Prince Charles Dickson
Whoever because of cold weather uses the pestle as kindling to warm him/herself must not expect to eat pounded yam. – African proverb.
Are Nigerians stupid?My answer is NO.Before going far in this admonition, the question ordinarily is why use such strong words, which could be interpreted to be seditious and full of contempt. Stupidity is a quality or state of being stupid, or an act or idea that exhibits properties of being stupid. According to Pitkin; the problems with stupidity is that nobody has a good definition of what it is.
How many times have we accused someone of being stupid with understanding what it takes to be stupid, or the continual stupid statements being made by our leaders and citizens alike? In recent times we have been treated to stupid statements like “In April Boko Haram will be a thing of the past”, before then we had a June timeline, since that June, the last time I checked three ‘Junes’ have come and gone.Who has forgotten the stupid statement that “We know the location of the Chibok girls, but X, Y, Z”?
I watched stupid fights over religion and ethnicity while the elite unite and loot stupidly away. For example, we stupidly argue away anti-PDP and pro-APC while Amaechi of APC says the pension he gets in millions and house in Abuja or Port Harcourt are because 8 years as governor is equivalent to 30 years work.
With so many smart people and degrees, and experts flying around, the level of stupidity perplexes one, but geniuses are often considered stupid by a stupid majority (though nobody has a good definition of genius, either). But stupidity is all around us. It runs Nigeria.
What really is the job of the National Assembly and what is the National Confab doing? I am also sounding stupid too, again.Do not blame me, dwelling among the stupid has a way of bringing out the stupidity in one.
Do not believe everything you read.But, is it not funny that after 54 days, we are gradually shifting from Chibok to Brazil? The answer is far from it; we are just being entertained by a group of stupid persons that have taken our stupidity for granted.
Ever wondered why the problem is not Jonathan or Buhari? It is failed institutions, stupid management mistakes that never cease to amaze the fairly unstupid, and every day I hear stories that leave me wondering why smart managers can be so dumb, for example: Every problem, set-up a committee; want someone to do something,throw them into the deep end with little training, then come down hard on them when they screw-up.
The above is how we run most things Nigerian, from local to federal level. I originally had the intention of outlining stupid statements made by stupid people but for fear of being stupid myself and being sued for libel.
There are five fundamental ‘laws of stupidity’. Here are three: The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
Non-stupid people always underestimate harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that anytime, anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
We are all born with a ‘Stupidity Index’ of 3. The scale is from 0 to 5, where 0 is the least stupid and 5 is the most stupid: I am at 4. What about you? What about Jonathan? How about the dudes in APC? Assess yourself. You’ll be surprised to know where you stand and where they stand.
In the article Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups, George Carlin writes: I’ve said it before– stupid people are dangerous. Sure they are amusing some of the time and annoying all of the time, but they are also dangerous a lot of the time too. Whether it be the stupid idiot who gets drunk and thinks it makes him a better driver, or someone in a company who has been promoted well beyond his or her level of ability just because the number of years of service he or she has accrued, or their stupidity poses a danger to the rest of us.
A lot of the time the idiots get away with it, without anyone noticing much…but in the end the damage is almost irreversible, find out how Borno will be 10 years from now.
The smart people get on with their lives and quietly accept the interference of the stupid. But recently idiots have been steadily encroaching on our private lives, into things that are clearly none of their business: the idiots want power, and they are in power, but they don’t know what to do with it. But they want it, and more and more of it.
My own theory is that at heart, although they try to appear superior, the idiots know they are idiots and actually feel inferior to normal people… Yes folks, never underestimate the power of stupid. Are Nigerians stupid, repeating same methods and wanting different results? Only time will tell.
