g., terrorists doing giveaways on TikTok at midnight and Nigerians actually sending their account numbers to get money from them. That was a shocker!

It's scary how horrible things keep happening back-to-back, and nothing is being done. We see a new headline, we cry, we get angry, we talk about it, some time passes, and the news dies down. A week or two of silence and then….BOOM!, A new headline, and the cycle repeats itself.

It's like we are being conditioned to see horrible headlines as a regular thing.

At this point, the abnormal is slowly becoming normal for us. Sad and scary news is almost expected. It's like we aren't so shocked by the news anymore because something like that has happened, and nothing was done.

Instead, our wonderful leaders just shrugged their shoulders and took a quick vacation to, I don't know, somewhere in the Maldives, till the noise died down, and then they came back and said, "You know what? You get a bag of rice! You get a bag of rice! In fact, everyone gets a bag of rice!" and the show continues.

Imagine if a number of our leaders were affected by the things happening. There would be solutions, justice, change, and reforms.

But should that be our hope? Should we be praying that they partake in the sufferings of the nation before they can empathize with us and do their jobs? And do what they promised they would do once they got into power?

In all honesty, if Nigeria were to be colonized again, it'll probably be easier because when it comes to oneness and unity, nothing has changed. To be honest with ourselves, our leaders don't care about us, and they would sell us and the generations yet unborn without batting an eye!

But as much as we blame our leaders, many of them are just the average Nigerian.

The average Nigerian is wicked and selfish. Many people will get into power and will do the very same thing we are complaining about. Who knows, maybe worse!

The country can get better. Nigeria can be great.

And the solution is simple: we work on ourselves and try to be better people.

This may sound odd, but it's where the solution lies.

If we start trying to be better individuals, in a few years, we can have the good and caring leaders this nation deserves.

However, if we can't see ourselves as one and keep looking down on others because we think we are better than them, then we might as well start giving up on the country now.

In other news, Happy Independence Day!🇳🇬