Just this morning on my way to the office, I quietly listened to the passengers in the public vehicle I boarded as they blasted Nigerians on their dirty habits. At a time I was beginning to wonder if they aint Nigerians themselves. One man was particularly venomous! 'Its all these mallams that litter everywhere with the dirts they pack on the streets'. Another was busy explaining how some years back, Mobile Police men used to arrest people who defecated by the way side. According to him, its a free for all affair presently. Infact, the bus became so noisy, I had to come down and take another! (Its just bcos my automated, GPS enabled, remote controlled, Hydrogen Powered, vehicle is still in production).
But seriously, come to think of it, I really hope a time will come when we will learn to think CLEAN. Quite a number of things we do here, especially on the streets of Lagos are great offences in Ghana, imagine that. A number of times I asked drivers in public buses for their waste bins so I can throw away used recharge cards or tissue papers, the answer is always the same: 'Throw am outside jo, who u de form oyibo for?' It annoys me greatly when I see how travelers throw things outside vehicle windows without a second thought and years later, their children will complain of a dirty Onitsha, Lagos, Warri or Nigeria generally. I've witnessed how a banana peel thrown carelessly out of a bus window led to a fatal accident on the expressway! If you've ever seen such a thing, you'll understand what I'm saying.
I think its high time we stopped our public (and maybe private) dirty habits. As we look forward to a cleaner corrupt free society, let's begin with a cleaner 'we' environmentally, afterall they say 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. I look forward to seeing a cleaner ME! How about you?
