Is this Stockhom Syndome or Are we incapable of Traumatic Intelligence!

Naija my Naija

Are Nigerians Capable of Traumatic Intelligence? For some time, I wondered whether Nigerians were experiencing something resembling Stockholm syndrome… becoming psychologically attached to those responsible for their suffering. I no longer believe that comparison is useful. Most Nigerians know when government is failing them. We recognize bad roads, insecurity, corruption, unemployment, rising prices and failing public institutions. We complain about these problems in marketplaces, churches, mosques, offices, village meetings, beer parlors and across social media. So, the real question is not whether Nigerians recognize the danger. The question is why repeated exposure to that danger has not produced what I call “Traumatic Intelligence.” The ability to convert painful experience into wisdom and collective action is necessary to avoid repeating it. This distinction is important. A child who repeatedly touches a hot stove eventually learns not to touch it. The pain becomes information. The experience changes future behavior. Nigeria has touched the political stove repeatedly. We have experienced military dictatorship, corruption, insecurity, police brutality, economic hardship, failing infrastructure and disappointing democratic governments. We know what political failure looks like because we have lived through it. Yet election after election, many of the conditions we complain about remain. The question is why? Perhaps part of the answer lies in something much more basic: survival. Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that basic human needs such as food, shelter, and safety, strongly shape human motivation. Whatever debates exist around treating his hierarchy as a rigid model, the underlying principle is relevant to Nigeria. People struggling to survive today may have little capacity to concentrate on what might improve their country four or eight years from now. A parent wondering how to feed a family tomorrow may prioritize immediate assistance over long-term political reform. An unemployed young person may accept what the political system offers today rather than gamble on promises of a better future. Someone living with insecurity may support whoever appears capable of protecting the community. And citizens who have repeatedly lost confidence in elections may simply stop participating. This leads me to a difficult conclusion: Nigerians often recognize the problem but face powerful incentives, weak institutions and survival pressures that prevent recognition from becoming collective political action. Perhaps this is why our Traumatic Intelligence remains incomplete. We have developed the first part, recognition. We know when we are suffering. We know corruption when we see it. We recognize failing institutions. We understand the consequences of insecurity, unemployment, and poor infrastructure. But Traumatic Intelligence requires something beyond recognition. It requires memory, learning and changing behavior. And this is where survival can become a political trap. If poverty makes citizens vulnerable to patronage, insecurity makes people desperate for immediate protection, ethnic and religious divisions weaken collective action, and distrust of institutions convinces people that participation is pointless, then the political system begins reproducing the very conditions that keep citizens trapped in survival mode. The cycle becomes frighteningly simple! Poor governance creates hardship. Hardship creates survival pressure. Survival pressure encourages short-term decisions. Short-term decisions sustain poor governance. Poor governance creates more hardship. And the cycle begins again. This may explain one of Nigeria's greatest contradictions. We are not politically ignorant. We are politically experienced. We have accumulated decades of painful experience. Yet experience becomes intelligence only when it changes future behavior. The politician therefore does not need every Nigerian to believe him. He needs enough citizens who are struggling to survive today. Enough who depends upon political patronage. Enough who fears the alternative. Enough who retreat behind ethnic or religious identities. And enough frustrated Nigerians who conclude that nothing will change and simply stay home. That brings us back to the original question… Are Nigerians capable of Traumatic Intelligence? I believe the better question may be whether we can move from Traumatic Awareness to Traumatic Intelligence, from recognizing what hurts us to collectively refusing to repeat the conditions that produce that pain. Because trauma alone does not produce wisdom. Trauma becomes intelligence only when the lessons of yesterday change the decisions we make tomorrow. So, for the next election, I would hope that is not so when it comes to Nigerians. I want to believe we are ready to turn our trauma into intelligence.