Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
My Experience with AirTran (more like AirTrash)
what I experienced yesterday was a failure of customer service period. The people just could not get themselves together due to the crisis caused by weather. The test of great customer service is in a crisis and AirTran failed woefully. Only one guy at gate C8 was composed enough to think (Bolton White is his name. He should get promoted to Manager cos he recognised peculiar situations and tried to fix each on its merit.
If I had gotten him earlier, we would have avoided the situation. Everyone in customer care Thursday Mar 11 were unhelpful, robotised and sometimes downright rude! One caucasian buffoon shouted me down and insisted I joined a queue of about 50 people with less urgent issues than mine. They wouldn't even listen. After waiting for about an hour, I finally got to talk to another who was more preoccupied in blaming me for choosing to fly out of 2 airports!
The Atlanta-DC flight was going to Reagan DCA to arrive at 11.54 am. my flight to London was at Dulles for 6.55pm so I had enough turnaround time if they had kept their end of the bargain. The trouble started when the connecting flight from Atlanta-DC left earlier than scheduled. We could not land in Atlanta on time cos it rained. by the time we got to the gate of our connecting flight to DC at 10am, there was no plane! ... See More
It was scheduled to leave at 10am but when over 40 of us got to the gate at 9.58am, the plane had left and there was no staff at the gate! AirTran could have held that flight when they knew the connecting flight was delayed. In fact, it took 20mins for AirTran to provide us with a parking gate! So the delay was all their fault. I guess they didnt want to incur late fees so they passed the inconvenience to their customers!
Every attempt I made to get them to think outside the box just didnt yeild. They were like progamed morons! "you missed the flight, we put you on the next one period"! The next flight was at 1.45pm so I waited for 4hrs. About 1pm, AirTrash! announced that this flight was delayed from New Orleans due to mechanical fault and would now leave at 3pm! my flight to London was at Dulles for 6.55pm and I still needed to go through security. Not to mention DC rush hour traffic from Reagan Memorial to Dulles
About Security; my Nigerian passport earned me instant 'suspected terrorist' status cos I was taken aside, frisked and every item in my possession was checked for radioactive radiation - from my makeup, purse, phone, ipod, pc, shoes, bags, EVERYTHING! even my hands! that takes about 25 minutes and a lot of embarrassment. No thanks to Mutallab for this humiliation but what can one do? Na me come their country. Abi?
Anyway, back to AirTrash! Bolton White was the ONLY one who recognised my urgency and took it up with the manager before they got me a business class seat on the earlier Atlanta-Baltimore BWI for 1.45pm. We arrived at 4pm and luggage took 30mins Its 1hr no traffice from BWI to Dulles so I would have arrived at 5.30pm and Virgin gate closes at 6pm.
All the way from Atlanta, I had been on the phone with the Virgin Atlantic customer service and they were excellent. I called Virgin 4 times and each representative was empathetic, helped me through possible options, even put a note on my reservation to alert check in staff of my predicament. When it was obvious I could not make the flight, they called the airport to offload me cos I already checked in online and advised me on the cheapest options i had.
Since I had no plans to stay in DC, I had no one to pick me. All my contacts in the area were not available. 1 was in BWI for 4 hrs before locating my dear cousin (thank God for family) A shuttle to her house, (saved hotel) back to Dulles to try for a seat today, etc
Planned my itinerary to get to Lagos Saturday morning to make Bimbo-Sola Connect and the burial of my aunty. AirTrash trashed all that. I can only hope for a connecting flight to Lagos so I get in in time to speak at World Consumer Rights Day Summit in Abuja on Monday. All because AirTran Customer Service Staff didnt get the memo on thinking outside the box in resolving customer issues!
If I had gotten him earlier, we would have avoided the situation. Everyone in customer care Thursday Mar 11 were unhelpful, robotised and sometimes downright rude! One caucasian buffoon shouted me down and insisted I joined a queue of about 50 people with less urgent issues than mine. They wouldn't even listen. After waiting for about an hour, I finally got to talk to another who was more preoccupied in blaming me for choosing to fly out of 2 airports!
