On Nigeria’s Dwindling Value System

Jedidiah Omisore

Sometimes ago, there was a popular Nollywood movie with a thought-provoking and telling title: “Died Wretched but Buried in 3.2 million naira Casket”. For somebody who does not understand the African culture, it denotes how in Nigeria we prefer to spend huge funds to celebrate the dead of somebody who could have been saved by a little amount of money on medicals. Here, someone can be terminally sick for years without any attention or help from anywhere. Fast forward to when the person dies and you begin to see people flying from one part of the world to the other to ‘celebrate’ his exemplary life with a big, fancy, noisy party. This begs the question, what is really our value system as a people?

In recent times, the tendency of people hanging around emergency scenes without a…