Somewhere in Yobe State, a soldier asked a man who gave him a free ride to pull over, got him to come down, shot him and stole the car.
I read the lyrics of his sing-song after he was arrested. He went the typical line of, "I don't know what came over me. I don't know why I did it".
When you hear suspects take this, know you are talking to a distinctly unrepentant criminal. Their characteristic tag is, they don't take responsibility. They can apologise, right, but they will always shirk responsibility by finding a 'satan' to blame. "I don't know what came over me. I don't know why I did it" is equal to finding a satan to blame. It is all about deflecting responsibility.
What came over him is easy. It is called covetousness, aka, greed. Old as a hill, ancient poison of hearts, a dart to the heart of relationships; be very careful of people who have it as their Achilles heel. They look at something once and they wish it was theirs. They want it. They want it so badly it so badly they begin to hate the owner. Gradually they forget honour and dispense with trust. As they approach that tipping point where they must have it by all means, a malignancy metastasize to fill their sense if judgement such that if you opened them up, all you will find is only a mix of desire and hate in a soup of envy and a silent rage.
Greed over coveting things is a form of stupidity, a result of lack of wisdom. It flows from this cheap, carnal l instinct that one is only as comfortable and as important as how much and how many things he has and that end is worth chasing with any means.
That is the tipping point at which they begin to blame everybody from their parents who failed to give them a wealthy life to their spouses whose luck is always hard. They blame life for putting them in the circle of their friends whom they look down upon and then they want to lift themselves up into high society by the straps of their boots.
They are ready to do it now.
Sell their nation;
Betray their friends;
Treat trusts and confidences with contempt;
Arrange their employer's calamity;
Go to darker places in the dead of the night
Pull the trigger!
It grows slowly and seems all so benighted at the onset. It is rewarding too.
They sit at the reception and take a lozenge from the bowl but it is not enough. They will pack a handful when leaving if none was watching.
They are in Economy and their small frame fits quite well for the one hour flight. But after awhile, they take a look at the empty Business Class and they upgrade themselves quite by sheet desire and longing. These small rewards provide encouragements and habits that help lay the foundation for bigger pull-offs. Next comes the final havoc.
The animal within who is fed by things is growing, being readily nurtured. You see some going as low as packing bottles of water from parties - not out of need, but just because it was available and free. The more you take things because they are available, the higher you move on the dial of greed.
It is a resounding Nigerian story that echoes down the society all through to the local movies. The theme of grevious betrayal of trust for the promise of fast money has long, deep tap roots here.
Let's wind up with a military story, just like we started. About 25 years ago a gentleman regaled me with a story that stuck yo my mind. A decade before then, his father had tried all he could to get him into the military. "Who knows, one day you may be able to get the better of them and stage your own coup"! That was his dad's sole motivation for tying to get his son into the military: Robbery in Service.
So you see how my views about this nation has been shaped when I keep hammering it that what we need for development and sanity is not mere policy and personnel changes. It goes much deeper than that. We need a change of heart; a change of culture.
Voted by @alend keep it up