The Atlanta-DC flight was going to Reagan DCA to arrive at 11.54 am. my flight to London was at Dulles for 6.55pm so I had enough turnaround time if they had kept their end of the bargain. The trouble started when the connecting flight from Atlanta-DC left earlier than scheduled. We could not land in Atlanta on time cos it rained. by the time we got to the gate of our connecting flight to DC at 10am, there was no plane! ... See More
It was scheduled to leave at 10am but when over 40 of us got to the gate at 9.58am, the plane had left and there was no staff at the gate! AirTran could have held that flight when they knew the connecting flight was delayed. In fact, it took 20mins for AirTran to provide us with a parking gate! So the delay was all their fault. I guess they didnt want to incur late fees so they passed the inconvenience to their customers!
Every attempt I made to get them to think outside the box just didnt yeild. They were like progamed morons! "you missed the flight, we put you on the next one period"! The next flight was at 1.45pm so I waited for 4hrs. About 1pm, AirTrash! announced that this flight was delayed from New Orleans due to mechanical fault and would now leave at 3pm! my flight to London was at Dulles for 6.55pm and I still needed to go through security. Not to mention DC rush hour traffic from Reagan Memorial to Dulles
About Security; my Nigerian passport earned me instant 'suspected terrorist' status cos I was taken aside, frisked and every item in my possession was checked for radioactive radiation - from my makeup, purse, phone, ipod, pc, shoes, bags, EVERYTHING! even my hands! that takes about 25 minutes and a lot of embarrassment. No thanks to Mutallab for this humiliation but what can one do? Na me come their country. Abi?
Anyway, back to AirTrash! Bolton White was the ONLY one who recognised my urgency and took it up with the manager before they got me a business class seat on the earlier Atlanta-Baltimore BWI for 1.45pm. We arrived at 4pm and luggage took 30mins Its 1hr no traffice from BWI to Dulles so I would have arrived at 5.30pm and Virgin gate closes at 6pm.
All the way from Atlanta, I had been on the phone with the Virgin Atlantic customer service and they were excellent. I called Virgin 4 times and each representative was empathetic, helped me through possible options, even put a note on my reservation to alert check in staff of my predicament. When it was obvious I could not make the flight, they called the airport to offload me cos I already checked in online and advised me on the cheapest options i had.
Since I had no plans to stay in DC, I had no one to pick me. All my contacts in the area were not available. 1 was in BWI for 4 hrs before locating my dear cousin (thank God for family) A shuttle to her house, (saved hotel) back to Dulles to try for a seat today, etc
Planned my itinerary to get to Lagos Saturday morning to make Bimbo-Sola Connect and the burial of my aunty. AirTrash trashed all that. I can only hope for a connecting flight to Lagos so I get in in time to speak at World Consumer Rights Day Summit in Abuja on Monday. All because AirTran Customer Service Staff didnt get the memo on thinking outside the box in resolving customer issues!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
My Toyota Experience: Good Thinking, Bad Product?
I bought a Toyota Rav 4 in August 2006 from Elizade Motors. Since it was my first ever brand new car and I had an old car then, I only drove it on special occasions. My first reaction after the purchase was that contrary to the perception I had of the brand, the car was a little too lightweight than I expected. Initially, I thought my disappointment was buyer dissonance but when I had the opportunity to drive the American Specs of the same car, I could confirm that my Nigerian Specs was significantly different. The only way to describe it is ‘pangolo’ (empty tin) compared to the American version.
About the 1st service, I noticed that when I step on the brakes, it made this peculiar sound like it was struggling to catch. I mentioned my observation to the service personnel at Elizade Service Center in Ogba and was told they checked and nothing was wrong. I however don’t remember if I insisted my complaints must be included in the job sheet. It was a brand new car with just over 5000 kilometers so I didn’t make any fuss once they reassured me.
