We Are Just Not Curious Enough.

I remember growing up and being a very curious child, and now as an adult  I still am. It's what makes me grow and develop myself; asking pointed questions, viewing things from different perspectives, analyzing data and drawing my own conclusion from the learning. Back then and for some up till now, they see the Caucasians as being too curious for their own good. This conclusion is purely based on the movies they usually see of Caucasians hearing a noise in the middle of the night and going to investigate it (and they usually end up getting killed or maimed for their efforts) rather than running off the typical African way without investigating the source of the noise or checking to see if anything at all is even pursuing them.

My kids have picked up some of my curiosity genes and while it can get tiring sometimes being bombarded with their endless questions, I don't discourage them because I know that a sound mind needs some level of curiosity in order to be vast and also to develop an independently solid mentality. The thing is the average Nigerian is just not curious enough. We accept things, even the most far-fetched things, the way we are told. We don't often think things through and when we do, we don't question the difference in what we are being told and what we think they should be. This largely stems from growing up and being taught/told/ordered that one cannot speak while your elders are speaking talk less of questioning their judgement or decisions on any matters arising. This is not often right, and more often than not the reason for shutting down the opinion of someone younger to you is for purely selfish purposes (yes, I said it!).

For instance, I cannot understand why a person would die an untimely and suspicious death and the family/society would not be keen enough to carry out an autopsy to determine the cause of death. That's when you will hear all manners of boosheet crawling out of the woodwork;

"Sacrilege! It is not an African culture"
"it would be disrespectful to the dead"
"God knows best. We can't question Him and an autopsy would mean doing that" (RME)

And the list goes on........ How much longer shall we then continue to stew in our ignorance, while the world passes us by? A lot of issues we are facing in this country would have been long resolved if only we are curious enough to ask questions and challenge certain decisions made on our behalf. The best way to ensure a continuous learning process, is to remain curious and ask the right questions.