Barawo Banza!!

 Hey guys

Why are people like this ehn??

So, ever since I can remember, Chioma and I do our grocery shopping on a monthly basis, and it's been the same over here in the UK, where It's even easier and more convenient. We load up a trolley and God bless ASDA, they have these self-checkout scanners and a ‘’Scan and Go’’ trolley section where you can check out everything you’ve bought without the hassle of the crazy queues.

We love it.

However, the entire system is based entirely on trust, and you must ensure that you’ve pre-scanned every single item meticulously. From time to time, the system randomly selects you for a physical check by the staff. This used to be so irritating because, at some point, we assumed (insert eye roll here) it was just singling us out every time for no apparent reason. To be fair, this doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it’s very inconvenient because they have to start unpacking the goods we’ve carefully arranged in the stacked trolley. But dear ladies and gentlemen, after recent events and watching a certain documentary on the BBC, I fully understand and sympathize with these stores and fully support why they do this.

This nation is full of fucking shoplifters!!!😡😡

It makes my blood boil with rage. For a country where the trust level is so high and the national character is to generally be a good person, seeing some people behave this way is really jarring. 

The worst part is that because the government hasn't really put in place strict laws about shoplifting, these criminals get away with it all the time and even when they get caught, they get a slap on the wrist and that's it. For most stores, despite having store guards and security personnel, the policy is mostly “do not engage them physically, but do what you can to prevent it from happening”. 

How does that even make sense?

So the security have to watch people either physically or on the CCTV, and most times, resort to asking these thieves to return items when they try to walk out!!. The fact that you can't physically accost them (apparently, to avoid them suing for injuries or anything else) mean that the bastards actually walk out brazenly from stores with pilfered items and actually get away with it most times if they feel they can intimidate staff. Most stores can’t even afford to have security and the poor staff are forced to do this as part of their routine.

Bruh! It's a crazy situation.

This particular documentary in question shows so many instances of shoplifting happening in real time, and believe it or not, actually interviews a couple of these thieves who are confident enough to be interviewed about their stealing habits (they anonymise them, though) and have no scruples about telling the world about the fact that they steal.

I know Naija is a crazy place full of corruption and all sorts of fuckery, however, stealing/petty thievery is one of those things that comes with very high risk, and if you decide to get into it, you also have to be prepared to accept dire consequences. In other words, fuck around and find out. Of course, there are shoplifters back home and such, but I mean, we’ve seen people lynched to death for such behaviour.

And yes, I fully recognize the irony of this. We are happy to turn a blind eye to politicians getting away with looting and robbing the country, but will happily lynch people for shoplifting.

Over here. It’s gotten to the point where the estimated amount lost to shoplifting is roughly 3 billion pounds annually. Mad o!! 

Tbh, Chioma and I have, on possibly two or three occasions, seen active shoplifters grabbing stuff from the shelves and running out of stores. In most cases, these thieves are teenagers and young people as well. Badly behaved children who will want to steal just for the fun of it and start shouting and cursing shop staff when they are caught. In my opinion, they should be thoroughly slapped to reset their brains.

I’m not sure why it gets to me like this, and maybe because of the way we were raised (May Nze’s soul rest in peace) by wonderful parents or the fact that we’re just naturally good people, I really can't understand why people do shit like this. Its downright wicked and annoying.

Aaarghhh!!!!

Anyway…rant over.