2ND October 2009, The Accident.

Don’t want to sound like my brain is always thinking about something (it is always thinking cha), pondering on something or wondering and asking some really funny questions. Watching the news daily and hearing them say that we have experienced the worse of the recession, I wonder why I didn’t have 200naira to recharge my phone to make a very important call. I had a little change of about 170naira so I opted to go outside my estate to make the call. Just as I got outside along refinery road, I saw a very long traffic and people rushing trying to cut the traffic. It was about 8:13 am when a jeep suddenly halted at the middle of the road and people screaming. There was an accident, two motor cycles (okada) had collided while trying to avoid the jeep. Clearly it was the fault of the driver of the jeep.
I did not get up to see exactly what at happened as I was still making my call which was ringing but there was no answer. I still tried for about 5 times before giving up. As at this time the jeep had parked by the side of the road and two thick looking men came down. I still watched for about three minutes before crossing. On getting across, I saw a girl wounded on the floor sitting on the floor and an okada rider in similar conditions. As i watched a real life Nollywood scene unfold, the driver took the girl to his jeep as the other okada riders who had stopped urged the injured one to follow the driver so he gets compensation for his injury and damage on the okada. The driver was hesitant and trying to understand why he would be, I heard other okada men saying “the man na general o”, another said “he say if he blow siren before whether we for fit stop am”. Before we could say Jack Robinson, “Oga General” had taken the girl and zoomed off as everybody watched in confusion. Still trying to understand or let me say grasp what just transpired, I heard the injured okada man telling the other one he collided with “na your fault, you for jam the motor instead of make you dodge come jam me”. Another okada man quickly said “you be mumu o, who do you don drive comot and you de talk rubbish now”. Before I talk about the foolishness of the okada man, let me take a little time to wonder the heart of the general. If is truly a general does that give him the right to do what he did? General aside, is the girl’s life more value-able than the okada rider’s to him? This was just a typical example of animal farm, all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others.
I quickly related the situation to present day Nigeria in two different analogies. The first analogy takes the injured okada man as present day Nigeria. Instead of asking the right questions and seeking the right answers, we lay blame while our wound still fresh should be treated. The outcome is that our sore gets worse.
The second analogy takes the onlookers as the Nigerian people and the Jeep driver (Oga general)as the Nigerian leaders. Here the onlookers who understood the situation and knowing the right thing to do refused to do it because of fear of the general. This is the worse part of Nigeria because those that even know the right thing, don’t do it because they lack the courage. Under the nose of the onlookers the general drove off but they did not have the courage to stop him. On the hand, I couldn’t blame the people as the injured man could not speak for himself. I had a feeling that if he stood up for himself, people would have joined him. The general saw fear from the people which he exploited. The will to stop him was there but no courage. This is what our leaders see when they commit all their atrocities, the lack of courage to confront them. As he drove off, people started shouting and cursing. Typical of today’s Nigeria where we talk more, curse more than do the right thing. Is this the Nigeria we want?
The moral of the story is that as Nigerians, we need to stand up for ourselves or nobody will. We must take fear off our minds as it is only through courage we can get where we are supposed to be. To Mr General (our leaders), you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all of the people some of the time. You can’t keep playing on the ignorance of the masses.
LIGHT UP NIGERIA

My October 1st 2009, Nigeria at 49

Woke up at about 6:18 am and said my prayers (I said it), washed pops car and arranged my room. The day was now set and ready for me, INDEPENDENCE DAY. Interestingly we were fumigating the compound so we had to leave the compound for at least 5hours. At about 9:10 am I left for Robinson plaza (phone sale capital of Warri) to buy a 2 gig memory card. I got it for about =N=1,700:00 and went back home. Quickly loaded it with 97 Nigerian songs (I said to myself “strictly Nigerian songs for independence”) and left for my friends house with my brother.

We arrived at about 10:28 am and he was driving out so we hopped in. I hadn’t updated my facebook status yet but had tweeted so many “Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIA, #lightupnigeria”. As we were cruising along airport road, we ran into traffic (a real thick one). As I was trying to figure its cause I saw “HAPPY NIGERIANS” marching, sitting on top of cars, loaded on trucks, riding bicycles as they basked in the euphoria of the celebration. All dressed in white and green they produced a sight that would gladden the heart of every NIGERIAN. Although they weren’t in unison physically, they were in unison in their motives and beliefs. As usual I brought out my camera to snap pictures when one bus driver on the opposite lane shouted “you no know wetin to video” and I shouted “bush pig, drive your ugly bus that resembles you”. I was angry because of the mentality most NIGERIANS harbour when it comes to snapping picture. They believe they must be in a studio, in a beautiful place like a park or fast food or abroad but I snap anywhere whether in Lagos, Warri, Newyork or anywhere just to relish the moment and have something to look back to. Let us forget this driver jo, i quickly tweeted “Happy INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA, lets bask in the euphoria we will talk about the future later” and posted it as my facebook status too. I continued snapping till we were out off traffic and they were out of sight.

When I saw a woman looking like she was in her mid thirties screaming “49”, my heart melted and said to myself that even with the conditions we face we could celebrate for NIGERIA. I saw people who looked like they had not eaten for two days, poor dressed and looking tattered as they marched. In my cogitations I asked questions like: does the government see what we go through and yet we can march for Nigeria with a few still believing “E go better”.

Before I came back down to earth from my planets of thoughts, we were back in his house. As I sat in his exquisitely furnished parlour, he served me a chilled bottle of malt and tuned to trace on the TV. I told him to change it to CNN (my favourite TV station) which I doubted was a wise choice station then as they were showing a live broadcast of China’s independence celebration. The ceremony was so glamorous and I asked “Are NIGERIA celebrating independence too?” It was the 60rh celebration of the Peoples republic of China. I quickly tried to compare China and NIGERIA. At 60 China are eleven years ahead of NIGERIA and are in the G20(20 most developed country in the world) while we are dreaming of vision 2020 that would let us break into G20 in 11years time which is 2020. If I tried to console myself by saying China are ahead of us with a 11years, I looked back at China 11years ago and compared them to NIGERIA today and I smirked (you know the answer or don’t you).I am a very optimistic person and I still believe in NIGERIA so let us watch and see how we progress in with our vision 2020 if we would be like the China of today by 2020.

At about 2:46 pm we left his house to heading back to my place when another friend pulled over with another friend of mine and we went to relax in a hotel. We just chilled over bottles (took nothing cha) and gisted. Left at about 5 after the rain had poured for almost an hour.

On getting home, I roasted plantain (bole) and oil with my dad while I browsing through the channels on the TV. I opted for Silverbird to watch the NIGERIAN u20 team take on Tahiti and needed like 8 goals to qualify for the next round. Thinking NIGERIANS deserved a Gift for INDEPENDENCE was only a fantasy as the team managed 5 goals and spurned numerous chances even while playing with a two man advantage as our opponent had two red cards. Towards the end I changed it to channels where I started watching a special independence forum of Nigeria at 49. Professor Pat Utomi(presidential candidate 2007), Senator Ken Nnammani(did I get that spelling right)(former senate president), Annkio Briggs(Niger delta Activist),Marzo(environmental activist), Abdulwahhed and one other dude. Senator asked two funny questions and I would love to get your answers, he said “NIGERIA have been fighting a war on corruption since, yes, it has been a war but where are the casualties” and on the issue of 2011 elections he asked “why do we expect change when it is the same people who conducted the last election that would conduct this?”. The program was really interesting and as it ended we switched the TV off for night devotion. It was a really great day as I learnt a lot about my Beloved NIGERIA.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIA.