It was during the August break, one of the many rounds of severe fuel scarcity. Long after your president removed the fuel subsidy as an austerity measure after using the words “E lo fokan bale” as scope. You were in your car, an army green Almera car not the Tesla car you so much clamored for back in university days. Days when you hoped the sambisa world out there wouldn't keep your dreams hostage. You, however, realized that you couldn't even pay a ransom to free your dreams. It was also in Abuja, you remember vividly. The government had just renovated Garki and Gwarimpa roads and the rides along those routes were almost smooth. However, that didn't change the fact that “epo ti won”. Exactly how Mr Dapo, your fellow coworker in Amek company says it with his akwa ibom accent.
You were the sixth on the queue in the petrol station and playing from your stereo was the new-old national anthem. You thought about a lot of things that hot Monday afternoon and you were so sure that other Nigerians, “traumatized paupers” as Lasisi Olagunji described also thought about it. “Traumatized paupers whose healthcare system needs to be prioritized”, says Bill Gates.
“To hand on to our children, a banner without stain”
You thought about the so called END SARS massacre and the invalidity of that line. You wonder what lies were sold to the millennials that informed their decision of the voting of the current president. However, you understand that their perspective was so different from ours. They simply believed. They had seen a better Nigeria. The gen z’s hadn't.
A better Nigeria, you scoffed. What's the definition of a better Nigeria?.
A country where light is slightly stable?Where electricity wires are underground and not on poles so that they do not fall repeatedly during the rainy season and have to be dried by the sun for the next few days before the light is restored? Where the national grid wouldn't fall and doesn't have to be risen probably on the third day?
A country that places priority on agriculture as a source of revenue?
A country that does not hands out students loans that will shoot the students in the legs in the nearest future?
A country where the cost of living is bearable? Where the governor can decide to share milk to students to enhance their brain and maybe even donate pankere like it was done by Obasanjo in the 90’s? So that teachers who can't afford a pankere don't have to adopt the “go and pluck a fine cane that befits you” to let themselves off the hook.
A country where Nigerians do not need to Japa because they have all they need in their country.
Now, The year 1970 has never left you, the year Nigerian leaders forcefully alienated Ghanaians. Hence, the iconic Ghana must go sacks. You're still struggling to come to terms with the fact that Nigeria was once a place to Japa to. That the roles have switched between Nigeria and Ghana. That we now migrate to a country our former leaders once rejected. A rejected stone turned to a cornerstone.
If Nigerians once made Ghana must go sacks, shouldn't Ghanaians gladly make Nigeria must go sacks?
As you attempt to answer the question, the queue moves and you ignite your engine in order to be attended to. When the lady asks you “how many litres?”, you respond “one” and when she proceeds to sell into your tank, you pray silently under your breath with hopes that your case will be like the poor widow whose jar of oil never stopped. “Oga”, I don sell am finish”
“Okay”, and you proceed to give her a dollar's worth. One you've clinched in your hands for far too long.