OK. I've been busy...let me say it again in a different accent - I been very busy of late - with work and of course minding my own business. I happened to have been in Nigeria when she celebrated her 55th Independence Day anniversary. I got caught up in the survival struggle. I stood all day in my shop attending to my customers while the rest of Nigeria (that cared enough) were busy at Crunchies Fried Chicken eating jollof rice, fried rice, ofada rice, even coconut rice. Some were lodged in their hotels watching African Magic, celebrating with nkwobi and isi ewu. No, I didn't go to work (I mean the oyibo kind of work), I went to look for some change to help out with pocket money. So, I missed out on the Independence Day camaraderie. I'm sorry, Nigeria. How was your birthday? I hope it was good and full of fun deeds. I missed out but I was surprisingly not miserable about all the fun things that I missed.
I didn't wear green and white on that day as is customary at Crunchies. All the fun loving people would adorn their beautiful bodies in green white green, Nigeria's famous colours and for one day act like they were actually in Yankee. Seriously. You need to see these wannabes eating away at their junk fun foods. Anyway, I didn't envy them. They had good reason to be gay and happy. Nigeria is 55 years old! Yeah, let's roll out the drums and cymbals and gongs. It was worth celebrating. Ours is a young nation when compared with say Great Britain (or the USA or even Germany), our mentor cum colonizer. They've been there done that as we are doing now. We are also very diverse and have our different ways of understanding what constitutes a nation. This isn't a note or lecture on how or how not to celebrate or what to have celebrated. It's an entry to say, ouch! I was supposed to have the day off and at least leave a post saying, Happy Birthday, Nigeria. I didn't forget oh! I ran out of megabytes (you know what I'm talking about) and I was too busy to recharge. No, I didn't have to have asked you to run the errand of recharging on my behalf. I had work to do. Full stop!
Do we need to talk about what Nigeria should celebrate or not celebrate, after all? Let me give you two points on each. To celebrate: our nationhood and existence. Nationhood - do we value what it means to be citizens of a country any country at all and we are called Nigerians? You don't know the value of citizenship until you've lived outside of your homeland. Then you see and begin to appreciate the other meaning of "I am from....." Privilege becomes a big gift. You see things falling into place for somebody by your side just because he or she bears the proud badge of citizenship. Think about what it means to you to be called Nigerian. What it means to me is that I have a safe country I can criticize and still wake up in the morning and queue up for a job. I have that privilege. Forget social security. We will get there when we celebrate our 150th anniversary. Ask America nah, Rome wasn't built in one day. Oh, sorry ask the Italians :).
Secondly, our very existence shows that somehow we are given opportunity to prove ourselves as first human beings and secondly citizens of a great nation. What inventions have you created in the last few years of your existence? Nobody taught the early men how to create fire - they invented that. They didn't wait for government to give them fire, their very existence gave them that opportunity. So, we have all the time and freedom to be innovative as well as inventive. Let's not wait for government grants (as may be the case abroad) before we get thinking. We are the change we are waiting for.
As a debater in High School, I dreaded being on the opposing side. But give me any topic even if it's about the devil being the saviour of the world and I would do justice to it. In this case, eh! Why be a Nigerian with all that's going wrong with it? I don't even like the sound of Naija, but it's cool and I must admit to its coolness. There's so much to not love about being Nigerian. Can I see your list, please? There is corruption (Aboki says he will tackle it by appointing himself Minister of Pet. resources), high level of youth unemployment, inadequate social amenities, irresponsible citizenship, et cetera. This country doesn't recognize people's quest for self determination. If Moses were raised as in time of old to set his people free from Pharaoh's grasp, I bet it that he would have a Herculean task of meeting his target (what do marketers say to this?). In fact, he would have to go home without his September salary and he wouldn't be celebrating any Independence Day on October 1!
Lastly, I find this country a place to hibernate. I first saw the word "hibernate" in my laptop in Boston, Massachusetts. It was going to sleep and said it was hibernating. Hibernate for what? I almost poured cold water over its poor head to get it to work again. Yes, I had to reboot before I roused it from slumber. If this country of ours allows many people the opportunity to just be members of this society without locking them up in jail just to get people off the streets, what's there to love about it? You either create jobs or lock jobless people up. Is it not what we see as the mentality of government officials? In the USA, they are battling what's is fair government involvement in people's lives. In Nigeria, the copycat, we are giving everything that the government used to do through its workers to independent contractors leaving the workers to roam without any work to do. Let me see your report on what has actually worked - enriching the corrupt government workers or a few corrupt contractors and the very corrupt Technical Committee Chairmen? This is assuming that everybody that's got something to do with government is corrupt. Nigeria needs to find its own word to denote corruption before the world sues her for overusing the word. Let's call it "goody goody." So, let the goody goody go round. It's better than saying "let the national cake go round" or "Let the corruption go round." Lol!
Bye for now, Nigeria. I'm in the mood whereby I have to decide that Nigeria it is and who am I not to wish her many more happy years to come, which do not include the mistake of asking to be "recolonized." If you asked me, I would think our Independence was premature, but since we are at it, let's make the most of it - learning best practices but keeping the copycat syndrome at bay. It's like child marriage - it's unwelcome but do you ask for a divorce? Maybe, this is a bad comparison. One love Nigeria. Happy Independence Day again, some two days later. And all this is a joke.
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