I AM NIGERIA - OSCAR-DANIELS PRECIOUS NNEOMA

       

      I AM NIGERIA

 

I am Nigeria and Nigeria is me. A country may mean a place or abode of people of different ethnicities and similar goals or purposes for coexistence, it could be a place inhabiting people from different walks of life, coming together to achieve a particular purpose. Nigeria is her people. 

Nigeria is the life and breath of her people; she is the very root of the tree that bears her people.

I crave your indulgence in a story so significant that it may portray Nigeria itself. And I once planted a miniature orange tree, I had watched my dad uproot it as he said it would interfere with the growth of the other yams in our farm.

 It will take up a lot of fertilizer and manure if we let it grow and who knows, it may end up killing these yams, my dad had worried.

 I watched him dispose of this tree on a heap of destroyed plantains that had borne fruit earlier. 

On the first day, I bent over this tree gazing thoughtfully at it and wondering why its fate had to be that way. It seemed so vial and free. 

On the second day, I returned to the spot where this tree had been disposed, I noticed something intriguing, a little soil perhaps from erosion because it had rained last night, had raised it a little to its side and a plantain tree had supported it, its root still had life, though it seemed a leaf had fallen off of it. 

I left to do some chores that had been assigned to me, upon my return, I saw a group of termites that had already made its way on it and were about to destroy and carry it off to God knows where. 

This very scenario felt real to me, I felt as though these same termites were upon me and were trying to destroy me. 

I picked it up instantly while trying to brush off these ants from my orange plant, that’s when I felt it, a sharp pain pierced through my thumb and sent a thousand emotions running around my head. 

I looked questionably at the tree and wondered aloud, I’m trying to help you out, why not withhold these spikes at least till I’m done. 

Then it clicked, it’s all nature, we all do something good even though it will bite us hard in the ass finally. 

I weighed my options carefully, if I held onto it for much longer and planted it, I would have sore palms but it’d grow into a parent, have a new life, and give me good fruits but if I abandoned it I would be free but then another juicy orange tree and an addition to afforestation would be lost. 

With this, I gave it no second thought and held tightly to it. 

I used a shovel to scoop some sand and with a little assistance raised it up, with the aid of four blocks and a bamboo stick, it stood again. 

It had gone through a terrible period I thought, I poured a liter of water on its roots and added a little manure before leaving it to follow the course of nature. 

I looked one last time at this tree and I felt it was smiling at me and thanking me profusely. 

I watched it grow, smiling at the sunlight and enduring the endless hurdles of rain and the strong wind, it grew into a magnificent tree with juicy fruits which I consume to date, I still go under it to take shade and relax while I recount the pleasant experience I had with this tree.

This is likened to Nigeria today, growing from nothing after slave traders had set her free and simultaneous infestation. 

Growing up in Nigeria has been consequently arduous and very challenging, Nigeria though promising has had her lapses and hopefully will keep growing and fighting through these lapses.  

Achilles heels are common in every great and developing nation and being the warrior, she is, isn’t exceptional. 

Being Nigerian means fallacy, mistaken belief, false impression, and delusion, walk into an airport or shopping mall and understand what being a Nigerian means. 

The level of scrutiny and over-cautious behaviors being pulled around us, go a long way toward telling us what being a Nigerian means.

 Being granted a visa to access other countries and work therein are double-checked and thoroughly reviewed. 

Mistaken identities, whose fault is it truly? Are we as bad as they make us out to be? 

The platform and foundation behind the growth of every Nigerian child is from the beginning decided and hardened, a little tour around Ikoyi streets and waterlines in Port Harcourt and review the rate at which children are brought up will grant you enough conviction. 

In our country the rich get richer and are only willing to get married and promote like-minded people. 

Embezzlement, nepotism, fraud, and forgery all occur so that the prominent can secure the future of their lazy and unqualified children at the expense of the poor and the youth. 

School dropouts and school violence are not even considered serious crimes anymore. 

Walking through the streets of Port Harcourt one sunny afternoon in the mid-month of July, I bumped into a young boy, taking a thorough look at him I could guess he was roughly 8 to 9 years old, he carried a bowl containing sachets of water, the impact of the head on sent his water flying all over the place. 

I rushed to assist him in picking up the sachet water spread everywhere. 

There he lay on the ground refusing to get up, weeping bitterly, obviously he was injured, Blood was trickling down his jaw and I could tell he had hurt his mouth. 

I inquired what the problem was, I was surprised he wasn’t even complaining about his injury in any way, instead, he was considering how he would feed that day with about five sachets broken and pouring all over the place. 

That is when it hit me, feeding was an issue and this young boy who should probably be in school and taking classes was instead thinking about how to feed himself and his little ones.  

Being Nigerian clothes you with the garment of full premature responsibility without providing sources or means with which to achieve this.                                                                                                                                 

 Being Nigerian means grabbing problems by its tail even while suckling, it means inherent hardship and low self-esteem. 

Being Nigerian means denied rights and insufficiency. Being Nigerian means malnutrition and impeded human rights.

 Being Nigerian implies great thinkers denied a platform, phenomenal change agents without empowerment and child abuse. 

Right before our colonization and even after independence, Nigeria has been on a path to freedom attainment. 

We are liberated yet subjugated, free thinking yet mentally chained, we are educated yet void of education, we have rights yet without rights. 

Being Nigerian means being extremely cautious of people you mingle with; we may seem to be one yet not one. 

 She has been through the worst, the bad, the semi-good and the good seasons. 

She is fighting and trying her best to luminate herself but there seems to be a broken lamp holder or no holder at all to help convert electricity and let her brighten up her darkness. 

The moment I made up my mind to support that trees course, I felt the life of that very tree as mine and took care of it accordingly.

 We all let Nigeria run as she wants but the sooner, we realize that the very womb and placenta that bred us all and will shelter us is her, then change and transition will commence. 

We all want a life away from Nigeria and her problems but she keeps beckoning to us as a woman beckoning on her sick child to get well, she clings unto us to help her stand. 

To unify, patriotically and firmly help her rise from the place wherewith she’s been uprooted from.

Bamboozled by the very reason behind this all, means pure negligence. 

The leadership structure and the people’s mindset towards the growth of the country plays and smears on our faces thoroughly its aftermath. 

Negligence as minor as it may seem is the very pest that is eating up the root and stem helping us grow. 

Truthfully and correctly affirming, the love of money is the root of all evil, selfish desires of our leaders and most people in places of power has played a very significant role in the staining of our names and misuse of resources. 

Leaders now cling to power and occupy political positions not only to help people and ensure the growth of her citizens but to have enough money in their pockets to send their kids abroad, change their wardrobes as often as possible, have access to unrivaled kinds of medical care, drive the best cars and obtain immunity. 

They fail to recognize the basic principle of leadership; a leader is supposed to be a servant to her country and serve her in the best and available ways they can but this priority is now misplaced. 

Adopting these motives and principles they have succeeded in luring naïve ones into a misconception of leadership.

The change we all seek for and want to address to change the title readily attached to us for being Nigerian can all be changed if we begin to tackle the root cause of these problems while keeping in mind our undiluted patriotic mindset towards developing her. 

Watch out for one another and think carefully before vying into any prospect, with all these duly considered, when we will talk of Nigeria, we will do so with broad smiles.