The Agẹmọ Curse and Nigeria’s Unending Free Fall
In September 1995, the late American diplomat Colin Powell stirred a hornet’s nest when he told The New Yorker: “They just tend not to be honest. Nigerians as a group, frankly, are marvelous scammers. I mean, it is in their national culture.” While the remark drew outrage across Nigeria, it also forced a painful mirror to the nation’s face. Decades later, as Nigeria undergoes a devastating socio-economic free fall, the wisdom in examining our collective national character—and the spiritual or cultural elements that define it—becomes even more urgent.
In his profound commentary, Festus Adedayo invokes the metaphor of the Agẹmọ curse to explain Nigeria’s current trajectory. In Yoruba cosmology, Agẹmọ is a deity symbolized by the chameleon—a creature known for its shape-shifting nature, adaptability, and masterclass in deception. To apply the Agẹmọ curse to modern Nigeria is to diagnose a systemic illness of duplicity, where leadership and followership alike wear different colors to suit opportunistic ends. It is the curse of structural dishonesty, where nothing is quite what it seems, and national progress is sacrificed on the altar of self-preservation and greed.
Today, Nigeria’s free fall is evident in every sector. The economy is in shambles, inflation is eroding the livelihood of ordinary citizens, and the moral fabric of society is tearing at the seams. From the highest offices of power down to the streets, the “scam” has become normalized as a survival mechanism. This is the tragic realization of Powell’s harsh critique. The tragedy is no longer just how the world perceives Nigeria, but how Nigerians have accepted this chaotic state of being as a default setting.
Adedayo’s exploration of the Agẹmọ curse serves as both a cultural diagnosis and a warning. When a nation operates on deception, its foundation inevitably crumbles. The current free fall is not merely an economic mishap; it is a spiritual and moral bankruptcy. For Nigeria to arrest this slide, it must break free from the chameleon-like posturing of its leaders and citizens. True transformation will not come from superficial policy tweaks, but from a radical return to truth, accountability, and collective integrity. Until then, the Agẹmọ curse will continue to pull the giant of Africa down into the abyss.
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