The answer to the Nigerian condition

So Nigeria turned 52 on October 1^st, and for me it was another day at work so I did my piece by wishing “Happy Independence day” to the other lonesome Nigerian that I saw on my floor at work. The only reason I remembered  October 1^st this year was because it was “Work Day 1” aka “close” aka “very busy time for accountants at work”. Pardon me for not sounding patriotic or excited about “Independence” day, but pondering on what that day meant, and questioning why it means absolutely nothing to me was a journey that I had to take and it left me begging for a prescription for what Nigeria needs. Unfortunately Nigeria is a condition for which all prescriptions have failed but please indulge my futility . My journey began with feelings of nostalgia with the images of varied memories-  going to Apapa amusement park as a child, the bar beach, the fear of “gbomo-gbomo”(Kidnappers) who cares if it was true, visiting the national arts theatre, going to the cinema in Surulere to watch “Aiye” a Herbert Ogunde Production (don’t ask me why) , when kobo was still a currency, Mrs Onuoha, my primary 6 teacher who made an impression on me as all teachers should, environmental sanitation day, "the Nigeria go survive" theme song begging Andrew and fellow citizens to stay in Nigeria with the promise of hope and change- ok you get the picture. Nigeria has changed as systems do and should, but as my journey ended and I compared the images I had against the backdrop of the landscape today and it left me feeling angry, sad, despondent.  Andrew and many others have checked out and the colonial masters have parted ways with us but we have remained enslaved by our mentality and the inexplicable “Nigerian factor” that's masked in patriotism, and national pride. It’s almost as though my people need someone to literarily whip them back into shape and then it occurred to me – let us bring back a military regime ONLY if it’s the Idiagbon-Buhari regime. That government sure knew what Nigerians need – discipline! War Against Indiscipline was a huge step in the right direction and I don’t care that in some cases it was by force-as they say war is sometimes necessary to usher in peace. It was about simple things like the discipline to maintain order at the bus stops and if you needed a whip to remind you- so be it, or to create a maintenance culture with environmental sanitation. But when little things aren’t taken care of they turn into big things like fiscal indiscipline, because if you do not have the presence or mind or consideration to let the man in front of you board the bus without pushing and shoving your way through, surely you don’t care that you have fed full of the entire national cake and left nothing to anyone else. Most, yes- most Nigerians today do not remember the part of the pledge about being “faithful, loyal and honest” and there might be “valid reasons” but that’s for another blog or some other philosophical journey. So I wish Nigeria this one thing at 52-discipline; unfortunately it cannot be prayed into  existence or intensely hoped for as the die-hard patriot believes. I leave you with these words that I wrote last year while ruminating on the Nigerian condition:

So I cry for you- for the rape by your own people and the suffering it's caused for your children, still I meditate for you that the anguish of pain spews from your underbelly causing change that will heal the land. Happy independence day!