Someone once said, that some people are so poor, that the only thing they possess is money. This deep thought, in my opinion, best describes the emptiness of many a wealthy heart. In many cases, all they care to do, is accumulate more wealth, not caring who gets left with little or nothing on their way path, partly owing to their greed and avarice.
This state of things is easily noticeable in less developed economies where there is a sharp contrast between how the rich live and how the poor folks exist. Yes, while it is many times very difficult to tell a rich person from a poor one in developed countries, as besides the fact that the state provides all necessary social amenities, most people can afford to own several ‘rich people’ possessions such as vehicles, homes, businesses, and what have you, in poor countries, the rich are easily identifiable. In a country like Italy, for instance, a senator of the republic could walk down a busy street, almost unnoticed by most of the people on that street. This is partly because his or her dressing and general appearance would melt with those of most other folks there. Now, imagine a Nigerian senator walking down a Lagos street, an occurrence almost unimaginable to begin with. In most cases he would be in a convoy of cars and the only way you would notice him, is if his expensive ride is not equipped with tinted glasses. This wouldn’t play out differently if he was a ‘man of God’. or a famous artiste, a celebrity.
The social media is rife with hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths who would readily spend their precious data arguing about who is the richest singer in Nigeria and what cars they own, as opposed to those owned by their artistic peers. The Davido versus Whizzkid foolery easily comes to mind here.
I have always wondered of what benefit it is to someone to defend the riches of another individual, who by the way, doesn’t know you and who may not care the least whether you exist or not.
In Nigeria, landing a political office and stuff like that, is tantamount to being considered an almost untouchable. How one becomes a minister today, and a multimillionaire the next day, will never cease to baffle me. It doesn’t matter how much he or she earns as salary, it doesn’t matter how long he or she has been on the job, one thing is certain, you can easily notice the jump in their social statuses and possessions. It could be in their overnight multiple bank accounts, the ever bigger collection of mansions, or fleet of cars, etc. But the saddest part of this whole sham is that the folks whose collective wealth they are so callously stealing, will be the same people singing their praises. Even with religion, we now have the ‘my pastor’s private jet is bigger than yours’ syndrome. Please, my people, stop letting them use you. Stop running miles for people who would never walk three feet for you. Make it make sense.
Ristusblog 