We reason so poorly in our society. Sorry if the language isn’t appealing.
Listening to Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State’s speech on the state’s Burial Law and its application at the funeral of former governor, Chukwemeka Ezeife and the comments from the people of the state makes one feel sorry for Nigeria.
Soludo said there is such existing law that must be obeyed, and people are responding that “you can’t decide for someone that has the money how to spend it during burial.”
That on its own is absurdity at its best.
For goodness sake, the way to abort or obliterate a law you disagree with is by going to court to ask that it be voided or quashed.
So far as you have not challenged the veracity of the law to get an interpretation, amendment or obliteration in a court, that law remains what it is.
If you remain on social media to argue that Soludo or the state can’t decide for you without doing the needful when the law is still in force, be sure to learn the very hard way when you go against it.
Another side or point in the argument that falls short of sound reasoning is to say that “you can not make a law to stop our cultural practices.” Every society and its cultures are fluid and always in a state of change and flux, including the way we speak the Igbo language today, together with the expanding vocabulary.
That came too late because the government system we have today has become part of our culture and tradition. Someone may like to argue about that, but that is the whole truth. Therefore, the rules defined by the governments have become a part of our culture. They are many laws in operation created by the government that are obeyed without argument and have also conflicted and interfered with what we called cultural practices in the past.
When did it become part of the customs and tradition of Anambra or some other states around them that have stopped going to work or opening their business places on Mondays by a forceful and coercive decision of some people in the past years?
