Once again I’m in Lagos, Lasgidi, "Eko o ni baje, ibaje ti". I’ve been in Ikeja, I’ve been in Magodo, I’ve been in Ikoyi, I’ve been in Victoria Island and I’ve been in Lekki. I’ve been everywhere the IJGBs (I Just Got Backs), one of which i apparently am, hang.The places that make us sleep well at night even though Ajengule exists and Mushin exists and Makoko exists and Ojuelegba exists and Oshodi exists. It’s all good because, have you been to Lekki?
At every single turn, at every single corner, I keep looking out for something; I keep hoping something has changed. Hoping that maybe when I reach the next area I will see the beginnings of a new Nigeria. Sometimes, it’s like I’m looking at a facade; a shabbily constructed one at that. There are mansions everywhere, big 4×4s everywhere, fancy restaurants everywhere, high-rises everywhere. Yet, if you look just a little closely you notice the sloppy workmanship and poor reasoning in these attempts at lavish living. Sometimes, it’s a crookedly fitted window or a haphazard paint job or tile job on what should be a very lavish mansion. Sometimes, it’s in the myriad of dents and scratches on what should otherwise be a brand new luxury vehicle. Sometimes, it’s in receiving the poorest wait service you have ever had, so much so that you are left wondering if the establishment was doing you a favour by receiving your business or the other way around. Sometimes, it’s in the high-rise building with 12 parking spots, Lord knows where the other 100 people are expected to park their cars. It’s like everywhere you look, just beneath the surface, are the signs of the decay that is to come.
We keep running and running from the chaos we create, first it was Ikeja, then decay, then run, then Ikoyi, then decay, then run, then it was Victoria Island, then decay, then run, then it was Lekki....then Eko atlantic city and then and then... What happens when we run out of places to run to? Why do we slowly degrade everything we build? Murtala Mohammed International Airport is still being renovated but it’s already showing signs of dilapidation in areas where it really shouldn’t.
Why can’t we put our nose to the grindstone and solve our problems instead of running? Why always take the easy way out, the path of least resistance, the road most travelled? Why is it that when the power failures became rampant and unbearable, we bought generators instead of tackling the issue? Now that the fuel price is bringing us to our knees we have inverters to rise to the occasion. Why do we simply pack up and leave our country to make better lives elsewhere if we can, instead of fixing the lives we have? If we don’t do it, who do we expect will?
Everytime we come across a bad bricklayer or a bad painter or a bad waiter or bad company we throw in the towel and don’t hold them to higher standards because its Nigeria, we expect substandard performance. No one ever told us that people need to be accountable for the outcomes of the responsibilities they were entrusted with. Most people are putting in their time, droning on, going through the motions, paying their dues for the alert at the end of the month, no more, sometimes less. So when we are met with the government’s failure to provide basic human rights we jump ship and pay the private sector, and we are satisfied because they are marginally better than the incumbent.
How can there be real innovation and growth in the economy if no one is really engaging. Instead, the cost of living keeps rising because we solve our problems using our pockets instead of our brains; every solution, really just another problem in waiting. What in God's name will it take to restore some semblance of reasoning in Nigeria. To move from this animalistic survival mode to a higher plane of existence? Eranko, that’s what my Grandma thinks all Nigerians are. I don’t know; sometimes I look around and the more i look the harder it is to disagree. Why do we give them the satisfaction of being right. “Oh Lagos is so dirty”, then you throw out your plantain chips packet on the road side. “Traffic in Lagos is crazy”, then you park your car on a two way street that can barely accommodate the existing two lanes. They say if you know better, you do better, when will we know and when will we do?
Make no mistake about it, this is by no means an exclusively Nigerian phenomenon, but there are few places in the world where the tragedy of the commons is more pronounced than in Nigeria. Nigeria, where the sense of community is valley low and levels of distrust are sky high. Nigeria, where the chasm between the high rollers and commoners continues to grow exponentially. It wasn’t always so, there was a time when people did right by each other, did right by Nigeria, but that’s another story for another day. The trouble with Nigeria now is the Nigerian that Nigeria has created. Na condition make crayfish bend, but we fit change condition, make crayfish no too bend. Truth be told it’s a monumental and thankless task, each person is just 1 of 150 million. Let’s face it, one is not likely to get applause for doing the right thing. In fact, the chances of having insults rained on you because your actions are costing someone their payday or their time or their fame, are extremely high. Nevertheless, I say, in the words of Maya Angelou, “Just do right. Right may not be expedient, it may not be profitable, but it will satisfy your soul. It brings you the kind of protection that bodyguards can’t give you”.
turnnoffyourmind
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon
romaincrisis
izzy806
janainaart
