It’s not like I want to run away from Nigeria where the police are your friend and bail is free but you have to drop some good money to be bailed if per adventure you were picked up, it doesn’t matter if your crime is carrying your old laptop around without its 4-year-old receipt. The Nigeria Police is so efficient that one of their motorbikes got missing in Somolu, have you heard that the whole neighbourhood is contributing to replace the bike for their good law enforcement agents? We love the police so much it doesn’t matter that they are threatening to raid houses that may think they know their rights and won’t be funding the replacement of the motorcycle.
I love being Nigerian but I wonder about saner climes, how does it feel to have electricity round the clock? What else do you do with power after you have charged your phones, your laptops, power banks, fans and inverters? You know that feeling you have after you have successfully pumped water, washed and ironed your laundry and there is still power supply? You are wondering, what else do I do o? For someone who is not a fan of the television, I am just clueless. Somewhere in my head, I’m saying to PHCN to ‘come and carry their thing’.
I also wonder about good road networks. What does it feel like to travel about a thousand kilometers without doing the zig-zag of avoiding ditches and potholes as one does here all the time? I once took a road trip to Taraba, the driver went through Lagos-Benin-Abakaliki route to the middle belt. The only reason I didn’t cry at some point was because I was numb, both in my feet and in my emotions, I just wanted to get to Taraba and lie down in peace. There were long stretch of slippery roads, water-logged roads, narrow roads and some; I am lost for the right words to describe.
What is good governance? How does it work? Born in the early 80’s, all I have heard and seen are tales of woes. I want to compare functional governments and dysfunctional governments at all levels of governance and not from movies, or TV. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, I need firsthand experience. I need to see accountability from political office holders; I need to see selfless service to the people and not these showers of praises when an office holder does a bit of what is expected of him.
There are two classes in Nigeria, one for the elites and the other for the lower class. In the first class, no one knows these things I’m talking about. There is a generator that runs till it is tired and the inverter kicks in, they do not travel on Nigerian Roads and never have anything to do with the police except with the State’s Commissioner. Good governance to them is money in their pockets and deals closed. If you are not in that class, you are in the lower class, middle class is a myth around here, you are either elite or not, hope that is not too discomforting for the ego.
My friend is worried that too many young Nigerians are fleeing the country. Is there a reason to stay especially when you have no political power and no intention of being a politician? I have advised him to try immigrating to Canada or Australia; one has even been told Rwanda is a great place to live on the continent now. Maybe it’s time to write the IELTS.
Don’t preach to me about who will fix the nation. Some people will but let it be those who have that calling. Amen? Amen!