Thread by @AVeryChizzyAnn

THE BAMBIALA MENTALITY

This "Bambiala" mentality that is being instilled in the minds of Nigerians is VERY DANGEROUS!!!

DISCLAIMER: This is a recount of one of my personal experiences as a foreigner living in the diaspora.

Let's take a look at Venezuela for example.
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I lived in Venezuela for approx 8 years (2010-2018). During that time, Venezuela was one of the richest countries in Latin America. Economy was booming, tourists were flocking in, business investors everywhere and so on and so forth.
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Venezuela was a refuge to its fellow Latin American counterparts. They all looked up to this beautiful country especially in political and economic matters. They had a very strong currency. It was about $1 = Bs11 more or less as at the year 2010.
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You could literally walk into a supermarket with as little as Bs.100 and buy as many items as you could and still get some change. (I know I did!!😂) Times were great!!! The future was bright!!!
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In 2013, a new president took over and that was when I realized that no matter how vibrant an economy is, bad governance is all it takes for all of it to crumble to shambles.
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The price of a dollar started to increase, food prices hiked, transport fares also hiked and basic amenities became difficult to afford. Many thought it was just the new government getting off to a rocky start.
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"Things will get better", they said. "La Patria no se rinde", they said. And they went about their daily activities even in the face of increasing hardship.

At the time, a lot of things were being handed to the people without any clear path for monetary returns to d economy.
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The Govt was basically giving too much and not receiving enough. They had a free governmental housing system, almost free educational and transport system, free healthcare (in govt hospitals and clinics), monthly stipends for students,
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free monthly cartons of food to all families throughout the country etc.

Now I'm all for empowering the people but it's important to empower people the right way so that they can give back to the economy.
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I will always be an advocate for this saying that goes:

"If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day; If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime."

Then, INFLATION came knocking.
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As the economy got out of hand, they started to hand out free money to familes including paying mothers according to the number of kids they had and just like that, an already stagerring percentage of teenage pregnancies hiked up even more.
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Daughters were being encouraged to get pregnant so that they could get more money from the govt. Let's not even begin to talk about the spike in brain drain, emigration and the overall percentage of criminal activities like armed robbery, drugs, kidnapping, murder, etc...
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You were more likely to get robbed for carrying food than carrying money.
As time went on and the inflation kept worsening, a very large part of the population became heavily dependent on the handouts of the govt even to point where the entitlement mentality began to set in.
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"Es mi derecho", they said; without putting in the necessary work.

Things went from bad to worse to the point where I witnessed sane, well dressed men and women coming back from work and taking to the garbage on the streets in search for leftover food everyday.
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Garbage was as good as gold to these people.

Hospitals had no medical supplies and patients had to buy everything they needed to get treated even down to the simplest of tools.

Wahala for whoever falls sick.
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Companies packed up, investors left with the little they could salvage, businesses shut down, farmacies dried up and were looted and finally people started leaving.

Venezuela practically became a shadow of itself.
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Still held in shackles by a failed government and a leader who is more concerned about been in power than doing the right thing for the betterment of the people. There's a whole lot more but let me stop here.
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I see a lot of this happening in Nigeria today & I'm very saddened that it might not be long before we find ourselves in the same sinking boat as Venezuela.

One of the things I've learned over the years is that, to the impoverished citizen, HUNGER is a very strong motivator.
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People will do anything for food. So when you give 20k to a hungry person, the first thing that crosses their mind is FOOD!!!
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So you might have solved an immediate need but, on a long run, you haven't financially empowered these citizens but you've created a very dependent, mentally and financially lackadaisical people...
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who will continue to look to you for measly grants in order to satisfy their immediate needs never again thinking about how to work for an independent tomorrow.

-Dr Celestina Eze
(A very concerned Nigerian Youth)

#EndSARS
#EndBadGovernmentinNIGERIA

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