You know us when you see us. Our velvet skin, imported clothes and shoes and original leather accessories perform their intended function of covering the
lines of stress, pallor and ajepakoness* which may have been inflicted on us
during our childhood days growing up in the suburbs of Lagos or in the smaller
towns of the country or any of the villages scattered around.
We are mostly in the employ of the giant telcos, big oil
firms, international manufacturers or the rising Nigerian banks. These
organisations have helped supply the funds and resources that polished us to
our new outlook. Our air conditioned offices, cars and homes ensure we
experience limited exposure to the rays of the Saharan sun beaming from above
and as such, the production of melanin in our bodies is reduced to a level far
below its production capacity.
Our kids try their best not to engage in conversation that
will require them to speak their mother tongue so that they can be defined as
tutch, oh sorry, I meant refined. Well the kids are not to blame, not with our
effort to ensure they don’t attend any self acclaimed Nigerian school. The more
the school bears descriptive words signifying non-Nigerian, the merrier for us.
Our annual family trips take us to privileged societies
across Europe, U.S.A, South Africa and now even Dubai. When last did we attempt
a visit to the village? Oh I forgot, a trip to the village would desecrate and
degrade our Facebook status.
Many of our parents were raised in the villages but only few
of them if at all any lifted a finger to lift up the standard of living in those
villages. We seem to be doing the same today. We’re living better lives but our
communities are not. We’re enjoying life’s best but the 36 states of Nigeria
and the FCT are not. We have been liberated from the shackles of poverty but
the country remains tethered.
Let us not tow the ignoble paths of the generation ahead of
us. We can better the lot of our fatherland if we apply our newly refined
status and acquired resources to the benefit of the commonwealth of Nigeria and
refuse to answer to self only.
*Ajepakoness can be interpreted as being crude
