All things Nigerian

I have lived abroad going on four years now. Being away from home has heightened my appreciation of all things Nigerian. Before coming here, I could not wait to leave. I was tired of the heat, the stress, the bad roads, nosy neighbours, the joblessness of our youth, our broken down schools and most grating, our greedy leaders.

However, as much as these problems are still glaring today as they were 4 years ago, I miss the exuberance of Nigeria. To me Nigeria is like a youth, full of life, brash, know it all who has made and is still making several mistakes, refusing to listen to elders, preferring to learn from experience rather than example. One can can only hope that sooner than later, she will grow up and not regret in old age her misspent youth.

Anyway, I digress. I miss the in-your-face neighbour who knows what you had for dinner, knocks on your door anytime of the day or night just to chat or borrow the proverbial sugar. I miss the heat, but that is only during the winter and I am wearing three layers of clothing yet cannot keep warm.

The joblessness of our youth is an issue that breaks my heart. I know of people who left school ages ago and are still plodding through the streets of Nigeria trying to find employment, any employment at all that would allow them put food on the table, cloth on their backs and a roof over their heads. Over here in the west, there are even more of our youths, myself included who would like nothing better than to return home and to contribute their quota to nation building. However, the difficulty in securing jobs, the need to grease more than a few elbows to make any headway scares them.

I cannot say I miss the bad roads, I was in my hometown of Benin recently and the state governor needs  to be commended on the work he is doing on our roads. Our schools and our leaders?  well that is a topic for another day.

All in all, I miss home and when I get that feeling, I pick up my phone and call friends and through them vicariously reclaim everyday living in Nigeria. At other times, I go on youtube, watch a Nollywood movie or listen to some local artiste. This always leaves me nostalgic and never fail to relieve the pangs of homesickness.

Buggy or Piggyback?

I saw a funny sight today in town. A Nigerian woman all dressed up for the winter, I mean coat, boots and scarf and the weird thing?  she had her baby tied to her back with a colorful african wrapper. I could hear her husband complaining about the fact that he bought a buggy which she wanted at the time but is now sitting somewhere in the house gathering dust. The lady's response ? "the buggy is heavy"!

i think her husband was quite embarrased by the sight they made in the busy town centre. What do you think people?  would you as an African woman carry your baby on your back in public? and would you as an african man be seen in public with your wife carrying your child on her back?

The female James Brown

I am really grateful for the Grammys or else how would I have discovered Janelle Monae? She is amazing, check out those moves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc
And also thanks to the Brits for Laura Marling, I thought she was really colorless from her demeanor when she accepted her award...but her music set me right.

OVER 26 NEED NOT APPLY.

There is something I have noticed with job advertisements in Nigeria that absolutely winds me up. It is the blatant age discrimination displayed by both National and Multinational firms.

In adverts placed on dailies and on these companies websites, you are likely to find "over 26 years need not apply". This is ironic in a country like Nigeria where the average student leaves secondary school aged 17, writes the university matriculation exams once or twice and if he is fortunate gets into university at 19. Now if he puts in for a four year course, he should graduate at 23 discounting any academic palaver.

Considering that on average, the Nigerian undergraduate loses one year to strikes and shutdowns due to cult violences. This mean our model student would graduate at 24 and then has to reckon with NYSC. There is a lot to be said for our NYSC, it is a national icon of which I am very proud. I benefited from it immersely by way of friends, travel, experience and community. However, the fact that the graduate is not guaranteed a place in the service corps as soon as he leaves school and has to wait for sometimes up to year to serve is ridiculous and time-wasting.

Now our model student is 25 years old and is just starting a year long service. Through no fault of his own, he does not arrive at the job market until he is 26. Imagine his frustration when NNPC, CHEVRON, Intercontinental Bank, First Bank, Zenith, TOTAL et al. tells him not to bother submitting his CV because he is over 26! And we wonder at the increase in armed robberies, kidnappings, internet scams, cult violence and the general malaise plaguing our youth. This article in no way justifies these behaviours but as a people, we need to identify the roots of our problem.

The aspect the bugs me the most is these multinationals would not dare place such adverts in the west with age as a criteria. They would be immediately slammed with a lawsuit.

I think it is about time we have legislation protecting this aspect of our worklife and maybe a lawsuit or two would not be a bad place to start.

Saying no to dream killers

I have come to realise that to succeed in life, we need to die first. Now most times, this death is not the physical dying as we know it, it is burying everything that holds us back, things that drag us down, voices that tell us we cannot.
I have been following closely the jasmine revolution and the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi which sparked it. At the point where Bouazizi felt he could not go on anymore, he inspired a broad spectrum of reawakening through the Arab world. In dying, he now lives forever in human history. Now, we may not need to die like Bouazizi to see change happen but we all get to that bend or break situations that shape our lives forever.
One of my favourite persons in history is Rosa Parks. Imagine American history where Rosa Parks did not hold on to that seat. Yea, maybe we still would have had a civil rights movement but definitely not in that time or manner.
I have decided to take my life in my hands, to stop regretting that which i cannot change, to leave behind those things/people that weigh me down. To laugh, to love, to let my soul shine through, to speak out for right, to be thankful.