The Killer Number and Nigerians

Mobile phones have quickly become a useful companions. Family, friends and associates can communicate with us in a matter of minutes, ensuring that we are kept in the events loop. September 14, 2011 will go down in the unofficial event calender as the day "mediocrity" triumphed over common sense in many parts of Nigeria.The "killer numbers" broadcasts as absurd as it sounds spread like wild fire and even though it did not find its way into my phone, friends and colleagues made a huge joke of it. If any of my associates had sent me that forwarded message about a 09141 killer number I would have ended our relationship immediately. How anyone can believe that "killer numbers" exists is beyond my understanding. This is not the first time our sometimes fragile reasoning has been subjected to rumour based scrutiny. The use of fragile reasoning here is not to insult anyone but to challenge us to think critically and make good judgement. In the past there were rumours of "killer beans", "killer noodles" and the big one "killer numbers".They are hardly supported by scientific facts except for our quickness to believe in misplaced spirituality. A visit to a popular Nigerian blog shows comments from people who live in perpetual fear despite religious beliefs. Upon further observation of the said blog, I discovered that the belief in killer numbers was not limited to illiterates. To be able to surf the web and make online contributions to blogs, you must have had some form of education. Yet people kept advising others to pray and watch out for the evil that these numbers may cause. The rumour is backed with unverifiable evidence that it has already killed eight unidentified people. Whilst many including this blogger believes that our educational system is underfunded, even worse is the quality of graduates. A human being that is unable to critical evaluate issues and make judgement is better off not attending any formal school. Education should challenge traditional boundaries, promote tolerance, critical reasoning and create valuable human capital. Little wonder why people are easily deceived in the name of fear mongering religion. We have had reports of people who endure untold suffering in an attempt to cleanse themselves of spiritual problems, The shameful" child witches" accusations are sad examples of the extremes that arise as a result of lack of judgement. Solutions to problems are been sought from killing animals, paying money to fortune tellers and abusing innocent children. There is a huge " critical thinking" problem we must address as a nation. Little wonder how we manage to choose the worst of ourselves sometimes to represent us as our leaders. We will not develop, if we continue to shun innovation and build on quality ideas. Nobody cares that we are one of the world's most religious nation yet so morally bankrupt. It does not make sense to deny our brains the opportunity to achieve its full potentials by putting it to good use. I am not going to argue spirituality with people who choose to believe the "unseen" but I will challenge everyone to employ their minds and join hands in developing our nation. The West thrives on innovation and critical evaluation on issues. Asia is catching up and becoming increasingly powerful in world affairs. Nigeria, the world's largest black nation need to wake up and realize that we are spectators in the 21st century. Greatness is not in numbers (quantity) but in the quality of people. We cannot lead Africa or the world on a mentality that is too lazy to think. Pause for a minute and think about this! Young Hip Naija.