Several years ago, a cousin told me of an experience in his line of business. He was then a Manager of a fairly large store in the UK – London to be precise – which specialized in men’s clothing. The store’s CCTV caught a man trying to steal an expensive perfume and some accessories. Security brought the man struggling and yelling to my cousin’s office. ‘Why am I being humiliated like this? Is it because I am black? He shouted indignantly. My cousin said ‘calm down. Take a second look at me. Do I look White?’ You see, the first line of defense for this man who had been caught red handed was to play the victim by using the race card. And if he handled his hysteria and victimhood right, he probably would find some Human Rights or Black Rights Organization coming to his defense. After all, some people in parts of the modern world defend high misdemeanors and even murders on the basis of race.

Playing the victim covers a multitude of sins as we know only too well in Nigeria. When a Governor from the Niger-Delta zone in the Obasanjo administration was alleged to have guzzled huge public funds, an Ijaw patriarch who had in his time, risen to one of the highest posts of Public Service in Nigeria, and whose experience and age should make his voice resonate throughout the country, said ‘let him steal it. It is our oil money.’ When a former Minister for Aviation from the South-East zone was to be removed for making some exotic purchases with public funds, her town’s people, led by a monarch, took to the streets to allege victimization. When in the early days of the Buhari administration, a top official from the North-Central zone was accused of a humongous grass-cutting expense, some Christians from his zone and even beyond, rose to his defense. This is what we do in Nigeria. This is how we roll to quote a friend. We either play the ethnic card or the religious card, or both. Our distrust for anything or anyone that is not part of us is only matched by our blind support for all things – good, bad and ugly – coming from our ethnic and religious enclave. Prejudice it is said, distorts what it sees; deceives when it talks; and destroys when it acts – we saw all of that in the JAMB drama. Our sight as Nigerians, is blinkered by prejudice which makes it easy for people to play the victim when caught in unwholesome acts. Seeing marginalization in almost everything, some sections in Nigeria seem more adept at playing the victim than others.

Our standard of public morality has always been low, taking the hue of religion and ethnicity when convenient. Unfortunately, that low standard was even lowered by the unfolding drama in the JAMB forgery episode. To recap, a young girl, a teenager, was called out for ascribing false figures to herself by a body authorized to make such a call. It should have been a simple case. The onus to determine authenticity should have rested on the examination body. Instead, social media became awash with allegations and counter allegations. Comments like ‘this would not have happened if the girl was Yoruba or Fulani’ rent the air. Lawyers weighed in threatening to sue JAMB. Hitherto respected voices weighed in alleging victimization. The distressing part is that many of those defenders who refused to see anything other than victimization in this case, and by and large, refused to see anything good about our institutions are mainly from a section of the country. Yet this teenage girl could have been Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw or Yoruba. She is just a symbol of the Machiavellian tendency – the means justifying the end – that has taken root in the country. She is a symbol of a society where parents and teachers help students to cheat; where applicants falsify their ages so as to enjoy a couple of years more in paid employment; where aspiring leaders doctor their certificates in order to have an undeserved edge.

It Is interesting that the choices this young lady made concerning her tertiary education are all in Lagos. The fact that there are perhaps better universities in the South-East notwithstanding. It could simply mean she wants to get far away from home as possible. Many youths all over the world do that. It could also mean that she believes, like many of her peers, that her future lies in Lagos. It says something of Lagos, despite disparaging comments, that many youths of different nationalities believe that and are thronging daily to Lagos in search of a new life. Thirdly, and this is the worrisome part, it could mean she doesn’t feel safe in any part of the South-East given the carnage that is going on there. Frankly, what is going on in the South-East is confounding. It simply makes no sense that a people would choose to destroy its own economy. One of the areas of comparative advantage that Igbo people have over other nationalities in the Nigerian space is commerce. That is the very thing the hoodlums are systematically destroying. And the leaders seem impotent to stop it. The same people who are crying victimization and marginalization over the demolition of some shops at Alaba Market are deadly quiet over the destruction of markets in their towns and villages – by their own people. I have often wondered, and maybe more discerning minds will tell me, what the sit-at –home is ultimately meant to achieve. And if there is no other way to achieve that end than the strategy being currently deployed. To wage a war against your own people in an attempt to prove a point or force a concession seems like self-immolation to me.

I long to see the South-East as an industrial zone where manufactured goods are exported to the rest of the country and the world. The Igbo nation is capable of this and more given the creativity and industry of its people. But what is likely to be exported now if care is not taken is anarchy. Igbo leaders and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians, should come together to put an end to this senseless lawlessness before it spreads. Finally, the Igbo nation wants one of its sons to rule Nigeria. It is its inalienable right and many Igbo leaders are eminently qualified. Besides, it is overdue. But elders will say that whoever wants to give you a garment, you will first look at what he is wearing. I don’t know whether the English idiom ‘charity begins at home’ approximates this native saying.

•Muyiwa Adetiba is a veteran journalist and publisher. He can be reached via titbits2012@yahoo.com

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