Skip to main content

The Nigerian Dream

                                                  Image result for Nigerian
If you are an avid oyibo movie watcher like me, then you have heard of what they call, the American Dream. It means the idea that anyone in the United States has the chance to achieve success and prosperity.  I figure the dream runs along different lines for different folks, for some it might be being a successful father, mildly busy but extremely available mother, two children, a dog  (or some other animal)and a great white house with a fence of some sort (this is just the way I assume it will look) or it could be building and running your own fortune 500 company from starting in a garage or your bedroom.

This dream is supported by a system that makes education up to high school level free and compulsory and provides opportunities to be held on to and grow. This dream is achieved by some and seen by others who strive to live their own dream. In America, one can go from being a homeless drug addict to being a Millionaire, how? Simple, there are support structures that encourage this, free rehab homes and support groups.

             
The system respects rule of law, “you do the crime and you do the time”. A public servants dream is to serve and serve they will. They think of ways to make life easy for their constituents. I saw high fences on a freeway and I asked if there was a mansion or prison on the express that was so long, and I was informed the fences were sound barriers to keep the freeway noises away from residents in those neighbourhoods.

Dreams vary, an American may dream of being the next “Al Capone” of the new millennia.
So being a person who lives in her head, I tried to envision what the Nigerian dream is.
Not anyone in Nigeria has the chance to achieve success and prosperity. The system here is rigged against the average Nigerian.

*Note* If you are reading this blogpost, you are not an average Nigerian. The average Nigerian may not own a phone and if they do can definitely not pay for data, before you argue, please go the villages, the riverine areas and the hinterlands, that’s where the average Nigerian lives
They dream of being a rich politician and his wife (or wives) who does various businesses because she can or preferably nothing at all because she can living in an expensive neighbourhood in Abuja, with a mansion in the village, another mansion in Abuja, one in Lagos and a hotel in Port-/Harcourt or Kaduna whose 10 kids are in school abroad. Is it  a civil servant who had finally reach the top, has access to all the good contracts that can be awarded to her company  who has a school or a shop that sells materials or cakes or shoes (something along these lines) whose  has 4 kids are in good Nigerian schools and 2 in school abroad, one house in a swanky Neighbourhood and so many land and property you can't quite understand how a civil servant can afford on their salary.


Image result for Nigerian
Or is the basic dream of every Nigerian that there will be petrol and it will stay at a stable affordable price, there will be light and we can afford to pay the charges to keep it on. There will be clean water and good and affordable medical care for our children. There will be good schools, so that if I decide that my kids should go to government schools they won't come out unprepared and unable to compete anywhere. That our child’s BSc will be able to get them a good job or better still equip them on how to hustle. That we don't need to strive extra so that our kids will get sensible educations from international schools or private universities (we aren't sure of) and still compete on the with nepotism for the same jobs with extra rich kids who aren't quiet qualified.  Is it the dream that we can be paid an honest wage for honest and hard work.


That we don't have to steal to afford the basic and the good things in life, that when we do work hard and put in the time and pay the taxes we will get equal and corresponding benefits, that our government will be honest with us, that the media will be honest with us, that our children are safe in school., that people we put in charge of us have our best interest at heart. We want criminals to pay, an incorruptible system that works.
This basic dream should be our dream and we need to start living that dream, first in our lives and then calling out those who are corrupt or negative in their actions.
Evil thrives because good people do nothing. 
We dream that we can get to whatever destination we envision, because at the end of the day, it’s the only country for most of us

                                                Image result for Nigerian

God Bless You.
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



- With Contributions from  (O.B)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Care Too Damn Much

I care too damn much At some point in your life, you come to figure out that growing up and growing old happens to be 2 different things. Growing up is much more mental that it's physical and it's not restricted to age brackets, growing old however is. Here are a few things I have stumbled on about me while struggling to grow up I actually do care (sadly a bit too much.) I have read a few self-help books on how to live a life of no qualms but I happen to be one of those people who does care. I give a s*@$ about the person who will use the public toilet after me and I give a care about the person who will clean it so I don't leave a mess behind. I  care about the people who I will talk to during the day so it makes me brush my teeth and I do in fact care a lot to have a bath so that I don’t kill the people I meet with bad odours. I care about my friends so much so that I pray for them and I reach out when I can but most importantly even while  I can't I make...

WHO WANTS TO BE A POLITICIAN

You want to be a politician? Step right up… Sola wants to be governor of her state one day but Sola has no money to support a dream like that especially since Sola is also the Primary provider for her whole family. Sola works 2 jobs but she is driven,  has a plan and based on her experience working in her community she creates a worksheet on how to send more children to school without bankrupting the local government, a plan to increase farm yields and stop herders from trampling the crops of the villagers. She starts working for her LGA council and one day she takes her plan to her boss to show him and explain how she wants to implement her plans. After he finishes giving her a lecture on the inexperience of her youth, he proceeds to tell her the long line of men she has to sleep with or pay first for such a dream to come true. The fact that the President passed a bill does not change her situation, there are still older and wealthier men and women who want thi...

Dear Mr President

Dear Mr President, The other day, doing what young people do, I picked up my phone and read a statement from you. The one in the above quote. Sadly, I wasn't surprised because I realized what most of the young people in Nigeria did not realize, that your main job is to appear more to the outside world than to us that you have tackled our issues and found us wanting because if you don't we obviously cannot get money out of them. But as a curious cat that I am I have a few simple questions, please take your time to answer: Which youth are you talking about exactly? The ones who are queuing up in the streets every day looking for work? The ones migrating from rural areas in search for a better life for their families? Or is it the idealistic ones that return to this country with big dreams of making a better country and are told to chill “. Are you not Nigerian?" The ones who seek an opportunity to get better and be entrepreneurs in the absence o...