After my programmes in Nigeria’s premier University, I relocated to Lagos. There I got my real township experiences in Nigeria. Then from time to time, I would hear from some worried persons of any tribe, "Home people are bad". I began to anchor the kid’s outburst on adults. Even when I travelled to other cities, I would hear the same. The most depressing aspect is that as the years roll by, this unfortunate self-alienating belief spreads wider and deeper. More township dwellers become very uncomfortable with visiting their homes alive. True, in their respective town unions, they would make all contributions for home development; but they would not be readily at ease to travel home. When necessity demands, like burial, or other activities demanded by their town’s constitution, they would hesitatingly travel but they would stand between life and death until they return to the city. While at home, they spend the day with their people; at night they retire to their hotel rooms, leaving their villas and country homes and mansions to fears, irrespective of fences that are dreadful than the former Berlin Wall.

Earlier, when travelling home, people used to ask for prayers mainly for safe journey on our death-laden roads. But today, home people are alleged to be the dangers. Many city dwellers wishing to go home would undergo serious fasting and prayer and attend vigils and enlist the services of any known prayer warriors and yoke breakers to get immunised against bad people at home. Anointing oil and other perceived and believed protective instruments would be most important part of their luggage. While at home, they would be in constant touch with their township pastors, daddy and mummy in the Lord and brethrens while giving superficial attention to home people. Then, those left in the city would carry their hearts in their hands until the traveller returned.

With the current mania for family liberation, fear of going home is degenerating to depression. Most of those in the cities tend to believe that any perceived or real material lack like sickness, business stagnation, delay in getting married, children, houses at home, buying cars, jobs and promotions, lack of money and savings, delay in getting or refusal of visa, children’s delay in getting admission to schools have foundations at their homes. Nobody ever gives thoughts to members’ failure in morality and holiness. Attention and worries are riveted only on material and mundane issues. A section of the family would remain restless until professional family liberators are employed. Pastors and servants of God in family liberation business generally end up creating an abyss of hatred, division and mutual suspicion by accusing a section of same family of masterminding the misfortunes of the others. At this juncture, the alleged sore turns into a cancer. Families are broken into perpetual enemy camps.

Though urban dwellers generally tend to claim to be superior to their kith and kin at home, they are hardly with better perspectives. Most city dwellers hold toward one another the same disposition they have toward home people. In offices, markets, residences-face me I slap you, multiple flats, gatherings of any sorts, you would be fed stories of hatred, jealous, bewitching, manipulation, bickering, gossips, accusations and counter accusations and the like. Miserably we are faced with people who do not feel safe, either in their native homes or in the cities. They have become the hanging lot.

Here is one surprising fact. Home people are always praying for their "abroadians," as city dwellers are popularly called. In most Churches one permanent intention is prayer for the well-being of sons and daughters abroad. Home dwellers are fully convinced that, given the proverbial and shameless poor attention from government, the development of their communities depends mainly on the growth and success of their children resident in the cities, who are believed to be minting money there.

For many city dwellers and the number is now growing daily, their homes are places of poisoning, bewitching, killing, manipulation of destiny and diabolical tele-control. Whoever returns is the next prospective victim, so to speak. These perceptions and beliefs prevail in spite of huge infrastructural development put in place through community self-help projects programmes, personal affluence- villas, country homes, Pro-cathedral Churches, expensive cars, presence of sons and daughters in high economic and socio-political, academic as well as religious positions. Now if home people and home are still to be dreaded despite these widely acknowledged symbols of modernity and development, then there are both a loophole and failure somewhere.

The situation points to the fact that societies are not really and sustainably transformed by mere infrastructural transfer from developed communities to evolving counterparts. The dwellers in the evolving communities would at best admire the modern symbols when newly installed, and at worst watch them dilapidate unto death when maintenance is needed. This is because every true and sustainable societal development begins with the transformation of the citizens. City dwellers should realise that what will actually change their communities is not their financial and material contributions but their change of their characters.