The Parable of the Broken Ladder.

A society with a broken ladder will sleep with only one eye closed because one very attractive way of climbing up the ladder is through crime.

A while ago in Nigeria, people liked to watch two major TV programs, ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, hosted by Frank Edoho and Wale Adenuga’s ‘Super Story’. Both programs made 8 ‘o’ clock everyone’s curfew on Thursdays and Fridays. They were so interesting that they formed the topic of discussion in schools and offices from Monday till Wednesday and each new episode became a new topic for discussion. No one dared miss it.

One Thursday, while everyone still used postpaid meters, NEPA (Nigeria’s national electricity company at the time) officials came around to disconnect a compound’s light (electricity) because they had not paid their NEPA bill. NEPA officials knew well to do their disconnections in the afternoon when most people were off to work. So, this day, they came in the afternoon and disconnected the light. When people returned from work around 5pm they noticed the disconnected light. Children were already wearing sad faces at the prospect of missing that day’s episode of ‘Super Story’, but the adults knew the light would be reconnected. They already called ‘Ajẹ Electrician’, the neighbourhood electrician who did such reconnections when it got dark, mostly after 7pm.

‘Ajẹ Electrician’ was nicknamed ‘witch’ because he could touch live wire without getting electrocuted. He was very good at his job.
This day, Ajẹ Electrician came around and asked for the compound’s ladder. He was told that it was broken but Ajẹ hissed and insisted that he could use the ladder even at its present state. They warned and asked that he exercised patience while they sought for a new ladder, but Ajẹ insisted. He had other compounds’ reconnection to do that night so he just wanted to get this over with.

Ajẹ climbed the first step of the broken ladder and the ladder shook but he did not fall. People rushed to help him hold the ladder. He climbed the second step and he still did not fall, then he told them to hands off the ladder. “You people underrate me so much”, he said. When he climbed the third step and he still did not fall, he began to laugh at them and they began to hail him. They said he was skilful at what he did. Then he climbed the fourth step and he still did not fall. This time, he began to philosophise on how “you can make something out of nothing if you keep at it long enough”.
By this time, more people had gathered and were paying attention to him. So he put his first leg on the fifth step and tried to put his second leg on it when he tripped. He tried to stabilise himself by placing his leg on any of the previous step but they were all collapsing at the same time. Ajẹ Electrician let a big scream as he crashed down and fell on his back. The people around laughed and left the scene while a few went to him to help with his bruises and bleeding.

Ladders are made for movement - upward and downward movement. When they are broken, only one movement becomes possible, downward, crashing movement.
In life, life ladders are also needed for movement. After birth, people have dreams and aspirations which they wish to achieve in life. People born into less privileged homes want to rise on the ladder to acquire more privileges, while people born into privileged homes want to acquire even more privileges.

For the less privileged, go-to-school, get-a-job is the most touted way to climb the ladder of privileges, while those born with privileges find themselves at a good part of the ladder from birth.

After going to school, the less privileged realises that there are no jobs. In fact, the same people that said “go to school”, now say “learn a trade”. But in many cases, the economic environment is even hostile to that entrepreneurial drive in the graduate’s mind. Business need capital. Many times, capital is not available on the part of the ladder in which they find themselves. They now discover that their part of the ladder is broken. They realize that they cannot climb this ladder conventionally.

At this point, some go into crime. Others just abandon the ladder completely and go to a new environment with an unbroken ladder and climb as high as they can get.

There are those who continuously try to navigate the broken ladder. They keep climbing and falling and climbing and falling. In the end, few are able to scale through, very few. While many just get tired, wait at the bottom of the ladder and get whatever crumb is thrown at them from the top.

Most times, the only movement that exist on a broken ladder is the downward, crashing movement. There is almost no way up.

It is easier for one born into privilege to rise in this system though. They are already born into the good part of the ladder. All they have to do is climb. If they however refuse to climb , they run a high risk of falling because the ladder was not built to hold anyone permanently.

A society with a broken ladder will sleep with only one eye closed because one very attractive way of climbing up the ladder is through crime. When people think of crime they mostly think of armed robbery, but widespread corruption is also crime. It is rot and rot ruins anything. A system rigged against its people will create a people determined to manipulate the system. To fix society, one must fix the broken ladder.