NIGERIA AS SEEN IN THE EYES OF A BBC CORRESPONDENT – SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR EVERY NIGERIAN
September 22, 2020 | News
I was sincerely intrigued by a recent post online, which was a passing remark and summary of one’s experience of a country, by BBC’s Martin Patience, who was said to be leaving Nigeria after two years. It was actually a recap of his lessons learned in a version of a Nigerian Correspondent.
NIGERIA AS SEEN IN THE EYES OF A BBC CORRESPONDENT – SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR EVERY NIGERIAN
I was sincerely intrigued by a recent post online, which was a passing remark and summary of one’s experience of a country, by BBC’s Martin Patience, who was said to be leaving Nigeria after two years. It was actually a recap of his lessons learned in a version of a Nigerian Correspondent. Reading through the said post by Martin Patience about his experience in Nigeria, it accurately paints the paradoxical situation of Nigeria – where certain things that are unheard of in other climes, have become normal and accepted in the country. It painted the reality pictures in Nigeria - of hopelessness and despair; of widespread poverty and sufferings in the midst of stupendous wealth/riches; of the world of the government and the governed in complete contrast to each other; of so much potentials across all boards and spectrums in the midst of lack of vision-drive and innovation; and so on and so forth.
According to the said post expressing the Nigerian experience of the Middle East BBC Correspondent, Martin Patience: “Nigeria is truly the maddest place I have ever had the pleasure of living in. It is a country that constantly feels on the brink but never quite goes over the edge. It feels like you are living in a giant soap opera with all the joy and tragedy that goes with it. It is a nation blessed or burdened with extraordinary cast of characters.
“It can make you want to cry with laughter or with tears. ‘’where else?’’ said a friend. That you have to bribe the attendant in a lift just to be allowed out of it; or you will be hassled in a church for a donation or where you will go to a lost but found office only to be told that nothing has been handed in this entire year. What you may not have heard about is the sheer exuberance of this country. They should hand out ear plugs in Nigerian weddings because the noise is so intense! Millions truly believe that tomorrow could be the day they make it big. The language here is unbelievably colorful. A top official once described a former president as an honest fool, who held the horn while the others milk the cow.
“I have never ever lived anywhere like Nigeria! It’s exhausting and exhilarating but never is there a dull a day. I was recently sitting in a plane and we were taxiing out to the runway; a pilot piped up in an intercom, ‘’a passenger’’ he said, ‘’was rude to an air hostess’’. ‘’I ask you the passengers’’, he said, ‘’to intervene, because unless he apologizes, we will have to go back to the terminal and unload him’’. A queue of about a dozen people surrounding the man, shouting at him to apologize. He refused, so the pilot did indeed turn the plane back towards the boarding gate. And then finally, the man, realizing his number was up, said sorry. The pilot was back on the intercom, ‘’I will like to thank you all for intervening’’ he said with obvious delight, ‘’ we are now off to Lagos’’.
“For all the drama and frustrations, one friend summed up Nigerians’ best, ‘’they have remarkable patience’’ he argued. ‘’but for the wrong things. They put up with lack of clean water, poor access to health care, rotten schools and crumbling infrastructure.’’ Many Nigerians are fiercely independent. This is a nation of leaders and not followers.””
Indeed, Nigeria is truly one very uniquely-intriguing and interesting country that one cannot fully understand and comprehend its diverseness. No foreigner would come and stay for some time in Nigeria, and not want to weep at some of the things that happen here, which we have accepted as normal, and also be moved with laughter at some other things. Every day, one is dazed with one dose or the other, of either the insane, mundane, absurd, annoying, crazy, unacceptable, or the laughable, interesting, surprising, and dynamic things that happen across the length and breadth of this space called Nigeria.
Apparently, our ‘uniqueness’ as Nigeria and Nigerians is what makes us thick and different from others and other nations. However, for a country like Nigeria that is blessed with so much, and with so much potentials – but still offers little to nothing to its inhabitants, the rest of the world and humanity; it only means we have a lot of work on our hands to do, so that we can actually get to the height we belong amongst the comity of nations. The only solace is that the Nigerian people, despite being dealt with all kind of unjust and dehumanizing ill-treatment over the last six decades or so by its supposed political leaders as custodians of our national wealth; still find a way to stay hopeful, cheerful and alive in the midst of all. Which is something that is not common in other climes that is far more developed than what we have in the country. I only pray that we will one day, get to that point where all the potentials and energies that makes us Nigerian, will be turned to evident realities that would positively change our lives, and also impact the rest of the world.
