CALLING A SICK NATION TO REPENTANCE AND HEALING
“They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” — Mark 2:17
There are moments when a nation is forced to look into a mirror it did not choose. A video titled, ‘Are Nigerians Parasites?’, is circulating online. The video paints Nigeria in the harshest possible light.
It speaks of corruption in the country as universal, disorder as cultural, dishonesty as normative. It culminates in a biological metaphor — Nigerians as “parasites” — and suggests the exclusion of Nigerians from civilised countries as a solution.
The comment section beneath the video does not debate the issues raised in a mellowed tone; it amplifies them. It mocks Nigerians. It applauds the pain of the humiliation.
It is the kind of video, because of its bitter and uncomfortable truth, that many Nigerians would feel ashamed to share publicly. It feels exposing. It feels harsh. It feels like airing our soiled linen before the world.
A Healthy Perspective
For those who have long sensed that something is deeply wrong within our civic culture, our public ethics, and our social habits, such a video may not be an insult but a diagnosis. And without diagnosis, there can be no healing.
The question before us, therefore, is not whether the video is offensive. The question is whether it is accurate. And if it is accurate, whether we have the courage to respond rightly.
In the words of The Teacher of ancient Galilee quoted above, the physician does not visit those who believe themselves whole. The physician comes for those willing to admit sickness. Diagnosis should not be seen as humiliation; it should be gratefully accepted as the beginning of restoration of the nation back to normalcy.
Do We Know We Are Unwell?
Before asking whether the video is too harsh, we must ask something more fundamental: Have we come into a full awareness that we are unwell as a people and as a country?
Do we know that the seriousness of the national ailment is not merely being economically unstable. Not merely being politically turbulent. But that the nation is ethically strained, socially fragmented, culturally mismatched and spiritually disoriented?
It is easy to point to corrupt leaders. But it is harder to examine normalised everyday behaviours of individual persons — small dishonesties, quiet compromises, social indifference, survival-driven cynicism — that collectively shape the unhealthy atmosphere we breathe.
From the historical perspectives, five generations have now been born and raised within a culture where distrust, opportunism, and competitive survival often feel necessary and the only way. What begins as adaptation to stressful social anomalies gradually becomes normal. What becomes normal in the eyes of everyone eventually feels justified. And what feels justified stops feeling wrong as it graduates to become the popular culture.
The sages are correct because they say, until a sick person recognises illness, he does not see the need to seek help. If there is sickness among us, as a people, then the exposures documented in the video is not cruelty. True, the unsolicited revelation of our weaknesses must feel like a painful, uncomfortable surgical procedure. But it is necessary for the healing of the people and the country. The procedure should be accepted as an act of mercy.
The Hard Question: How Will We Respond?
When confronted with painful critique, nations behave much like individuals. We may deny, deflect, relativise, attack the messenger, wrap ourselves in patriotic language, accuse critics of disloyalty, prioritise image over truth.
Or we may pause. We may ask whether our defensive instincts are protecting dignity — or protecting delusion.
A balanced reflection requires honesty. Although some external criticisms are exaggerated. Some are careless. Some are rooted in prejudice. But not all critique is false simply because it wounds our pride.
The deeper question is this: Are we willing to separate insult from truth? Are we capable of receiving correction without collapsing into shame or retreating into myopic nationalism?
Shame Is Not the Goal — Healing Is
A public exposure of our weaknesses as a people to the world can feel humiliating. But shame, in itself, is not the goal. The goal is restoration. There is a difference between humiliation and conviction. Humiliation crushes dignity. Conviction restores it.
If the behaviours described in the video are accurate — if we recognise patterns of disorder in our systems, our civic habits, our public ethics — then refusing to look at them does not preserve dignity. It delays recovery. Healing begins when denial ends.
The Normalisation of Abnormalities
One of the most dangerous stages of social decline is not corruption itself — it is the normalisation of corruption. When unethical conduct becomes “how things are done”, when exploitation of neighbours becomes strategy, when indifference to the poverty of others becomes survival, when accountability in public life becomes optional — then the sane person in such a society may appear naive, and the ethical person may appear foolish.
In such an environment, the abnormal becomes conventional wisdom. And when absurd conventional wisdom is celebrated as success story in the society, it will produce psychologically unhealthy people and ethically-challenged country. And it will no longer respond to correction.
The Danger of National Pride Without Moral Grounding
There is an old Yoruba saying that roughly translates: The world looks at a madman and weeps, but the madman laughs at himself in delight. The point is not insult. The point is perspective.
National pride is not inherently wrong. But when pride is detached from self-examination it becomes delusion.
If we insist on proclaiming ourselves “Giant of Africa” while simultaneously excusing systemic disorder, we create a dissonance that the world can see — even if we choose not to.
Yet healing does not begin when we see ourselves as the world sees us. The world is not the ultimate moral mirror. Healing begins when we see ourselves truthfully — before God, before conscience, before reality.
There is a saying that no one can shame the shameless. If we are unmoved by truth, no critique will penetrate. But if there remain among us those who can no longer ignore what is plainly visible — those who sense that our civic and moral condition requires serious reform — then exposure becomes an opportunity.
The exposure in the video should not be taken as an opportunity for self-hatred. Nor an opportunity for despair. But it should be a welcome opportunity for repentance in its true meaning: reorientation of moral and ethical values.
The Work Before Each of Us
No single video can heal the people of Nigeria. No external critique can reform our culture. No patriotic defence of the indefensible can restore ethical clarity. The work is internal and personal.
Each must ask: Where have l normalised what should disturb me? Where have l excused what should convict me? Where have l prioritised survival over integrity? Where have l mistaken loudness and aggression for strength?
We must accept the truth that Spiritual and National maturity begins not in public outrage, but in sober self-examination, in quiet reflection, and in private remorsefulness. These are the internal engagements within individual conscience that will ultimately translate into national repentance and the rebirth of a nation.
The Path Forward
The Teacher of Ancient Galilee also said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
But truth does not set free those that refuse to look at it when it is freely offered by critiques and well wishers. And Freedom is not granted to those who adopt deceptive image management. Freedom is granted to those who willingly choose to align themselves with knowledge, truth and reality.
If each of us is courageous enough to confront our degenerate individual habits — without denial, without self-hatred, without defensiveness — then the exposure of our imperfections becomes a potent healing medicine or catharsis. If not, then criticism will only deepen our anger and resentment of truth.
The question before us today is not whether the content of this video is embarrassing. The question is whether we are ready to take the first step, which is, the acknowledgment and the acceptance of the bitter truth that our present national culture is deplorable, nauseating and sickening. And until we are ready to be honest and humble about our multifaceted ethical predicaments, then the healing of the country, which we desperately need, will continue to elude us.
In the spirit of truth.
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
ITSOT 