Dear Nigerians, allow people live their lives and live yours

The one thing a lot of people have been consistently consistent about is having opinions.

Not just opinions.
Judgmental opinions on other people’s private lives.

We, in all our inglorious imperfections, are constantly playing righteous judge and saintly jury over how others live their personal lives.
How convenient.

Lives that don’t concern us.
Lives that have zero impact on ours.
Lives that don’t affect the general public.
Yet you expend so much time and energy obstinately justifying why other people should live their lives according to your supposed pristine “standards”.

It’s okay if someone else’s life style is not in tandem with your “standards”.
It’s also okay to not agree to live your life the way they’re living theirs.
Different folks.
Different strokes.

However, it’s not okay to sit in hateful judgement over how others chose to live their own lives and viciously disparage them for it.

“He’s gay, that’s horrible!”.
“She got pregnant out of wedlock, that’s terrible!”
“She married a younger man, that’s ridiculous!”.
“He’s dating an older woman, that’s horrendous!”
“She wears too much make up, that’s bad!”
“He married beneath him, that’s wrong!”

All of the above? Absolutely none of your business.
From the inconsequential to the mundane, It’s no concern of yours.
You don’t like it? Don’t do it.
It’s that simple.

We’re all imperfect. Every one of us.
Even when you think you’re not, you are.
Really.

Every single one of us are flawed by someone else’s “standard”.
By whose standards should we then judge the rest of the world?
Yours? Mine? Whose?
Your “Awwwwwwwww” is another person’s “Ewwwwww”.

Morality is based on the greater good.
Not your religious beliefs.
Not my cultural practices.
Not your family upbringing.
It is determined by who is hurt and who is helped.

There are several ways of doing the right thing. Yours isn’t the only one.
Allow people live their lives and be happy.
Focus on living yours and being happy.

Get your unhappy, pretentious and condescendingly ugly nose out of other people’s business and tend to yours.

Face your damn front! Your opinions don’t matter in other people’s lives.

Written by Silverline Asani