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Nigeria is a place where you wake up every day and just hope the country lets you see the night. Nothing is guaranteed here, not even the simplest thing like making it back home. You hear people dying every day, whole families wiped out, villages scattered, and somehow everyone just moves on. People don’t even flinch anymore because it is not cattle that are dying. That alone shows how twisted the priorities are. The security people we are supposed to rely on don’t even seem to know why they wear a uniform. The same police that should be patrolling and watching over communities are busy escorting celebrities to parties. You will see them following politicians around like bodyguards. Meanwhile, somewhere else, a mother is hiding in her own house with her children while armed robbers break in. She already knows calling the police might not help her in any way. If you ever call the police during a serious situation, you will hear the same dry questions. How many are the thieves? Do they have guns? Is the situation dangerous? You can literally feel your heart pounding but the first thing they think about is whether they want to take the risk. And if the thieves sound too armed, they will tell you they don’t have fuel in their vehicle. Fuel. Something that should not even be part of a conversation about saving lives. The worst part is that many of the security officers who should be defending us are the same people making the streets unsafe. They stop innocent people for no reason, asking them to unlock their phones. They slap people, extort people, drag them around as if citizens have no rights. But let real criminals pass, they will look the other way. Those ones can pay for protection. Innocent people can only pay to be left alone. Bandits in this country move around like they are the government. They kidnap children, attack travelers, burn houses, and do whatever they want. Citizens can’t defend themselves because the law says they shouldn’t own weapons. So criminals have guns, but normal people don’t. Imagine that. A place where human beings are hunted like animals, and the people being hunted have nothing to protect themselves with. Our leaders talk, hold meetings, form committees, and repeat the same speeches every year. Nothing changes. They move in long convoys with heavily armed escorts. They will never understand what it feels like to travel alone on a dangerous road. They will never understand the fear an average Nigerian carries in their chest every day. Pain has become normal here. Nigerians have gotten used to suffering to the point where if something bad happens, people simply say “it is well.” People bury their loved ones and wipe their own tears because they know justice may never come. The country has trained people to accept pain as part of life.

The only time bandits don’t strike is during elections, when politicians are too busy securing their positions. And even then, the street thugs don’t stop.

Permit me to take this a bit far. Many Nigerians are full of anyhowness. It is in how someone builds a house and stops halfway, no plaster, no paint, no finishing touch, yet proudly moves in. Little efforts matter, but we ignore them. It is in how your generator starter rope cuts, and instead of fixing it properly, you just wind the rope around by hand every day like it is normal. We get too comfortable with inconvenience. It is in how the government builds one side of the road and abandons the other to completely deteriorate. By the time they return to fix the neglected side, the first one is already damaged again. It is a never-ending cycle of poor maintenance. It is in how people throw dirt out of their car windows, then complain about blocked drainages when it floods. It is in how someone installs a door but never fixes the handle properly. Or paints a wall but skips the corners because “it is not that serious.” This anyhowness shows in our work, our mindset, and even our leadership. We rush to start things but rarely finish them well. We do not value details, yet we want excellence. If we want a better country, we must start by changing that spirit of “it is okay like that.” Progress begins when we decide that doing it well is just as important as getting it done.