Nigeria is 50, so we are told and we ought to celebrate...
Nigeria is 50, so they say and the drums have been rolled out...
Nigeria is 50, so is the belief and 6.4 billion is the ‘worthy’ budget!
Tabloids, Radio, TV and even the internet only seem to tell this ‘tale’:
Nigeria is 50! Let’s celebrate! Celebrate what? I wonder... the ‘Nation’ or the age?
‘Who’ is Nigeria by the way? And how old is this Nigeria?
Is Nigeria really 50? Or 05? I wonder, I just wonder.....
Me? I’m ‘Wunmi, Omowunmi Aderoba and I’m 28
I’m apolitical but not apathetic, learned yet typical;
A ‘Wunmi with an Aderoba Spirit but a Nigeian without a Nigerian Spirit and so is
a plethora of the population of the entity called Nigeria.
I represent the average Nigerian in today’s Nigeria. I represent Nigeria. I’m Nigerian;
Yet, except for the giggles on local radio and TV and the theme colours(Green and white) of the deco in most outfits ‘we’ really do not know what’s being celebrated and do we care? Hmmm! When doctors are on strike and teachers are crying out for pay, pensioners dying on queues and children roam the streets hawking sachet water and groundnuts for their parents to feed while the parents only worry and wish that they could send them to school...or is it the youths that struggle for space each night under the bridges just to lay their head?
Feeding, Shelter, employment, and freedom from poverty...that’s what we care about...And a celebration that fails to touch these is a colossal waste!
Some say Nigeria is 50 and yet crawling, some say at 5O, there’s still hope...some say Nigerians need to stop complaining and instead reflect on what they can do for Nigeria..About these varying recommendations or suggestions I can only ponder and wonder but my bother is that my brother is bothered not with the ideals but the realities and I can only wish that the next time there’s a celebration, instead of importing fireworks and balloons, every child on the street will be given a free pencil and notebook, instead of buying a huge independence cake, bills of indigent citizens lying in government hospitals will be paid off. I wish that rather than rebranding the brand, the product will be improved...that our future celebrations will neither be centred on the colours nor the age but on the needs of the people; That’s when Nigerians will begin to possess the Nigerian Spirit and that’s when Nigeria will begin to grow and ultimately reach an age worthy of a celebration with fanfare.
For now, I can only wish... I can only hope and pray: LONG LIVE NIGERIA!
