The root cause

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I had my daughter in a government-owned hospital where maternity and child care were free. I was attended to by the best doctors, and it cost me nothing. Although the services and facilities were overstretched due to demands, still, it was such a delight to enjoy the dividend of the country's common wealth.

I also remember back when we were in uni. I attended a private university, and my sister attended a government-owned university where tuition fees cost almost nothing. My father could easily shoulder her educational responsibilities at the time without breaking a sweat, but the same cannot be said for me, as it was usually a struggle given how pricey my school fees were.

Back then life was not perfect, no doubt, but I'll say it was better to some extent, and somehow, even as the government tried to make life easy for us all, there were personnel in their various occupations constantly sabotaging the government efforts.

Notably, at the time my sister and I were enjoying the dividend of our common wealth and taxpayers' money, the greedy ones among the personnel were secretly charging people who were ignorant of their rights and benefits. Quite unfortunately, most of these benefits, if not all, have now been withdrawn by the government, and we now have to pay heavily for everything.

You know, some days ago I watched on Facebook the son of one of Nigeria's heads of state in the past insult Nigerians. As angry as I wanted to be by his utterances, the man was right in all that he said.

What actually happened was that Nigerians came for his head, accusing his father of contributing to the predicament of the country. They called him the son of a thief, and the young man was not having it, so he attacked back.

In all that he said on camera, what captured my attention was when he said Nigerians are not complaining or putting in efforts for change because they want a better system; according to him, they do what they do because they want a chance at being the oppressors.

You see, one vital truth that we tend to shy away from is the fact that we are all government in our immediate environment or small cycle. For this reason the corruption eats deep, as most people are ripping off the vulnerable with any given chance that they get. Can we correct this? I'm afraid it will be hard, but yes, we can.

Basically, charity begins at home, and with all I have read and experienced so far, I believe that the corruption problem we face collectively can be seen as home trouble. We run a defunct system where money has been made the order of the day. You will send a little child on an errand, and he will first ask you what is in it for him/her.

I remember getting my hair done one time, and the salon lady asked her son to get her bottled water from a nearby store. After handing the money to her son, he asked the mother to top the money with funds for biscuits. The mother asked him to get the water first, and he would get a biscuit later. He refused and threw the money at the mother, then stormed out. This child is barely 10 years old, and instead of the mother taking action, she took it lightly, tagging it "children of nowadays."

After my hair, as I walked home with my daughter, I warned her seriously never to reenact what she saw the boy do to his mother because I won't spare her, and she got the message.

Nothing makes my skin crawl more than when I see parents let bad behaviors slide, tagging it, "They are just children." Actually they are not just children. These individuals you tag as just children are human beings in their growth process and learning phase.

As a parent I have come to realize that every character children portray is a selective process of the behavioral pattern they will grow with. Hence, I do not overlook whatever any child does in my presence, especially when it's bad.

It might sound absurd, but if we start to hold children accountable, correcting every wrong and disciplining every misbehavior, probably we would have better adults who won't take advantage of people's predicaments.