Nigeria’s Sociology Of Suffering -By Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

In the  cultural attempt of the Yorubas to create a metaphor around suffering, she compared suffering to a watery soup, however she maintained a disclaimer and insist that ìyà ò kín se omi obè.

Given the oyinbo man’s knack for packaging and branding, what the Yorubas call omi obè is what she refers  to as stew or soup, but the inadequacy of the oyinbo man’s language in the African colloquial context makes stew or watery soup an inadequate equivalent to completely capture the concept of omi obè in all of its wholeness.

Omi obè in the Yoruba worldview comes with a snagging stereotype, given that omi obè is not your everyday kind of soup but more often than not what you settle for when you become cash strand or indifferent about other kinds of soup.

Despite all these ,the Yoruba insist that ìyà okin se omi obè. The reasoning behind the Yorubas insistence on suffering not to take the consumptive dimension of stew or watery soup is simple : Humans does not have the capacity to absorb the pangs of consistent suffering in the dimensions with which humans eat consistently.

Despite these varying warnings  Nigeria, a larger sphere from which the Yoruba culture evolved insist that ìyà is not only omi obè but rather a summation of all other consumptive metaphors of a more regular intake e.g Water.

The Nigerian space ensures that not only do you consume suffering like omi obè, but you also thank God for your own is only omi obè for there are dimensions of sufferings that are way superior to the omi obè concept in depth and breadth.

The sociology of suffering in Nigeria is difficult to understand ,and because of this complexity, the government often takes the larger part of the blame for the sufferings of the Nigerian citizens, however I opined recently, that even if the government decides to lead us well and erase all forms of institutionalized sufferings ,will suffering abate? The answer is far from a positive one given years of deepened sociology of suffering and deprivation.

Take for instance the practice of boarding yellow buses in Lagos, you often notice there is an extra seat imbued into the make of all the buses to make room for more passengers ,that extra seats makes sitting and commuting a daunting process. Everytime I noticed this anomaly I ask “what kind of human beings on earth, find it difficult to make a vehicle but knows how to edit one?

Have you also considered the practice of conductors hanging on to the bus just because the driver is not willing to spare a seat of a passenger?

Every waking day I see a bevy of shops rented to traders, and in front or behind them, you see cubicles built with metal roofing sheets. It was recently that I discovered the cubicles are rest rooms to allow pressed traders pee. I wondered and asked what kind of people builds shops without putting the human anatomy into consideration? Is it that the owners of the shops are unaware that traders and customers go to toilet? The only possible answer I could give, is that of the sociology of suffering which has taken a deep toll on us.

The sociology of suffering in the Nigerian space is so deep that even when imported technologies which have been tried and tested in other climes gets into Nigeria, it quickly take on the capacity to induce suffering on the Nigerian citizens. An instance is the automated teller machine which was designed to ease financial intermediation, in Nigeria the automated teller machine rarely ease financial intermediation but  rather complicate it. Banks with four to five automated teller machines would only have cash in one and by such height of sub-optimal capacity, you find an endless queue.

This sociology of suffering is so deep in us that we sometimes detest and disregard any enterprise that does not come with suffering, because suffering has become a part of our national psyche. Many are the times you notice an automated teller machine without crowd and you don’t even bother to check if it is paying cash, because you already assumed that an automated teller machine without a crowd has no cash.

Consider these things and other minor sociologies of suffering such as selling food items without covering it or being solicited by an office assistants in Nigeria’s big offices to use the water in the bucket to argument the flush from the cistern of the water closet to allow for pressure on your feces and you will understand the depth of Nigeria’s sociology of suffering. Of all the instances given above non has to do with the government and I wager that even the best leadership might not change it until we deliberately work on our national psyche that insists and justifies the consumption of suffering as a soup.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B is a prolific writer and public speaker. Email:Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com
Twitter : @_tqatq