Have you ever seen people take a “one way” (uni-directional traffic) or run red lights while you were in your lane obeying the law? Or see people ignore the pedestrian bridge to cross the express? Or (this one kills me the most) see people throw dirt out of their car windows?
From letting people’s files sit on desks for longer than necessary to lecturers keeping students in a class for more than necessary without a justifiable cause, Nigerian behaviour has been notable.
This shocking behavior, however, is not the case when they find themselves in foreign countries. Nigerians are not the same when they are at home compared to when they are abroad. Once they are out of their shores, most Nigerians become proper and extremely law-abiding. This makes me wonder if the system is responsible or if it is about morals and ethics. So, on today’s Begging Question, I want to hear from you.
Is the Nigerian behaviour a result of a bad system or by personal, moral, and ethical values?
Do you think it’s a culture thing like Saidu?
It’s now a cultural thing that everyone aspires to set and break standards left by predecessors, and Stockholm syndrome has set in so, most people don’t complain. They see being abused as a normal thing.
Saidu
Or do you feel it is a moral problem caused by the system?
It is a moral and ethical values problem, which was caused by the bad system.
bougainvillain
What do you think?
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3 Comments
I think it’s a bit of both. There are still unruly people in places with good systems. The only thing is that good systems don’t allow for them to be as unruly as they’d have preferred. Some Nigerians abroad too are very unruly. Here where there are no systems, we have good people, but the unruly ones are more because lack of systems enables their bad behaviour.
It’s a mix of both. A morally bankrupt person will act morally bankrupt in a good or bad system. There is racism in countries whose police systems are ten times better. There are rapists in countries that give women most of the legal power. Nigeria has no system, but we still have good people – those that don’t litter, those that return stuff they find in buses or stuff, and those who call the police if their neighbours are in trouble. Some Nigerians are bad in places with good systems. Good systems help in curving bad behaviour, but a morally bankrupt person has no limits.
A mixture of bad. Bad system create and enable bad behaviours. Bad behaviours reinforces bad systems.