Dear Nigerians… I saw a Naked Woman
By: Deji Yesufu
As my family and I drove out of the University of Ibadan yesterday, on our way from church, I stopped by the First Bank ATM to get some cash. As I concluded business there, I was greeted by an unsaintly sight. A mad woman was walking by the road and was harassing passers-by. She was completely naked. I think her nudity was what attracted jeers from people and what might have been at the root of her antagonism. Normally, I would not be bothered by a sight like that but my ten-year-old son was in the vehicle and I was concerned with what his innocuous mind might be taking in. The woman eventually strolled away without a care in the world. Many years ago, an American music group, Kool-and-the-Gang, visited Nigeria. When one of them was asked what he felt about the country, he mentioned that for the first time in his life, he saw a grown man defecating in public. He explained that as their group was being driven through Lagos, he saw a man draw down his pants, squat, and defecate inside the median dividing the roads. That was 1981. Almost fifty years later, this country still has no public toilets nor do we have institutions to take care of the mentally ill.
I think the first thing I might wish to surmise from yesterday’s incident is that women’s nakedness no longer bothers us as a society. The reason is that television and the internet have succeeded in importing Western clothing into our culture and have led many of our women, particularly our young ladies, to believe that dressing semi-nude is what fashion should consist of in our day. The truth of the matter is that there was practically no difference between that naked mad woman and the kind of clothing many of our girls wear today. The only difference was that the latter is usually in a saner frame of mind – although one could argue that dressing semi-nude requires some level of insanity. I do not take my summation from mere observance but from a biblical fact that shows that an increase in demonic activities in a person’s body leads invariably to an increase in nakedness. So, when an individual has little control of his faculties, he bears himself of clothing. In the same vein, those who walk around semi-nude have a level of insanity within them.
The second thought that that woman conjured in my mind was the failure of Nigeria in general. Once upon a time, if a sight like this were ever to emerge in public, fellow women would have drawn out their wrappers and covered that woman’s nakedness. The idea is that a public portrayal of such human anatomy is a general degradation of the female body. And because they are also women, they make the effort to cover something they all share in common. That such thinking is almost non-existent in our society today is a pointer to the fact that most people are way too engrossed with their problems to be bothered about another person’s issues. If one were to trace that woman’s troubles, it might not be unconnected with the general economic challenge that has befallen most of us in Nigeria. When your sole concern is to feed, the last thing that would bother you is clothing a mad woman.
Finally, and not exhausting all other possibilities, the picture of a mad woman walking naked in public is a picture of a failed Nigerian state. Psychiatric problems are health challenges that a country should have solutions for normally. Where the health care system of a country is functioning optimally, this woman ought to have been taken off the streets and put somewhere to be cared for. Most of these people running around raving mad in public can very easily be cared for with a little medication. With sustained treatment, many of them will get back to society and contribute to her development. When we realize that anybody can be sick; when we understand that that woman could be our relative – someone’s mother, sister, or wife – we put ourselves in their shoes and we endeavour to cater for them. So that if in the future, we find ourselves in a similar situation, others could care for us.
The failures of society are not the failure of government alone; it is the failure of all of us. No one person is government – we are all government. If we have irresponsible leaders, we should blame ourselves for voting such people into office. If we have people walking raving mad on the road unclothed, we should blame ourselves for failing to care for people like that. Whatever our society becomes is the product of what you and I decide to plant in it and the truism that says whatever goes around, comes around is a fact of life. That woman walking around naked is the child, grandchild, and relative of somebody. It is possible that we can build a society that works such that if (God forbid) tomorrow, one of our children gets ill, society will be in a place to care for them.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY.
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