INSANITY AND NIGERIANS

Ozodi Osuji

      In popular parlance insanity is defined as the tendency to keep on doing the same thing while expecting different results. (This is, of course, not how psychology and psychiatry defines psychosis…the mental health profession defines psychosis as the presence of bizarre delusions and hallucinations in one or more of the five senses, this occurs in about two percent of the population and for all intents and purposes does not concern us here…for our present purpose we shall go with the definition provided by common usage).  The insane person keeps on doing something, something that necessarily yields predictable results but expects different results. For example, if you drink too much alcohol you damage your liver and eventually die. But the alcoholic keeps on drinking while expecting to be healthy.



     In our every day experience we know that human beings are proud, vain and narcissistic; they like to be seen as special and admired by their fellow human beings. Therefore, common sense tells us to respect all human beings if we want to get along with them.



      If you go about disrespecting other human beings you insult their pride; when folks’ pride is injured they tend to respond with anger; whereas some will walk away from you some will verbally or physically attack you. People do kill those who put them down. This is history 101.



      If, on the other hand, you insult people and expect them to like and respect you, you are obviously not recognizing reality. Those you insult will feel angry at you and attack or even kill you. Therefore, if you expect them to like you, you are insane for you expect the impossible.



      Igbos apparently believe that it is up to them to ignore human reality. Thus they go about insulting other Nigerians. Other Nigerians naturally feel insulted and angry and attack them. They feel shocked that they are attacked!

       When those they insulted, such as Hausas and Yorubas, attack them and make life difficult for them in Nigeria they turn around and see themselves as innocent victims and see those other Nigerians as evil persons who victimize their innocent selves!

       They are not innocent at all; they get what they asked for; they sleep on the beds that they made!

       They actually want those they insult to like them, to respect them, to see them as very important persons, as superior persons.



      The Igbos who insult other Nigerians are not seen as superior persons; they are seen as unintelligent and sub-human beings! On this forum Igbos like Chukwuma, Franklyn, Peter Opara, Ken Assigwara etc who insult other Nigerians are seen as totally unintelligent and as sub-human beings (they are not seen as role models even though they fancy themselves as respect worthy!). I doubt that any Nigerian here respects these creatures. That is to say that they obtain natural results from their insulting behavior but as insane persons expect to be respected and seen as superior persons. Superior indeed!

      (I came to this forum and stated my honest opinions, which as a human being I have a right to, and the idiots apparently believed that I should not have opinions, that I should conform to their group delusions of superiority and say what they would approve; thus, without knowing who I am they called me all sorts of put down names. In their primitive minds they probably felt that they were shaming me; but in actual fact they became sub human beings in my mind; I do not see any of them as even slightly intelligent and have total contempt for them.



    If you put other persons down they will resent you and some will attack and even kill you. If you desire respect from other persons you must respect other persons. But Igbos disrespect other Nigerians while expecting other Nigerians to respect them. They will not be respected. In so far that they engage in behaviors that produce disrespect for them while expecting respect they are insane.



      What is the point to all these? The point is that Igbos must learn to respect all people, especially all Nigerians. All people, Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas, Edos, Ijaws, whites, Asians, men and women, adults and children are the same and are coequal. One God created all people; we are all members of one family, God’s family. God does not make junk; he made all of us equal. Therefore, if we are godly we must love and respect all people (while correcting our various bad behaviors).

   

     I was writing a paper on Nigeria and desired information on Nigeria ; I asked an Ijaw friend living in England where I could obtain that information and she referred me to naijapolitics; she said that the forum is an excellent source of information on Nigeria . I joined the forum and began reading what Nigerians were writing. I paid particular attention to what Igbos wrote. To put it mildly they wrote like insane persons! I could not believe that just about all members of a group seemed insane.

       Whereas I had wanted to be a member of the forum for a few months and move on I stayed and tried to understand Igbos etc. Over the years I wrote about these people. I have concluded my writing on them. They are a sick people and need long term psychotherapy to understand and heal their sick minds. It would take, at least, ten years of intense individual psychotherapy for the average Igbo person to heal his sick soul and become a decent human being. This is my judgment; a judgment based on over twenty five years working as a psychotherapist (with intermittent university teaching).



       I allowed myself to exchange words with even those Igbos that I knew were clinically insane (psychotic). I even exchanged words with mechanics, with unrefined human beings! I gave myself the permission to talk with these folks and have now withdrawn that permission and hence forth would not talk with them.

       School session is over.  If you desire learning from me you could buy some of my books (there are, at least, twenty two of them out there…and soon I will add another twenty). I no longer have time to engage in roforofo with folks.

        I part company by telling Igbos to recognize that their neurotic (when behavior is based on false pride, on fictional sense of superiority it is neurotic) need to put folks down is the genesis of their problems in Nigeria . They have to learn to respect all Nigerians, especially if they want other Nigerians to cooperate with them to get what they desire out of life.

     For whatever it may mean to you ponder this fact. My kindred is Umuamadioha. We produce the high priest of Amadioha for our people; we have done so for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Generally, when the current "Onye ishi Amdioha” is old a child in the kindred is selected to replace him. In the 1960s, at age eight, I was said to be the child to replace the then high priest, Akakporo. Thus, I was yanked from my Lagos upbringing and sent to Alaigbo to go understudy my uncle the then high priest. I had exposure to Igbo culture and learned Igbo language. The elders observed me and said that I am spirit possessed, “onye agwusi”, and decided that I had to become a dibia (healer). I was forced to learn what dibias do. Two years was enough exposure for the precocious me to learn all I could from these folks and I returned to Lagos and completed elementary school at Apapa GRA just as the war was about to begin. We ran to Port Harcourt where I began secondary school. At the end of the war I completed secondary and without waiting for my results (HSC/GCE Advance Level…I had one B, the rest As) to come out I was in the United States at age nineteen.  Subsequently, I put all things African behind me and in fact did not even identify with Africans!  But five years ago I was reintroduced to Africans via naijapolitcs and learned how sick my fellow Igbos are. I had a compulsion to understand and help them. Willy Nelly I wrote about them. The relevant point is that I have performed my family’s historical role for Igbos: be their dibia (healer) and high priest.  I have told them the truth of how they behave, for that is the function of dibias and high priests. I could care less how folks see me; I do not mind being verbally degraded by Igbos. I had to do what I had to do for these peoples eventual healing. The Igbo dibia has performed his function; it is now time to move on to what truly fascinates me: understanding physics and metaphysics. Cheers.



PS: Given the fact that naijapolitics remains an excellent source of information on Nigeria, who could not benefit from Bolaji Aluko’s occasional factual data on things Nigerian, I will maintain my membership in the forum…I do not receive mails directly to my mail box, I go to the website to read whatever I feel like reading; hence forth I will no longer give me permission to respond to folks letters.