“Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the country. At least they will steal only bananas”.
That old line lands harder in Nigeria today than when it was first muttered in frustration. It is no longer satire. It is an observation wrapped in laughter to dull the pain. Every election cycle, every scandal, every budget padding revelation, every viral video of a public officer explaining the unexplainable forces a simple question on even the most patient citizens. How did we get here and why do people still defend this madness with religious devotion.
We all know that friend. Educated. Articulate. Sometimes even struggling under the weight of bad governance. Yet the moment a politician is mentioned, logic leaves the room. Hunger becomes strategy. Failure becomes patience. Corruption becomes experience. Suddenly the man who cannot explain a budget deficit is a genius. The woman who cannot point to one policy outcome is a master strategist. Evidence is waved away with slogans. Data is dismissed as propaganda. Suffering is reframed as sacrifice.
This strange loyalty is not uniquely Nigerian but Nigeria has turned it into an art form. It is here that the work of Carlo Cipolla becomes uncomfortably relevant.
Cipolla, an economic historian who studied human behaviour, argued that stupidity is not about lack of education or exposure. It is a behavioural pattern that cuts across class, intellect, and status. In his view, societies are shaped not just by evil men but by the interaction between those who know better and those who repeatedly act against their own interests.
He described four broad human tendencies. There are people whose actions benefit both themselves and others. There are those who benefit themselves while harming others. There are those who harm themselves while trying to help others. And then there are those who harm both themselves and everyone around them without gaining anything in return.
Read that again and tell yourself you are not thinking of Nigeria.
The tragedy of Nigerian politics is not simply that bandits exist. Every society has them. The real crisis is the abundance of citizens who defend policies that worsen their own lives. People who clap for fuel prices that triple transportation costs. People who rationalise currency collapse while their savings evaporate. People who cheer borrowing figures that their grandchildren will repay with interest.
Nigeria is a country where over 133 million people have been classified as multidimensionally poor. A country where inflation has eaten wages faster than salaries can rise. A country where unemployment and underemployment keep millions idle while public officials debate wardrobe allowances and convoy sizes. Yet in the middle of this, the defenders of power remain loud, aggressive, and morally certain.
Cipolla warned that the most dangerous category in any society is not the criminal but the stupid person in a position of influence. The one who does damage without calculation. The one who destroys systems not for profit but for applause. The one who mistakes noise for competence and arrogance for strength.
Nigeria has perfected the marriage between the silver tongued charlatan and the half awake electorate. Campaign seasons are no longer about ideas. They are festivals of insults, ethnic baiting, and historical amnesia. Manifestos are replaced with chants. Interviews are replaced with threats. Debates are replaced with worship.
When this alliance succeeds at the ballot box, the outcome is predictable. Budgets grow but roads shrink. Ministries multiply but results disappear. Policies change overnight not because conditions improved but because narratives shifted.
Those who ask questions are labelled enemies. Those who demand accountability are accused of sabotage.
Meanwhile the truly capable people are pushed to the margins. Professionals who understand systems. Young innovators who could reform public service. Technocrats who speak in numbers instead of slogans. Many flee. Many withdraw. Many decide that survival is wiser than patriotism.
What remains is a vicious loop. Bandits exploit the system. Stupid loyalty shields them. Intelligence is mocked as elitism. Criticism is treated as treason. Governance becomes theatre and citizens become an audience trained to clap on cue.
Cipolla also observed that people consistently underestimate how widespread destructive thinking can be. Societies assume that common sense will prevail naturally. Nigeria has paid dearly for that assumption. Common sense does not organise itself. It must be defended, taught, and institutionalised.
Breaking this cycle does not begin with saints in office. It begins with citizens refusing to celebrate failure. It begins when hunger is no longer explained away as strategy. When suffering is no longer sold as patriotism. When loyalty is earned by performance and not by slogans.
No country develops on excuses. No society progresses by romanticising incompetence. No nation escapes decline by shouting at reality.
Monkeys stealing bananas would at least be honest about their intentions.
What Nigerians face today is far worse. A system where theft is rebranded as policy, failure is marketed as reform, and citizens are recruited as foot soldiers against their own future.
Until Nigerians learn to recognise this pattern and withdraw consent from it, the cycle will repeat with new faces, new slogans, and the same old outcomes.
History is not fooled by propaganda. It records results.
And results, so far, have been brutal.
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Ihiagwa ófó asato
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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