Having lost my international passport as a student, I tried on several occasions to retrieve it through the normal process at the Nigerian consulate in the UK but to no avail. My dad, on one of his numerous trips abroad at the time, came to my hotel in Earls Court, South West London.
Yes you heard me right, a hotel. I and my younger brother lived in the Half Moon hotel for a year and some months as our student accommodation, not that our parents deliberately lodged us in a hotel but it was one of the perks of the college we attended, situated at Notting-hill gate. My dad, a public servant extra-ordinaire, had a perpetual career as permanent secretary. In fact, he was nicknamed super perm sec amongst his peers.
I got a phone call from the hotel potter and, unfortunately for me, it was my Dad in the building. We all ran helter-skelter to abruptly clean up and rush out of my room (the we in this case refers to the children of the high and mighty in Nigeria. We were all in the same college, hence the same hotel) because I fully understood the rationale behind his visit: my passport was lost and I was in for some scolding.
“How are you my boy?” he said with absolutely no grin on his face as I went to the reception to meet with him. He walked past me and without looking back, he said: “Take me to your room.” We got to my room and the scolding began almost instantaneously.
He is very quick to tell you how he went through his entire education system both in Nigeria and UK on scholarships, how he was top of his class at the University of Liverpool. He even goes further to lecture you on why he chose to study veterinary science. He attributes that decision to the fact that veterinary medicine was most challenging, even more than traditional medicine because the anatomy of humans (medicine) is different from that of animals (vetrinary medicine) and that of animals vary too. For instance, the anatomy of a bird is different from that of a goat and that of a goat is different from that of a snail. Somewhat proudly, he would say: “I had to learn it all and I was the best in my class but mere passport you cannot keep, stupid boy.” He told me to meet a certain man at the Nigerian consulate situated in Blackfriars and in minutes a new passport came out.
All these occurred in 2000/2001. I, at the time, was looking at the world through the lens of a child. Now I’m back in Nigeria, 12 years later, having spent three years already in Nigeria, having gone through the bitter politics of social acceptance and having gone through the bitter politics of governing and electioneering, I now see the world through the lens of an adult. It staggers the mind the rigours associated with wringing a livelihood in this unforgiving world purely on merits, a world created by our parents through constant embezzlement, lack of direction, lack of vision and sheer greed.
Many of my peers can attest to their parents’ lamentation of the high cost associated with paying school fees abroad (capital flight). Leaders with visions would never subscribe to such financial blunder, mere patriotism should knock the thoughts out of their minds but it didn’t. The British colonised Nigeria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting up administrative structures and laws that worked. They left our parents with a country that had an established and working system, which propagated the scholarships and all other such opportunities that most of them boast of today.
However, once the ball got into their court, it was deflated. They ran the country aground: no roads, no schools, no power, no rule of law, no gas, poverty is a norm even in the families (nuclear or extended) of the richest of them all. Yet, they scream foul at the high cost of overseas fees, insecurity, and unemployment but to mention a few. Very ironic. Inter-state journeys are treacherous, pupils study in under-staffed schools with barely no materials, PHCN is a sore on Nigeria, most of our lawyers are hardened criminals used by our parents as political tools. One of my lawyer-uncles (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria) in a conversation said in Yoruba: “SAN-ship ribi ogun owo.” It means SAN-ship is like voodo (black magic) money. And he was not joking. His house is laced with cars that will make a rap super-star envious.
Ethnocentrism, tribalism, religious persecution and prebendalism are playing visible roles in our politics. Kin-selective altruism is the norm and it has spurned various attempts by tribalists to concentrate federal power to a particular region of their interests. The current government is an insult on our intellect. A government steered by our parents suffering from a terminal illness called the Dutch disease. A government characterised by high cost of gas, high cost of electricity, spiraling cost of importation in an impoverished and import dependent economy, incredible levels of unemployment, rampant insecurity, lack of basic infrastructure and bogus projects to ensure the retainment of power in 2015 to the detriment of us all.
In my primary and secondary school days at the end of each term, I was given a report card that rated my performance. I usually was at the bottom of my class in primary school and my dad used to deal vigorously with me. I guess that was what informed my keenness for knowledge and understanding.
We have seen the managerial performance of our parents with regards to the economic development of our dear country. It screams lack of wits and vision. It borders lunacy to think they are all not a failure. I hope someone above the age of 50 years is reading this. If you are, you are a failure no matter how much money you have, no matter what title is bestowed on you, and you could be a successful Doctor, SAN, vulcanizer, a minister or what not. Failure is what you all are because for evil to prevail and good men don’t act for any reason whatsoever is just like a robbery accomplice holding a ladder for a robber to escape but denying not being a robber. To those under the age of 50 years already following in the footsteps of our parents, your own children may one day grade your performance, probably with a revolution if it doesn’t happen in our time.