True Courage

An inspiring story reported by NEXT about a Nigerian citizen who risked his life to save his fellow citizens during the post-election violence.

I have two comments for NEXT though.

Firstly, identifying the gentleman by name is risky enough; going further to tell the whole world his place of employment is putting his life in danger. Any violent radical who thinks what he did was wrong could easily go there looking for him.

This is something I don't understand about the Nigerian media in general. They do not investigate or report important stuff we citizens need to know because they don't want to put themselves at risk of commercial, political, and physical retaliation .... but they think nothing of broadcasting other people's phone numbers, home addresses and even graphic pictures of corpses without regard to the sensitivities of family members of the deceased.

Secondly, there is heavy emphasis in NEXT's report (and in the subsequent online public commentary) about how this was a "Moslem" helping "Christians". The impression they give is that they think this singular fact makes it a "man bite dog" story.

Let us be honest with ourselves. When it comes to life-and-death issues, to circumstances where a person runs a real risk of losing their life if they do the right thing, Nigerians in general (regardless of religion or ethnicity) are extremely reluctant to put themselves on the line to protect their fellow citizens .... even if that fellow citizen is of the same ethnic, religious, kindred or village origin.

It is why Fela Kuti sang that song about us being so afraid to die we would never rise up against our oppressors.

It is why incomprehensible things happen to Nigerians all over Nigeria, and there is no reaction whatsoever from the public .... not while it is happening, not after it happens. No reaction. No effort. Nothing.

What this gentleman did is amazing by NIGERIAN standards, not by "Moslem" standards. More than that actually, because what he did was impressive by HUMAN standards; most people on Earth simply would not have done what he did. Even as I salute him, I can but pray that I would find similar courage if I ever found myself in a similar situation.

I wish he was a policeman. Or maybe I should say I wish the Nigerian Police Force was more like him. Either way, he was out in the streets, facing down thugs and protecting citizens.

I have immense respect for him. What he did makes him far more useful to Nigeria and Nigerians than all the useless politicians who ran in the 2011 Elections, both those who "won" and those who "lost".

God bless him.