The next thing I noticed was that my steering wheel made clicking noises when turning to the right side as if the car had a shaft problem. However, when you make the full turn of the steering wheel, there was no clicking sound. I also mentioned this sounds each time we went to service the car and the usual response was there was no problem. I remember one of the staff explaining to me that it was normal with Rav 4. Since this was my first Toyota car, I had nothing to compare notes with and they were the experts. By August 2009 when my 3 year warranty was to expire, my car which had less than 30,000 kilometers on it was driving like an over flogged jalopy! Getting into potholes on Lagos roads was a nightmare as the car seemed like it had no shock absorbers.
I notice the difference because whenever I drove other vehicles which were older than mine over the same stretch of roads, my experience was distinctly different. Two weeks before my warranty expired, I decided to seek a second opinion and asked Mr Kunle Osinaike, Automobile Engineer and Producer of Automedics on Radio Continental to test drive the car. The minute he turned the steering and stepped on the brakes he confirmed that there definitely was an issue with the vehicle. Elizade serviced the vehicle for 3 years and gave it a clean bill of health in spite of my constant complaints about these sounds. Uncle Kunle advised me to take it back (we just serviced less than a month or so) and even offered to go with me in case they still disputed the fault.
I took it in just about 2 weeks before my 3 year warranty expired and met a really nice officer Idowu, who impressed me with his service delivery so much I wrote about my experience. He took the car in and confirmed that there was something wrong with the steering which had affected the shock absorber on the right side. He informed me that since it was still under warranty, they would fix the steering wheel and replace the two shocks though only the right side was affected. We scheduled an appointment and I went home a happy customer not knowing my ordeal had just begun.
Elizade had the car for about a week and when I was getting restive and sent my driver over, they told him we had to take our turn as they were working on other cars before ours. My driver caught a glimpse of the workshop and told me he saw other Rav 4 all jacked up like mine. I thought it was strange then to have so many cars of the same brand in warranty repairs at the same time. That was when I suspected it was a factory fault but since they took responsibility, I didn’t want to make a fuss.
A few days later, they called that they had changed the shock absorbers but the part to fix the steering wheel had to come in from Japan. We were advised to take the car and they would call us when the part was in. I asked about the brake sound and another irritating sound from the back of the car and was told all was fine. It took a few months for Elizade to call that the part was ready, by which time; the clicking sound was now constant on the right front wheel area. Even after fixing the steering wheel, they returned the car without checking the right wheel click.
I immediately protested and was then informed that there was some rubber issue. When I pointed out that this sound had been for years, the Warranty Officer told me they noticed it but since they had already requested for more than 3 parts for my car on warranty, they could not accept liability for it anymore, more so my warranty had since expired by now. This is without any consideration for the fact that the repairs were briefed in under warranty and were never fully concluded because Elizade and Toyota just didn’t have the complete parts to finish the job at any given time.
After establishing that fact, I offered to pay for the part so it won’t cause further damage but refused to pay for repairs but Elizade insisted it was my full responsibility. They promised to order the part, and called a few weeks ago to ask us to bring the car as the part was in their office. We took it in and after two days, I was told to come pick up my car. My driver got there only to call me that the car was not fixed after 2 days in their workshop because they just discovered that the wrong part was sent from Toyota Nigeria. After two days!
Due to Elizade’s sloppy after sales service delivery, the car is still with these defects which might be affecting other parts of the vehicle. While still trying to find an alternative solution to this, I discovered that my car’s chassis was within the range listed by Toyota Nigeria for ‘check up’ appointment! So my brake pedal issue could have been a factory fault all these years and I was falsely reassured until it started to affect other parts of the car.
While I am grossly aggrieved at Elizade and Toyota Nigeria for endangering my life and taking advantage of my vulnerability as a woman to pass off a defective product as superior quality and falsely reassure me to avoid culpability, I cannot but wonder if there are any standards for vehicles imported into Nigeria in the first instance.
