Nigeria at 60: The Merry-go-round continues

Where is your family

Where are your loved ones?

Someone uttered, whilst he went on crossing the channel 

Well they say no man can be a prophet in his own country

And so I left and here I am

Come on embrace me!

THOSE are lines from Benjamin Clementine’s Winston Churchill’s Boy. This man is one of my favourite musicians. I once met him in a coffee shop opposite Gare du Nord in Paris. It was drizzling. He was gracious enough to invite me to sit with him, when I told him I am one of his biggest fans. I even wrote about him in my book, before meeting him. His glorious and majestic voice!

Those lines. I will come back to them. 

At a point in my life, I travelled with a small Nigerian flag, through airports and train stations, in America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Until the night military men brutalised me in Abuja. Nigerians said I deserved what I got. I was trying to stop them from harassing and beating a sex worker.

On the next day, my lawyer and I went to meet the sex worker, informing her that I would like to take the military to court and that we would love her to come forward and testify. She said no. My driver, who was there when I was beaten, said he wouldn’t be able to testify. I decided to not go on with the issue. 

NIGERIA is 60 years old. However, nothing has gotten better since I started growing. People who have never left Nigeria, have nothing to worry about. They are entrenched in the abysmal system, with a sliding hope that salvation will come. It seems that people just live in Nigeria, living on the terms that, perhaps, they have nowhere else to run to. When it happens that an average Nigerian gets a visa to attend a conference overseas or even go on vacation for a few days, he quickly absconds to seek asylum. There is the fear of returning to Nigeria. Nobody wants to return there. 

While the country was on Lockdown and nobody could travel, we saw how people ‘patronised’ Nigerian hospitals. Nigerians could do without rushing to India, for medical reasons. India closed its borders to the world. It is important to know that Nigeria is like a jungle, where animals battle themselves. The human beings hustle themselves. Everyone is trying to hustle everyone. And the poor are always ready to devour the rich, because poor people always think that rich people are keeping their destiny. 

I often tell young people that if they want to accomplish their dreams, they must leave Nigeria. I know how Nigeria stifles creativity. No new inventions. No innovations. Just a bunch of people, trying to live because they believe God put them on earth, to live. And multiply, they will say. 

I always tell young Nigerians, who have dreams to chase, to leave Nigeria. We have to stop lying to them. The truth is that living in Nigeria is like doing Merry-Go-Round. These young people, with hopes and dreams, keep thinking of what they would become in a few years. These years will pass by and things get worse. And it is also important to know that this is not a rambling. It is the undertone of Benjamin Clementine’s lyrics up there. 

NIGERIA is 60, so is my paternal uncle, my father’s last born, who even has a PhD. He was born in the same year Nigeria claims they got Independence. He is just like Nigeria. Rather than move forward in his thought, he shrinks to the tone of ignorance. You would think I am too harsh on him, but he is exactly like Nigeria: unapologetic about her backwardness. When I was seven years old, this man tied a dead snake around my neck. I used to bed-wet. He said doing that, will stop me from bedwetting. I did not stop bedwetting until I turned nine or 10 years old. On my own accord. Like I always do, I then remembered this on Facebook and tagged him. Instead of him to apologise for the stupid things he did to a seven year old, he began to call family members, asking them to scold me. 

Let me substantiate: older Nigerians never take corrections. They will say you are disrespectful. It is because of them, that a 60-year old country like Nigeria doesn’t count at all. Her citizens are still on the run, leaving her and going to marry European and American citizens, to become citizens of other countries. To be enslaved voluntarily.  

Nwelue is a writer, filmmaker and Historian, Advisory Board Member, Global Community of Social Sciences: https://www.globecos.com/advisory-board, writes from Jo’Burg