Nigeria We Hail Thee

Fifty Seven years ago, a group of men sat in a room; specifically three men. The fan was rotating slowly, the television was on and each of the men had a glass of water by their side. In a couple of days, the great Queen of the world’s most powerful empire in the world was going to declare the independence of their country to the world; in a few days, the Union Jack flag was going to be brought down and the venerable Green and White hoisted up.

Zik, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello had spent the last few years negotiating Nigeria’s independence from Britain and finally the dream was almost a reality, a great country was being born, just a couple of days more. They looked at each other and smiled…. Wazobia’s great originators sitting in one small room.

Fifty seven years later and the dream of a great nation is still a dream, somehow along the way we lost the plot. Maybe it was the years of exchange of power between civilian rule and military dictatorship or the years of the Umbrella Party. Somehow somehow this is how we ended up.

A country where #ChangeBeginsWithYou is an actual thing; where the value of the Naira is sinking to the depths like the Titanic; where a bag of rice is more expensive than my Tuition Fee in a Federal University. Seriously? A bag of rice is N22K, Isn’t that the Minimum Wage amount sef?

In a few days’ time it will be October 1^st, Independence Day. Our Oga at the Top is going to go on air and list out a series of achievements the government has accomplished in 2016, tell the populace how our issues are a result of the rot caused by the Umbrella Part, tell us how we need to change the country by doing it individually…… Same rhetoric, different year.

It’s hard to feel optimistic about Naija, the old men cling on to power like flies to refuse. The young upcoming are continuously pushed back down. We recycle the past and pretend it’s the new; we refuse to fight back against an oppressive system because we’re Nigerians, we like to suffer and smile; to overcome adversity. Why must we have adversity in the first place? Is it a crime to enjoy?

As the countdown begins to October 1^st, we have a lot to think about, what is the way forward for us? How can we get there? Who will lead us there? Our issues still remain, entering deeper into the fabric of our skin,

Then again, how can we think about those things over the noise of our generators, the dollar is smacking us around like an angry mother we just offended. On the D-day, will I even have light to watch the Independence Day address sef


Written by The Primus @Primus_unbound