I am aware that nations specify the minimum standard of products that can be imported into their country but it seems the Nigerian government was not copied on that memo. As a consumer rights and protection advocate, I have raised the alarm that with porous regulations and zero enforcements, Nigeria is sitting duck for substandard products. While my experience with Toyota could be an isolated case as the brand is not substandard, thousands of products flood our markets without any way for consumers to verify their quality.
Where is Standards Organisation of Nigeria in this global Toyota recall? Who do I report my experience and suspicion of a factory defect in the Rav 4 2006 edition so they can investigate to ensure that consumers like me are not endangered by our purchase? The case in the automobile industry is particularly critical because Nigerian lives are on the line. How are we sure that many of the accidents that we attribute to bad roads, reckless driving and carelessness are not actually caused by some minor defect in the vehicle? Who is saddled with the responsibility to investigate accidents to determine their causes so we can avoid such in future?
I have checked with the Consumer Protection Council and was assured the DG had directed that a letter requesting for Toyota to state the accurate exposure of the Nigerian consumer to this identified faults be dispatched last week. However, the CPC must speak up for the Nigerian consumer and engage the SON on the issues that affect our purchase choices.
What are the Nigerian specifications for approved vehicles? One would expect that given the state of our national road network, extra fortified shocks would be a standard requirement for any vehicle intended for the Nigerian market. Also, with the inability to get the fuel equation right, a less sensitive fuel injection system would also make that list to fortify our vehicles from adulterated fuel accessioned by the embarrassment of scarcity.
The only advantage I have as a Nigerian consumer is the ability and opportunity to speak and be heard through the media. Millions of Nigerians like me suffer in silence because there is no voice to echo their pains. Even I may have to bear my burdens after venting because there is no one to hold Elizade and Toyota Nigeria to fulfill their contractual obligations to fix my car of a recurring defect complained about under warranty.
My issue is too minute in the face of gargantuan national ‘issues’ of a sick President; an Acting President trying to manage his loyalty to terrestrial powers while attempting to steer a rudderless nation; a National Assembly totally engulfed in the politics of remaining relevant mixed with our national demons of fuel scarcity, scanty electricity and massive ATM scams, exploitation of ignorant consumers and this sudden unprecedented heat scourge!
This is one of those times I wish I had a President like Obama who published a Consumer Handbook of guidelines on practically every purchase decision with a personal note reassuring his citizens of his commitment to their protection and how they can seek redress. I wonder if Acting President Goodluck Jonathan spares us a thought as consumers in his overloaded 12 hour schedule.
If he does, maybe he will recognize the crucial role of consumer protection and strengthen the structures like SON, CPC, NERC and CBN enough for them to do more than bark. Nigerian consumers desperately want them to bite too!
Meanwhile, I have formally complained to Elizade and waiting for their response. An official apology for their insincerity with me during the warranty period on my vehicle and full responsibility for returning my car to perfect condition or a replacement of the car is what I expect or else, I will seek legal redress. It is time to test the structures that should protect consumers.
About the 1st service, I noticed that when I step on the brakes, it made this peculiar sound like it was struggling to catch. I mentioned my observation to the service personnel at Elizade Service Center in Ogba and was told they checked and nothing was wrong. I however don’t remember if I insisted my complaints must be included in the job sheet. It was a brand new car with just over 5000 kilometers so I didn’t make any fuss once they reassured me.
The next thing I noticed was that my steering wheel made clicking noises when turning to the right side as if the car had a shaft problem. However, when you make the full turn of the steering wheel, there was no clicking sound. I also mentioned this sounds each time we went to service the car and the usual response was there was no problem. I remember one of the staff explaining to me that it was normal with Rav 4. Since this was my first Toyota car, I had nothing to compare notes with and they were the experts. By August 2009 when my 3 year warranty was to expire, my car which had less than 30,000 kilometers on it was driving like an over flogged jalopy! Getting into potholes on Lagos roads was a nightmare as the car seemed like it had no shock absorbers.
