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How We Consciously or Unconsciously Contribute To The Nigeria We Don’t Want To Have - My Story
Short thread.
Short thread.
Back in our secondary days, there is this trend of students always setting aside a day meant for what is called “general lashing” where SS3 students gather students in the lower class (SS1 and SS2) and take turns to flog them to show that they are still in charge.
This became a trend because the lower class students always feel their seniors will leave school soon and so deserve little or no respect. The SS3 students on the other hand always feel the need to show that exert their authority because they are still in charge.
There came our own time as the most senior students and the supremacy battle wasn’t any different, so we decided to organize our own “general lashing” to checkmate what was the growing rebellion of students from the lower class.
In the wee hours of that fateful day, the prefects (I was one) gathered as agreed in an earlier meeting, woke up and assembled all the students in preparation for the general flogging. As usual, they were taken unawares and no escape routes. They were manned.
Well, the general flogging took place that night, but to my amazement as I discovered later in the morning, some of the students did not sleep in the hostel that night. They were tipped off and so escaped the flogging.
Some of the prefects against what was generally agreed at the meeting held before the “general lashing” had informed their friends and relatives to stay away from the hostel because something was going to happen. Some of the students also informed their own friends to escape.
I have a brother who was then in SS1. I could also have informed him to leave the hostel that night, but I felt that it would be a betrayal of what we agreed at the meeting. I didn’t tell him. He was flogged like every other person that slept in the hostel that nights.
Apart from my brother, I also have school children and friends I could also have told to run from the hostel just so they won’t fall victim to what we had planned, but deliberately, I didn’t.
I know I did the right thing by not singling him out for escape despite sharing the same blood with him, but I am not sure I will repeat the same ‘mistake’ again if the opportunity presents itself.
My brother may have forgotten this incident. It is possible he didn’t even see it as anything since it was applicable to everybody, but till today, I carried that quilt that I didn’t ask him to escape the same way my colleagues asked their friends and families to escape.
The flogging May not be defendable, but since it was the trend, I didn’t see the need to single out anybody, let alone my brother. After all, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. It is even possible I was among those even flogged him because it was in the dark. 
What my colleagues did then might seem insignificant today. They may have forgotten it ever happened, but such act is a perfect example of what we see today. That kind of mindset is still prevalent and very much has contributed in where we are today.
We’ll favour our friends and families to the detriment of the people especially those without privileges. Even when such people are not deserving of it, we give it to them because they are our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties and friends.
Just imagine that every prefect and SS3 students who had knowledge of what we planned that say informed everybody they know. Who will remain to receive the flogging and how would we achieve the purpose it was meant for? Apply this to any scenario in Nigeria.
May God help us to continue to do the right thing even if it will cost us.
