There is a slow-burning crisis in Nigeria that rarely makes headlines, yet it is more dangerous than inflation, insecurity, or corruption. It is the frightening tendency of seemingly educated Nigerians to abandon rational thinking and collapse into emotion, sentiment, and ideological indoctrination at the slightest provocation.
I first observed it during heated debates about Gaza. Then I saw it again in discussions about Ukraine. And now, in the ongoing discourse surrounding the Nnamdi Kanu issue, it has become undeniable: many Nigerians who appear educated on paper are completely incapable of objective reasoning when confronted with narratives that challenge their emotions or ideological biases.
What we are witnessing is tragic but revealing, a society where intellectual credentials do not translate to mental discipline, analytical ability, or independent thought.
THE EDUCATED BUT UNTHINKING CLASS
You would naturally expect that those who have attended school, obtained degrees, and hold respectable jobs would be capable of critical thought. Yet the opposite is becoming frighteningly evident.
When confronted with political or ideological issues, many Nigerians:
Suspend logic.
Replace facts with feelings.
Elevate sentiments over evidence.
Defend propaganda as if it were scripture.
Attack opposing views as personal enemies.
This is no longer a fringe behaviour. It is now mainstream.
It has reached a stage where simple disagreements escalate into hostility. Friends become foes. Colleagues turn to enemies. Reasonable debate collapses into emotional warfare. All because one person dared to challenge another’s preferred narrative.
THE DANGEROUS POWER OF INDOCTRINATION
It is alarming how easily many people around us, those we eat with, drink with, laugh with, and trust, are manipulated and controlled by ideological indoctrination. Whether it is Western propaganda on Ukraine, religious indoctrination on the Middle East, or domestic political fanaticism surrounding IPOB or Nigerian elections, the pattern is frighteningly consistent:
People stop thinking. They start reacting.
They stop analysing. They start attacking.
They stop questioning. They start defending.
And once someone is captured by a narrative, facts become irrelevant.
Try presenting documented evidence, they will shout.
Try offering context, they will twist your intentions.
Try disagreeing, they will hate you for it.
I have seen friendships break, alliances collapse, and relationships sour simply because one person refused to adopt another person’s emotional position.
THE FRIGHTENING SHIFT IN SOCIAL DYNAMICS
The most disturbing part is not that people disagree, that is normal and healthy.
The danger lies in the violent emotional response triggered by disagreement.
It is frightening to realise that people close to you can:
Turn against you overnight simply because you challenged their viewpoint
Harbour deep resentment because you refused to echo their sentiments
Interpret disagreement as betrayal
Develop hatred for no logical reason except ideological difference
Imagine living in a society where logic is an enemy and emotions are law.
Where truth is hated if it contradicts one’s preferred discomfort.
Where adults, educated adults, behave like programmed machines reacting to triggers.
This is the Nigeria we now live in.
WHY THIS IS DANGEROUS FOR OUR FUTURE
A society that cannot think cannot progress.
A people who worship emotions cannot govern themselves.
A nation where disagreement leads to hatred will never develop trust.
This mental fragility is particularly dangerous because:
It makes society vulnerable to propaganda.
It enables mass manipulation by politicians and foreign actors.
It fuels ethnic and religious division.
It destroys friendships, communities, and social cohesion.
It empowers tyrants, extremists, and chaos merchants.
When logic dies, democracy dies with it.
WE MUST BE WARY: KNOW THE REASONING LEVEL OF THOSE AROUND YOU
The saddest lesson of these debates is simple but sobering:
You do not truly know people until you disagree with them.
It is only then you see:
their intolerance,
their rigidity,
their indoctrination,
their hidden bitterness,
their inability to process alternative viewpoints.
You suddenly discover that the people you thought were educated are nothing but emotionally reactive beings masquerading as intellectuals.
And that is why we must be careful, very careful, with those around us.
We must understand the mental disposition of those we call friends.
We must be discerning about who we trust, who we confide in, and who we stand with.
Because the real danger today is not in Abuja or Washington or Moscow.
The real danger may be sitting beside you,
smiling with you, eating with you, and waiting for the day your opinion contradicts theirs.
ULTIMATELY: A WAKE-UP CALL
Nigeria’s biggest crisis is not religion, tribe, or political leadership.
It is the collapse of critical thinking among its so-called educated class.
If we do not address this rising culture of emotional illiteracy and ideological slavery, we will wake up one day and realise that the people surrounding us are no different from cult followers, programmed, reactive, unstable.
Frightening, innit?
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Ihiagwa ófó asato
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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