"Could it be that most nigerians deserve the fulani herdsmen?" (A Real-life story)

"E pain am" said the corper, laughing convulsively. He was talking about someone he was punishing very cruelly and unnecessarily.

Here is the story: Mr. Mike was preparing for his ICAN certification examination. To enable him to have a quiet place for studies, he went and rented an apartment in a place everyone agreed was very quiet.

The building was a block of self-contained single rooms. Because it was located close to a medical campus, most of the occupants of those rooms were medical students.

"Some of those rooms are even occupied by nuns who are studying medicine" said the real estate agent who helped Mr. Mike to secure the accommodation. "So, you can understand it when I tell you that the place is really quiet".

It was around the time that COVID-19 was becoming a thing in Nigeria. The lockdown had just been declared and schools were shut. So, it's little surprise that when Mr. Mike strolled to the location of the property on two occasions, the place was as quiet as a graveyard. So, although he was wondering how a students' hostel could be as quiet as he needed, he had lost every reason to doubt the sugar-coated words of the real estate man. Moreover, he was desperate to get a befitting place as soon as he could. So, he hundred and seventy thousand naira (N170,000) for the apartment. Out of that N170,000, he borrowed hundred thousand naira from a club he belongs to because he saw his ICAN exam as an investment.

Being that he was preparing for an important exam, when he parked into the student's lodge, Mr. Mike was too serious to involve himself in any social interaction around the compound and beyond. As a result, he came to be known as a loner in the neighborhoods, a loner who would wave at people; greet them, and pass. He was also known for another behavior: He hated noise a lot. He would often knock on someone's door to beg them to reduce the sound of their music if it was loud enough to be a distraction to him.

Then, tongues began to wag that Mr. Mike was too arrogant. Soon, a group of young people living in the building began to conspire against him. The conspirators were led by the corper who was quoted at the beginning of this story.

"That arrogant idiot", said one conspirator to another. "How dare he knock at my door. Na him pay the rent for me?"

"We will make sure that we disturb him from that thing wey de keep am inside everytime " said another conspirator. How did they go about to make good their threat? Answer: noise. They used what Mr. Mike hated to get him.

The conspirators went and brought a very big sound system. They installed the sound system in such a way that its sound was focused on Mr. Mike's room. Then, they started having endless picnic of loud music. The more Mr. Mike begged them to stop, the louder and the more persistently they blared their music.

It got so bad that Mr. Mike went and borrowed money from his friend to rent another apartment elsewhere. He had abandoned 9 months rent out of the N170,000 rent he already paid. The day he was parking out was the day I heared the corper who masterminded Mr. Mike's woes laughing victoriously and saying "e pain am". Then later, I found out what happened.

Looking at the gusto with which the corper was enjoying the fact that he had hurt someone, I concluded that he was a victim of a psychological illness known as sadism. But it wasn't long again before I discovered that the corper was actually using a slang and an attitude that is now common among Nigerians. It even has a rich meme tradition associated with it.

Since I discovered this, I have been wondering, "could it be that many (or possibly even most) Nigerians deserve their woes - such as killer herdsmen and selfish leadership?" Well, I have not concluded on this. Instead, I need YOU as a Nigerian who has read this story to say if God may not be only just to let certain situations be in Nigeria.

If either this corper in this story or any of his co-conspirators should get crushed in an accident due to a bad road or get killed by some herdsmen, people would begin to suspect that it's the result of voodoo from his village. I doubt it myself. Rather, I think it might just be nemesis in action. Thank you for reading.