Someone says society can only be the society. As true as that may be, I can’t stop wondering what it implies that it truly meant. Does it mean that society is designed to naturally destroy itself? Or is it that, society is designed in such a way that things can never get better? Honesty, I think that society cannot be designed that way.
We have people with the Character of a good leader but society will not let them take up political offices. They possess all the character of a good leader but society denies them the grand opportunities.
Some people say the society and the activities of the society keep going in circles. Fashions of years past always have a way of resurfacing and therefore, the deteriorating nature of the society will always get somewhat better and still get bad again. The question now is, don’t we have enough sense as humans to make the world a better place? Are we supposed to be controlled by the systems of the world or we are supposed to control the system that controls the world? Are we really in charge or something else is in charge? We cannot all be clamouring for a better world and this is still what we get. We cannot all be praying and wishing for a better society and we get what we have now.
Society in general is continually killing Good Character. Society is continuously destroying Good Attitudes. It’s almost as if, if you are not bad, you can’t fit in. The government will preach about the need for citizens to be upright in well-being and when you try to be upright, it is the government still, that will punish you for trying to be a good person. How sad.
Some time ago, I read a story of one Enugu state man from Nigeria who returned a bag of money he saw, he was arrested and jailed. How good can someone be good? A particular young man, heard from his apartment how robbers were raiding his neighbour's house, he called the police from his apartment, the police came and met the operation still ongoing, they apprehended the robbers, took them to the station, and later released them on bail. Before they released them, the police told the robbers who called them to report the robbery, these robbers came to the guy’s house, beat him to a stupor, destroy his property, took his phone, shot him in his leg and on the spine and left him for dead. In that condition, he managed to get one of his neighbours to lend him his phone so he could call the police since he knew their number offhand. He called the police, and one of the police top officers drove down to his house, saw him in the pool of his blood, looked at him and drove off. It was with the help of his neighbour that he is still alive today. He has left the city and relocated because his life is still in danger if those robbers get to know that he didn’t die from what they did to him.
The police, they, say is your friend. I say the police are only your friend when they want to be your friend. they say the primary duty of the police is to protect the life and property of the defenceless. I say the police are not only not defending the lives and properties of the defenceless, they are presently killing them. killing the very people, they swore to protect and rather protect those who are killing the defenceless. how downtrodden can a society get?
I bring to you another touching story that happened at my very before and I can’t help but think how bad our society and government have failed. people went to school to become professionals in what they do so they can do right, but it seems like people went to school to become professionals in what they do so they can do all the wrong things.
Of a truth, I don't know what the court is for any longer. truly, justice is ice, it is served only when those who matter want it served. the court has now become an institution of every other thing but justice. oh, how are the mighty fallen? from where did we take this turn?
Our morals and true values have been slain upon the altar of dominance, greed, selfishness and quest for power. how are the mighty fallen?
We've given ourselves to so much darkness that we no longer see and recognize the light. how are the mighty fallen?
The darkness has so much engulfed us that the light is now irritating us so much that we press to kill and destroy any light we spot. how is society failing?
The Story
On one faithful day, I was scheduled to supervise construction work at a construction site. While I was at the construction site, a young boy who would be in his twenties walked into the premised and walked right to me, appealing for me to just let him walk on the site so he can have something to eat that day. I looked at him and told him, I’m not the site engineer, but he kept pleading. After pleading for some time, I felt something for him and called the site engineer to find him something to do. The site engineer did I said and gave him something to do.
While he was working with the other guys, I overheard them discussing how he just lost his phone weeks ago in a Tricycle and how he has been going through hardship because the people who use to call him for jobs could no longer reach him as at when there is a job and how NIN (National Identification Number) office have claimed to not have service for him to retrieve his line since then.
As they were talking, he said, “So no one can just put his SIM in a phone for him to call and just go get back the SIM? A SIM they will not even use, I just need my SIM back somehow”. They kept talking and I heard him say “I’ve seen some SIMs on the ground while walking, I didn’t know that the owners of those SIMs possibly went through what he is going through now. From today, I will never see a SIM and walk past. I will make sure I picked the SIM, look for a phone if I don’t have one at the moment and put the SIM inside the phone and if the SIM is working, I will look through the stored phone numbers if I can get any to call that would help him locate the owner, and if there are no phone numbers stored in the SIM, I’ll wait for someone to call so I can locate the owner and give the person his or her SIM back.
When I heard this, I had to quickly buy myself into the conversation for the future error he is about to make. I do see this young man around, from what I know about him, he is upright and good. He doesn’t steal, he doesn’t keep bad company, and he dresses rather gentlemanly. He does legit menial jobs for his sustenance and he seems cool with that. I had to tell him the implications of what he is saying if he tries it.
I narrated all the implications I could think of as regards what he was about to get himself into if he dares do what he says. First, I told him that, even if the owner of the SIM lost his or her phone genuinely and you saw the SIM and picked it up after the person who saw the phone removed the SIM and discarded it. When the owner of the phone contacts his or her number and they get to you, no matter what you tell them of how your intentions were, you are the prime suspect that carried the phone and before you may say jack, it will land you in Police nets.
It is worse if the SIM you saw was a result of a robbery. In most robberies, people get hurt, raped and even killed. If you picked up a SIM that is linked to such crimes, you could go to prison for what you know nothing about. I told him not to try it or not to even think about it but the ultimate choice is always his anyways. They say you cannot force the horse to drink even if you take him to the river.
A few weeks down the line, I heard that this young man is in Police custody for allegedly being in possession of someone’s SIM card. The same thing I advised him against? I exclaimed. I went to the Police station to see him, talked with him and was opportune to see the DPO (District Police Officer) of that station.
Somehow, the owner of the phone got robbed during a robbery raid that was carried out in one of the biggest markets of the city and after some days of calling the line, this young man picked up the call and was said to have been straightforward from the start as to his intentions of why he puts the SIM in a phone was so the owner of the SIM to locate his or her SIM.
To cut the long story short, this young man was with me on the construction site the day the robbery took place. That day we had to list drop a piece of heavy machinery on site and usually, we do video record such activities so that in the event of an incident or accident, we would watch and learn where we went wrong so we can minimize future mistakes. And this lift drop activity took place almost at the same time the robbery took place. The video record captured this young man assisting in the lift dropping activity. The DPO assured me that something would be done for the case not to escalate beyond a reasonable point.
When I was about to leave the station, I went back to see this young man before I leave. When I went to see him, he looked at me and told me he was sorry for having to drag me to come to see him in a Police station, even though he wasn’t sorry for doing what he did. He said, if he leaves the station and sees another opportunity, he is still going to do it over and over again. That, if we choose not to do good because we will get punished for it, what are we? We are not different from those doing bad things. I didn’t know that the DPO followed me and was right behind me and heard what the young man said. Though the DPO, while working me out of the premises said he was touched hearing the young man say what he said, as when I’m writing this down, the young man is yet to be released.
On my ride home, I cannot but ponder on what this young man said, “That if we choose not to do good because we will get punished for it, what are we? We are not different from those doing bad things” and then I thought, the sin of "omission" and the sin of "commission" are all one and the same.
Our lives are truly worthless if we close our eyes at an opportunity to do good because society does not encourage it. And I wondered, if every good person continues on this path, in no time, we will mostly or only find good people in Police cells and prisons while the bad ones roam free on the streets of our villages, towns and cities.
I can’t help but imagine how many good people are in Police cells and prisons because of an act of goodwill. Is it not sad to know that humans only do what they don’t want? Everyone wants a better society but we hardly find people in authority consciously doing something to make the society better or genuinely encouraging good actions.
How is society failing?
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