Se o jale ti won ni o jale ni?

Se o paro ti won ni o paro ni?

Se o huwa jagidijagan ti won ni o huwa jagidijagan ni?

Anybody in my generation and older – Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo, Dipo Famakinwa, Dapo Rotifa, Oluseyi Faseyiku, Patrick Onaiyekan, Ayo Turton, Bayo Omisore, Onyemaechi Ogbunwezeh, Hassan DM, BM Dzukogi, do you remember this as the moral instinct and the ethical core of the generation that raised us? The generation now dropping dead on Nigeria’s pension queues in broad daylight all over Nigeria?

Do you remember that when you were in primary school, your worst nightmare was to be reported to your parents or your teachers or your Headmaster?

Do you remember that to even stand accused of theft, of lying, of rudeness, of cheating, of conduct unbecoming, was the worst possible nightmare you could face?

Do you remember that your parents’ first instinct was a sense of injury that you were even in circumstances in which you could be accused of any of these things in the first place?

Senate President. Senator Bukola Saraki

Why was Jide not accused of theft?
Why was Ikemefuna not accused of fighting?
Why was Shehu not accused of cheating?
It just had to be you?
They just woke up and made up these allegations against you?

Establishing the truth or lack thereof of the allegations was your parents’ and elders’ first priority.

Did you steal? Was there theft?

That was the moral point of departure in your environment. The faith or motivation or political pigment of your accusers was of no moment. All that would come later if, ONLY IF, your innocence was established.

Only then would they go out and crack a few coconuts on the heads of your accusers. But they would still continue to admonish you for having even been in the compromised circumstances or environment which gave room for the allegations in the first place. To have even been in the circumstances of such allegations, even if you were innocent of the charges, was a serious betrayal of your family and community.

If your guilt was established, God help you.

What happened to this moral and ethical architecture? Who are these kids all over social media whose first instinct is THE POLITICS of theft and not THE FACT of theft?

Why are you persecuting him?
Why are you witch-hunting him?
Why are you crucifying him?

Then they provide their own answers in rhetorical questions:

Is it because he is a Muslim?
Is it because he is a Christian?
Is it because of his party affiliation?
Is it because he did this?
Is it because he did not do that?

Who are these kids who never ask: DID HE STEAL?

Why is this single most important question never an issue for them? Why are they cognitively incapable of this question?

I ask these questions because I fear that it may be more about us than these social media generation kids. We are the ones raising them. They are being raised by our peers in Nigeria.

Did we pass on the template we received from our parents and elders to them or was there a break in transmission from us?

Our peers are the ones impersonating and writing exams for these kids in Nigeria.

Our peers are the ones bribing every institution of the Nigerian state to clear the path for these kids.

Our peers are the ones bribing admission officers in Universities, Polytechnics, etc, to secure admission for these kids.

Our peers are the ones giving body language to these kids that it is ok to steal and cheat because they are stealing and cheating as civil servants and politicians.

A society in which WHY ARE YOU ACCUSING HIM is more important than DID HE STEAL is doomed.

From Facebook to Twitter to the streets of Nigeria, an entire generation being raised by us and our peers is more interested in the politics of theft than the fact of theft.

Are we responsible for this?