Zik Gbemre.
September 22, 2020.
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
I was sincerely intrigued by a recent post online, which was a passing remark and summary of one’s experience of a country, by BBC’s Martin Patience, who was said to be leaving Nigeria after two years. It was actually a recap of his lessons learned in a version of a Nigerian Correspondent. Reading through the said post by Martin Patience about his experience in Nigeria, it accurately paints the paradoxical situation of Nigeria – where certain things that are unheard of in other climes, have become normal and accepted in the country. It painted the reality pictures in Nigeria - of hopelessness and despair; of widespread poverty and sufferings in the midst of stupendous wealth/riches; of the world of the government and the governed in complete contrast to each other; of so much potentials across all boards and spectrums in the midst of lack of vision-drive and innovation; and so on and so forth.
According to the said post expressing the Nigerian experience of the Middle East BBC Correspondent, Martin Patience: “Nigeria is truly the maddest place I have ever had the pleasure of living in. It is a country that constantly feels on the brink but never quite goes over the edge. It feels like you are living in a giant soap opera with all the joy and tragedy that goes with it. It is a nation blessed or burdened with extraordinary cast of characters.
“It can make you want to cry with laughter or with tears. ‘’where else?’’ said a friend. That you have to bribe the attendant in a lift just to be allowed out of it; or you will be hassled in a church for a donation or where you will go to a lost but found office only to be told that nothing has been handed in this entire year. What you may not have heard about is the sheer exuberance of this country. They should hand out ear plugs in Nigerian weddings because the noise is so intense! Millions truly believe that tomorrow could be the day they make it big. The language here is unbelievably colorful. A top official once described a former president as an honest fool, who held the horn while the others milk the cow.
“I have never ever lived anywhere like Nigeria! It’s exhausting and exhilarating but never is there a dull a day. I was recently sitting in a plane and we were taxiing out to the runway; a pilot piped up in an intercom, ‘’a passenger’’ he said, ‘’was rude to an air hostess’’. ‘’I ask you the passengers’’, he said, ‘’to intervene, because unless he apologizes, we will have to go back to the terminal and unload him’’. A queue of about a dozen people surrounding the man, shouting at him to apologize. He refused, so the pilot did indeed turn the plane back towards the boarding gate. And then finally, the man, realizing his number was up, said sorry. The pilot was back on the intercom, ‘’I will like to thank you all for intervening’’ he said with obvious delight, ‘’ we are now off to Lagos’’.
“For all the drama and frustrations, one friend summed up Nigerians’ best, ‘’they have remarkable patience’’ he argued. ‘’but for the wrong things. They put up with lack of clean water, poor access to health care, rotten schools and crumbling infrastructure.’’ Many Nigerians are fiercely independent. This is a nation of leaders and not followers.””
Indeed, Nigeria is truly one very uniquely-intriguing and interesting country that one cannot fully understand and comprehend its diverseness. No foreigner would come and stay for some time in Nigeria, and not want to weep at some of the things that happen here, which we have accepted as normal, and also be moved with laughter at some other things. Every day, one is dazed with one dose or the other, of either the insane, mundane, absurd, annoying, crazy, unacceptable, or the laughable, interesting, surprising, and dynamic things that happen across the length and breadth of this space called Nigeria.
Apparently, our ‘uniqueness’ as Nigeria and Nigerians is what makes us thick and different from others and other nations. However, for a country like Nigeria that is blessed with so much, and with so much potentials – but still offers little to nothing to its inhabitants, the rest of the world and humanity; it only means we have a lot of work on our hands to do, so that we can actually get to the height we belong amongst the comity of nations. The only solace is that the Nigerian people, despite being dealt with all kind of unjust and dehumanizing ill-treatment over the last six decades or so by its supposed political leaders as custodians of our national wealth; still find a way to stay hopeful, cheerful and alive in the midst of all. Which is something that is not common in other climes that is far more developed than what we have in the country. I only pray that we will one day, get to that point where all the potentials and energies that makes us Nigerian, will be turned to evident realities that would positively change our lives, and also impact the rest of the world.
Zik Gbemre.
September 22, 2020.
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes