Dangerous individuals vs High quality individuals

 

 

There is a difference between being dangerous and being high quality.

 

Many people we celebrate are not high quality — they are simply dangerous. They are aggressive, ruthless, strategic, and willing to cut corners. In a system like Nigeria’s, that can look like intelligence or strength. It is not.

 

A dangerous person will do whatever it takes to win.

A high-quality person will not win at any cost.

 

Nigeria is full of dangerous men — men who cheat, manipulate, exploit loopholes, and justify it as “survival.” The real question is this:

 

Should you aim to be dangerous, or should you aim to be high quality?

 

That question is not theoretical. It is practical.

 

When inflation keeps rising, when salaries lose value, when pensioners suffer, when honest workers struggle while corrupt leaders live comfortably — the temptation becomes real. You see your father work honestly all his life and still retire into hardship. Meanwhile, someone who looted public funds lives in luxury.

 

It creates anger. It creates resentment. It creates rationalization.

 

Last week my brother asked me, “Why are so many people into fraud? Don’t they understand that other people get hurt?”

 

The honest answer is uncomfortable:

 

Some are greedy.

Some are immoral.

Some are desperate.

And some are simply reacting to a broken system.

 

Hardship pressures character. It exposes it.

 

But here’s the hard truth: hardship explains behavior; it does not justify it.

 

If everyone chooses to become dangerous because the system is corrupt, then the system never improves. It only gets worse. Fraud increases. Trust collapses. Costs rise. Everyone becomes suspicious of everyone. Business becomes harder. Progress slows.

 

That is exactly what we are experiencing.

 

Now the deeper question:

 

Is it even possible to maintain integrity in Nigeria?

 

Yes. But it is slower.

Yes. But it is harder.

Yes. But it requires long-term thinking.

 

Being high quality in a corrupt environment means:

 

• You may grow slower.
• You may lose some short-term opportunities.
• You may watch dishonest people get ahead temporarily.

 

 

But dangerous people eventually destroy trust around them. And once trust is gone, sustainability collapses.

 

High-quality people build reputational capital. Dangerous people burn relational bridges.

 

In unstable societies, dangerous people rise quickly.

In the long run, stable and trustworthy people endure.

 

So the real decision is this:

 

Do you want fast gains with permanent instability?

Or slower growth with long-term strength?

 

Nigeria’s situation makes integrity harder — but it also makes it rarer. And rarity increases value.

 

The environment is not an excuse. It is a test.

 

And every generation decides whether it will deepen the decay or become the minority that rebuilds standards.