I notice the difference because whenever I drove other vehicles which were older than mine over the same stretch of roads, my experience was distinctly different. Two weeks before my warranty expired, I decided to seek a second opinion and asked Mr Kunle Osinaike, Automobile Engineer and Producer of Automedics on Radio Continental to test drive the car. The minute he turned the steering and stepped on the brakes he confirmed that there definitely was an issue with the vehicle. Elizade serviced the vehicle for 3 years and gave it a clean bill of health in spite of my constant complaints about these sounds. Uncle Kunle advised me to take it back (we just serviced less than a month or so) and even offered to go with me in case they still disputed the fault.
I took it in just about 2 weeks before my 3 year warranty expired and met a really nice officer Idowu, who impressed me with his service delivery so much I wrote about my experience. He took the car in and confirmed that there was something wrong with the steering which had affected the shock absorber on the right side. He informed me that since it was still under warranty, they would fix the steering wheel and replace the two shocks though only the right side was affected. We scheduled an appointment and I went home a happy customer not knowing my ordeal had just begun.
Elizade had the car for about a week and when I was getting restive and sent my driver over, they told him we had to take our turn as they were working on other cars before ours. My driver caught a glimpse of the workshop and told me he saw other Rav 4 all jacked up like mine. I thought it was strange then to have so many cars of the same brand in warranty repairs at the same time. That was when I suspected it was a factory fault but since they took responsibility, I didn’t want to make a fuss.
A few days later, they called that they had changed the shock absorbers but the part to fix the steering wheel had to come in from Japan. We were advised to take the car and they would call us when the part was in. I asked about the brake sound and another irritating sound from the back of the car and was told all was fine. It took a few months for Elizade to call that the part was ready, by which time; the clicking sound was now constant on the right front wheel area. Even after fixing the steering wheel, they returned the car without checking the right wheel click.
I immediately protested and was then informed that there was some rubber issue. When I pointed out that this sound had been for years, the Warranty Officer told me they noticed it but since they had already requested for more than 3 parts for my car on warranty, they could not accept liability for it anymore, more so my warranty had since expired by now. This is without any consideration for the fact that the repairs were briefed in under warranty and were never fully concluded because Elizade and Toyota just didn’t have the complete parts to finish the job at any given time.
After establishing that fact, I offered to pay for the part so it won’t cause further damage but refused to pay for repairs but Elizade insisted it was my full responsibility. They promised to order the part, and called a few weeks ago to ask us to bring the car as the part was in their office. We took it in and after two days, I was told to come pick up my car. My driver got there only to call me that the car was not fixed after 2 days in their workshop because they just discovered that the wrong part was sent from Toyota Nigeria. After two days!
Due to Elizade’s sloppy after sales service delivery, the car is still with these defects which might be affecting other parts of the vehicle. While still trying to find an alternative solution to this, I discovered that my car’s chassis was within the range listed by Toyota Nigeria for ‘check up’ appointment! So my brake pedal issue could have been a factory fault all these years and I was falsely reassured until it started to affect other parts of the car.
While I am grossly aggrieved at Elizade and Toyota Nigeria for endangering my life and taking advantage of my vulnerability as a woman to pass off a defective product as superior quality and falsely reassure me to avoid culpability, I cannot but wonder if there are any standards for vehicles imported into Nigeria in the first instance.
I am aware that nations specify the minimum standard of products that can be imported into their country but it seems the Nigerian government was not copied on that memo. As a consumer rights and protection advocate, I have raised the alarm that with porous regulations and zero enforcements, Nigeria is sitting duck for substandard products. While my experience with Toyota could be an isolated case as the brand is not substandard, thousands of products flood our markets without any way for consumers to verify their quality.
