My “not golden” anniversary with Naija

My union with this old lady called “Naija” nee Nigeria and Niger Area can not be termed as golden, not for the obvious fact Naija has not lived up to the expectation placed on it by my humble self and the world at large but simply because I am yet to even celebrate a silver jubilee with her talk less of a golden one.

That said, in my twenty-something year’s relationship with this great nation, I have seen a lot of changes take place. The changes, if plotted on a graph sheet would be similar to a combined graph of the heartbeat of someone coming from a  state of coma with the little fluctuations and that of an athlete who just finished a long-distance race.

Let me talk about “Then and Now”, “then” being the 80’s and “now” being 2010.

NYSC:

It uses to be a thing of pride to serve one’s country, putting on the well-ironed Khaki and the jungle boots even gave some people a little more pride than putting on the convocation gown.

Corp members were welcomed in every community they were assigned to and they were treated as visitors with respect. I can’t recollect if people were adamant about influencing their postings or lobbying to work in blue-chip companies back then, but what I know is that, if it existed, it would have been done only by a small percentage.

NYSC was aimed at strengthening our nationhood and the concept of a federation.

Now, we have all sorts of problems with the scheme! to the extent, there were calls for it to be scrapped around 2008 and the Senate President’s remark that the scheme’s tenure is extended to two years was definitely not welcomed, with insult flying in from all quarters. Parents lobby to have their children posted to choice states, the officials make a whole lot of money from the shady deals. The prestige is no longer there

“i never wore my khaki to my PPA for the whole one year period of my assignment.”

Employers see Corps members as cheap labor, the Federal Government’s monthly allowance can not afford the fresh graduates constant three square meals daily for one month! Who is to be blamed and what is the way forward? These are definitely discussions for another day.

Higher Education

Hmmm, this one makes my heart bleed. The “then” of this particular one is definitely not in the ’80s but the ’70s, because I only hear the good news from people way older than myself.

The University system in Nigeria was a landmark to the whole of Africa, the teachers (Professors) were willing to pass down the knowledge and research, not lobbying for political positions.

I heard students had three square meals, cleaners in the dorm, free laundry, great accommodation, on-campus recruitment exercises, 24 hours electricity, a conducive environment, great and active student unions, etc. How I wish I was around then to enjoy all :(.

The population grew rapidly and the enrolment in both Primary and Secondary schools jumped up, thus the pressure was on the higher institutions to expand to meet up with the demand.

The “now” story is terribly unimaginable and unimaginably terrible!!! There are virtually no schools to cater for the thousands of students seeking admission yearly. Due to poor funding of the schools, the admission process has turned into a money-making jamboree for the universities, teachers go on strike as often as they ought to be in class imparting knowledge, the lecturers exploit the students, the students threaten the lecturers, cultism thrives, the calendar is no longer predictable, the equation is now ({Paper Duration of a program * x} = Actual duration of the program) where x=nth variable which ideally should be 1.

The private universities are there to help accommodate the growing population, but they are way too expensive for the average Nigerian, while only a few can boast of having some semblance of quality in their output.

Music

Yea I love music too and I’ve got my favorite past and the marvelous present crop of music and Musicians.

Back then we had quality music from the local scene, made in our local dialects, I can still remember rocking to Afro Juju by Sir Shina Peters at a birthday party in the early ’90s as well as songs from KSA, Barrister, and the Abami Eda himself Fela.

Stage performances were the bomb! musicians had their bands, which brought creativity to the fore.

While the local dialect Musicians were making good music, the same could not be said of the “hip hop” musicians that were singing in English dialect. We had the likes of Remedies (Tony, Eddy, and Eedris), Plantation Boys (Black face, Tu Face and Faze), Maintain (Tolu and Olu), though they set the pace for the present crop to thrive, their music videos were not of the best quality. Lyrics wise, only Plantation Boys tripped me!!! Others were just singing crap. Just as Rugged man put it in his song titled “Rugged Man”… “back then 3 rappers on stage was like 10 throwing a tantrum”

The “Now” Music in Nigeria has gotten a lot better for the Musicians that sing in English dialect or pidgin, lyrical wise we have improved even though some musicians still sing crap, genre-wise we have got a lot of variety that we cannot even categorize again (afro hip hop, afro-pop, Yoruba pop, Afron RnB, etc). The beats seem to be what makes the music when the lyrics aren’t tight, Stage performance-wise I’d say there is still a whole lot of room for improvement, only the likes of Asa, Dare Art Alade and Tu Face trip me with creativity on stage, others simply lip-sync/mime to their song playing in the background(not even the instrumental).

The quality and concept of our videos make me go ‘WOW’ but I’m beginning to see repetition may be due to the few numbers of music video directors. It is either DJ Tee, Clarence Peter, Kemi Adetiba, or Sesan.

Overall I will say “Big Ups” to the current Musicians making us proud. Especially Asa, MI, Tu Face

This write-up is a result of boredom but I’m sure you were not bored reading the piece. 🙂

Back to the celebration of Nigeria

“if the yam harvest is good we celebrate, if its bad, we still celebrate while we ask for blessing” Debaters 2010

Thus I say, Cheers to Nigeria, Happy Anniversary. Love you lots. x

NB: Do not crucify me for any mistake in this write up and note that everything herein is my own point of view. Feel free to put your comments below or better still you can recount your own “then and now” below. Cheers