If the late legend, Fela Kuti were still alive today, he would be dropping singles daily. He would wake up and begin to wail on every single track. This situation of this country as Nigerian is like Lamentations in the Bible. Shouting and crying everywhere.
I just Googled the phrase “suffering and smiling” and indeed, Fela had an album titled “Shuffering and Shmiling” recorded in 1977. Look at Nigeria in 2023, still the number one center for suffering and smiling.
“Suffer suffer for world, enjoy for heaven” is so relatable these days. It describes our situation in this country. Even though crime has provided some kind of succour for a few “bad eggs”.
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Hook-ups and Yahoo-ism have made sure that criminals are smiling as they move ever so speedily away from the heavenly race. In essence, unless you’re adding to the suffering, it’s hard to be smiling as a Nigerian.
There is something about being Nigerian that messes with your mental health, especially while living in this country. We are born with the ability to smile at our sufferings. We catch cruise, as we like to say, but at what cost? At the cost of our sanity.
That’s right. The government has chosen to keep us in a state of constant deprivation. And it would seem that they need us to be equally illiterate for their plans to succeed. Can we just acknowledge that being illiterate is a blessing? Because knowing too much about the system, as a Nigerian, is knowing more sorrow. Everything becomes sad.
Why does it seem like I am complaining? I have come to remind myself that Nigeria is working against me. Everything is working against my peace of mind. And I hate it. The little things are not in place. It irritates me so much!
Maybe if I were not aware that Ghana has stable electricity, I would be comfortable charging my phone with my neighbor’s small generator. If I hadn’t seen videos of the beautiful roads in Cotonou, I would be happy dancing on pothole-ridden roads. And maybe, if I didn’t know my father used to fly on a whim to New York back in the day, I would be fine with ignoring the Japa wave.
I used to wonder why fellow Nigerians would encourage those living in Nigeria to leave. Now I know. It is because they want us to go and open our eyes. They want us to see what we could have if we had people that meants well for us at the top.
Imagine, Fela’s relevance today is tied to the fact that nothing has changed since the 90s. Everything he spoke about in his days is still a problem today. The Vagabonds are in power, we have a lot of government chicken boys and the list goes on.
Nigeria keeps going around in circles. What an unbreakable yoke! It seems like we have only two options; to jump ship or to become completely immune to the mess, to become a zombie.
Knowing that being a third-class citizen in another country is much preferred when compared to living in this country is saddening. When do we stop being pawns in another man’s chess game? Hmmm! Basket mouth wan start to leak again ooo! Let me hold my peace for now.
