When is enough really enough?

So there was a plane crash in Lagos - Dana Airline - which killed all 153 people on board and at least 10 people on ground. We were naturally all shocked beyond description. Shock turned into depression and anger for some and I believe I can say almost certainly that it saddened practically every Nigerian.


It has been two weeks since. There have been religious services held in honour of the departed, there have been TV programmes, there have been articles in the papers and on the internet etc. Well.....now what?


Slowly, things seem to be creeping back to business as usual. We are going back to our normal routine and in no time, something new will happen to completely take our attention and we move on with this incidence only a distant memory....until the next disaster happens to jolt our memory.


Church attacks have become routine; so much so that there is little or no reaction when the news breaks. When would we as a people have had enough and rather than having knee jerk reactions actually do something to stop the menace that has now become life as we know it?


We live in a society where we have to provide for ourselves security, power, water, roads....you name it. A society where people die because doctors are on strike, where someone is attacked by armed robbers and cannot access medical attention because doctors first want to see police report. Where you are trapped in your house by armed robbers and even if you manage to put a call through to the police, they ask you to come and pick them up because they are unable to fuel their vehicles. And yet our lawmakers and other custodians of our common wealth continuously rob us blind. We hear of billions and trillions of naira being misappropriated to the extent that it all seems so incredible.


I was personally heartbroken at the unceremonious collapse of the 'occupy Nigeria' - protest against fuel subsidy removal and bad government at the beginning of this year. I had hoped that it would have been a turning point in the governance of our beloved country but alas...


The sooner we realise that we have to take our destiny in our own hands, shape our future and be willing to pro actively take action to ensure we actualise our dreams, the sooner we will begin to record progress. We have to appreciate that sacrifices have to be made for success to be achieved.


I have since decided to play my own part by doing the little I can not to feed or encourage the monster of corruption in Nigeria. Little things like not giving/offering bribes, obeying the law, paying my bills as and when due, rejecting mediocrity, questioning and speaking up against poor service etc. This may seem small in comparison to the rot in the system but if even 60% of us did this we would without doubt have a much better society.