Living in Nigeria

Nigeria is a country of great contrasts and great opportunities. Oil has brought great wealth, but this stands alongside extreme poverty. Nigeria is basically a consumer nation fighting to produce everyday products. There are huge opportunities in so many sectors yet chiefly untapped due to the idiosyncrasies of men in power where corruption and greed is the order; of course the followers have a share of the blame. Starting a business can be difficult because of problems as water, electricity supply, import and export difficulties.

For the reason that I am so patriotic almost to the point of jingoism, writing this essay in an objective manner will definitely be an uphill task, but as a trained journalist objectivity is foremost in any article. I am a Nigerian and I am passionate about the geographical territory and its people. It is a land with so much greenery and people amazingly receptive.

Only in Nigeria would you see a pastor and a robber co-habiting peacefully as neighbour in the famous ‘face me I face you apartments’. Only in Nigeria would your next door neighbour slap you and walk away freely and satisfied because if you took any actions against her, you never know, she just might use otumokpo on you and trust me you do not want that to happen, because then again you would have to spend at least three days on a Nigerian mountain praying that you get delivered and finally get a break through.

Only in Nigeria would you pay to be provided a good or service and the service person is absolute rude to you because she thinks she is doing you a favor. If it is about your change, you should have been carrying all the denominations in your purse and if she is wasting time “abeg do not rush her ohhh”! Except you want a show down, Odds are, her colleagues will back her up and since there is strength in numbers, they will win. Still on services paid for, hopefully it is not someone who is within the age range of your grand mum; let’s not even go that far, it is not one who is only one year older than you. If it is, you would be given the “didn’t your mother teach how to respect your elders” talk. Even if all you did was politely pointed out that she did not give you the right item.

The commercial nerve centre of Nigeria is Lagos. It is often frustrating, but never boring and the people are wonderfully warm. In most states in Nigeria, traffic on the roads has to be seen to be believed. Lagos ‘go slow’ can be especially frustrating making travel times excessive. Our idea of traffic management is “provision of meals’ in traffic, so that commuters can handle the traffic without having to bother about hunger pangs. In traffic every thing is available, you can have a three course meal and if you are on a healthy diet, don’t worry, we have the fruit sellers selling side by side the food vendors and you can also get diet drinks too.

There is a general lack of maintenance culture this even extends to housing; if you are renting an apartment, you would be expected to generally paint and revamp your supposedly ‘new accommodation’. And no matter what state you reside, from the federal capital territory Abuja to Zamfara, you understand that it is not necessarily a fault when there is power failure, in fact it is most unlikely a fault. you already know what to do when that happens; depending on your class, you would go in search of items ranging from candles to generating sets in the hope that by the end of this year we can achieve 6000 mega watts of electricity.

Nigeria is certainly a great place to live in, because the constitution provides for equal rights for each citizen, but trust me, the George Orwell “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others” saying is very applicable here, or how is it that, two citizens with equal rights would be driving along a street and then one would think that he should be given more right of way than the other and then results to beating the other to a pulp to prove the point, “I am more equal”.

Only in Nigeria, is it not so bad to steal huge amount of monies because you can plea bargain. It is though, extremely unacceptable to steal smaller sums like 100 naira, if you did that, even before the arm of law caught up with you, you would be lynched. Warning! If you live in Nigeria do not steal little sums of money.

Living in Nigeria, where everyone shouts “I know my right” but really do not, or how do you explain a police man shooting a three year old kid and getting away with it. Our Men in Black are certainly unique and another unifying factor for all Nigerians because whether you live in Lagos, the centre of excellence or Portharcourt, the garden city; The police men are most active on the roads and not so much on their major assignment which is to protect lives and properties. On the roads they will probably get more money than their take home salaries which often takes them only half way home. Protecting lives, they just might loose their own lives.

Even in the midst of all these occurrences, I would not live any where else because Nigeria is without doubt the only country you can live in and you car develops a faults and you‘ll find people scrambling to help you. Only in Nigeria would your neighbor notice that you are ill and helps you get to the hospital even without an ambulance but with the same speed. She found out because she checked to find out why you had not come out that morning; the same neighbour brings your child back home from school then feeds her and really she is not being paid to baby sit.

In Nigeria every one is related by blood, the elderly woman that you buy you supplies of tissue is “mama” and the older lady that you buy fruits from is ‘aunty’ even if your tongues differed. The people live communally plus they have genuine love for each other. Nigeria is a land where milk and honey flows; with the quality of people you would find nowhere else.

And even though we are going through a phase where everything does not work, we cope. We have people who are strong and have enduring and long suffering temperaments, because amidst suffering, we smile, amidst lack we give, amidst want, we readily offer help. Ours is a tradition of survival. I am a Nigerian and would live nowhere else because living is about people and people are what we have in Nigeria. Great people that would finally get Nigeria to the point where even the least of us can afford the basics of life with dignity.