Where is Standards Organisation of Nigeria in this global Toyota recall? Who do I report my experience and suspicion of a factory defect in the Rav 4 2006 edition so they can investigate to ensure that consumers like me are not endangered by our purchase? The case in the automobile industry is particularly critical because Nigerian lives are on the line. How are we sure that many of the accidents that we attribute to bad roads, reckless driving and carelessness are not actually caused by some minor defect in the vehicle? Who is saddled with the responsibility to investigate accidents to determine their causes so we can avoid such in future?
I have checked with the Consumer Protection Council and was assured the DG had directed that a letter requesting for Toyota to state the accurate exposure of the Nigerian consumer to this identified faults be dispatched last week. However, the CPC must speak up for the Nigerian consumer and engage the SON on the issues that affect our purchase choices.
What are the Nigerian specifications for approved vehicles? One would expect that given the state of our national road network, extra fortified shocks would be a standard requirement for any vehicle intended for the Nigerian market. Also, with the inability to get the fuel equation right, a less sensitive fuel injection system would also make that list to fortify our vehicles from adulterated fuel accessioned by the embarrassment of scarcity.
The only advantage I have as a Nigerian consumer is the ability and opportunity to speak and be heard through the media. Millions of Nigerians like me suffer in silence because there is no voice to echo their pains. Even I may have to bear my burdens after venting because there is no one to hold Elizade and Toyota Nigeria to fulfill their contractual obligations to fix my car of a recurring defect complained about under warranty.
My issue is too minute in the face of gargantuan national ‘issues’ of a sick President; an Acting President trying to manage his loyalty to terrestrial powers while attempting to steer a rudderless nation; a National Assembly totally engulfed in the politics of remaining relevant mixed with our national demons of fuel scarcity, scanty electricity and massive ATM scams, exploitation of ignorant consumers and this sudden unprecedented heat scourge!
This is one of those times I wish I had a President like Obama who published a Consumer Handbook of guidelines on practically every purchase decision with a personal note reassuring his citizens of his commitment to their protection and how they can seek redress. I wonder if Acting President Goodluck Jonathan spares us a thought as consumers in his overloaded 12 hour schedule.
If he does, maybe he will recognize the crucial role of consumer protection and strengthen the structures like SON, CPC, NERC and CBN enough for them to do more than bark. Nigerian consumers desperately want them to bite too!
Meanwhile, I have formally complained to Elizade and waiting for their response. An official apology for their insincerity with me during the warranty period on my vehicle and full responsibility for returning my car to perfect condition or a replacement of the car is what I expect or else, I will seek legal redress. It is time to test the structures that should protect consumers.
Monday, February 8, 2010
iPetitions: Start a free online petition / Edit petition information
iPetitions: Start a free online petition / Edit petition information: "Nigerian Consumers Against PHCN Meter Maintenance Charges"
Friday, January 1, 2010
Profiling the Nigerian for Terrorism
Farouk Mutallab by his misguided and deplorable attempt to blow up an airline on Christmas Day in the US, thrust all 140 million Nigerians onto the global stage for scrutiny once again for another socially unacceptable behaviour.
That Nigeria has a bad image on the global scene is no longer news. Before him, the 419 scam generation had succeeded in earning us the shameful label of the Scam Mecca of the world. Then there is our unfortunate political evolution that has entrenched corruption and bad governance as synonymous with Nigeria.
Sick display of ill-gotten wealth by military dictators and supposedly democratic politicians further confirmed us as a nation of questionable values. Throw in the Niger Delta militancy, incessant religious crisis and gross bribery scandals spanning three continents and some mega conglomerates and you could safely conclude that the Nigerian nation is a safe harbor for all anti- social behaviour.
Surprisingly however, such a conclusion could not be farther from the truth. In spite of the seemingly endless list of criminal and anti-social characteristics of Nigerians, one of the most definable traits of a Nigerian is a passionate love for life. This trait transcends ethnic, religious and cultural divides and can safely be assumed to be written in the Nigerian DNA.
By nature, a Nigerian abhors death because our cultural orientation presents death as a defeat of destinies. If a Nigerian dies at less than 70 years old, it is a family and communal tragedy. Young deaths are believed to be untimely and thus a stigma that could affect the status of such a family as other families avoids any relational interaction with the one who loses its members untimely.
The Nigerian by nature does not commit suicide. Suicidal tendencies are immediately concluded to be demonic or extraterrestrial influences on such persons. Suicide is not a psychological imbalance to the Nigerian society. It is a satanic oppression which is dealt with by prayers and other spiritual antidotes.
Depression is not a mental state in the Nigerian context. It is a spiritual attack that only God can overcome; not anti-depressants. A Nigerian who attempts or commits suicide stigmatizes his family and generations for life. Nigerians don’t marry into a family with a suicide or mental depression case as it is assumed that the tendency could be hereditary.
That is why, as the world tries to unravel the Farouk Mutallab phenomenon, it would do well to search for his motive in everything else but his Nigerian lineage. It just did not come from there because it does not exist there.
It would also be an error to profile the Nigerian along terrorist parameters as it would be a sad waste of time and resources as the Nigerian lacks the moral fibre to hold ideological or religious beliefs at the expense of his life.
Simply put, the Nigerian could cause others harm as long as it does not affect himself or his family but to blow up a plane with him as one of the victims is definitely not Nigerian.
The Nigerian’s aggression only goes as far as his life is not threatened. The minute any resistance or activity becomes life threatening, the Nigerian backs off and prefers to live with the injustice than lose his life.
This is what is responsible for the continued oppression of the masses by the political class. The politicians know this trait and capitalize on it to keep holding on to power in corruption, election rigging and bad governance. If the Nigerian valued life a little less, maybe a sustained resistance would have rid us of the incessant politicians whose primary aim is to loot the treasury.But the Nigerian’s passion for life has become his stumbling block for progress as he would rather live in oppression than die for principle.
That is why Farouk Mutallab may be Nigerian by birth but definitely not Nigerian by orientation.
The Nigerian culture has high social and communal collateral. In Nigeria, no man is an island. It is absolutely essential to the Nigerian that he be accepted within his social circle. It is this need for acceptance that is the root motivation for scams and criminal activities. The influence of peer status is very heavy on the average Nigerian mind. If a peer is affluent, there is unspoken pressure on his contemporaries to rise to the challenge; thus the trend to cheat, steal or scam to gain social status and acceptance.
In the converse, it is this same social collateral that keeps majority of Nigerians morally upright as it is a stigma for you or your children to be morally corrupt. That is what informed Farouk’s father to act proactively by reporting his son’s questionable lifestyle even before he did anything wrong.
Even the obviously corrupt do everything to hide their real activity thus the tendency to have cover-up businesses or live abroad and only come home sparingly so no one can scrutinize their activities.
The Nigerian spirit is one of resilience not revolution. The Nigerian spirit is self preservation and not sacrificial. It is the trait that condemns us to our present state of underdevelopment in spite of abundant resources. Nigerians don’t sacrifice anything for a common good or goal, especially not our lives. No Nigerian runs towards death in ideological oblivion. It is not in our character.
The natural emergence of supposed ‘experts’ on the global scene claiming to understand and profile the Nigerian due to Mutallab’s botched attempt at terrorism could mislead the world into chasing shadows like Bush misled Americans to chase non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Looking for an Al-Qaeda base in Nigeria will be an exercise in futility as the cultural environment is too hostile to their ideological motivation.
The world will do well therefore to concentrate its efforts at defeating terrorism on nationals with enough moral fibre to hold ideological views enough to die for it.
We Nigerians don’t die for anything or anyone. If the Lord Jesus Christ was a Nigerian, the world would never be saved from sin.
Nigerians would rather live than die for anything. The less than one percent with questionable character may find smart ways to defraud the world but even they want to live to enjoy their loot.
Simply put, Farouk Mutallab does not represent the spirit of Nigeria because Nigerians don’t die for anything.
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