Bus trips and failed states
Originally posted on April 7th 2022
Picture from: Pinterest
I’m punching this out because I know if I go to sleep I would forget most of the fun stuff.
We are on the road back to Lagos after attending a program in a popular private university on the outskirts of the mega city on mentorship which turned out to be senior medical colleagues spending hours trying to convince us to not migrate to “greener pastures” (well one or two encouraged us to leave) but stay and work for a better nation. I would not say I didn’t see reason in their arguments, but it did all sound too ideal and there was a certain disconnect from what I see regularly at the grass root level and what they described they experienced in “their time”.
I would not write this country off so soon because of the potential I have perceived in my few years here, it really does leave you speechless sometimes.
Unfortunately, with the trajectory we are on, one has to escape for at least no other reason than sanity. This country will drive you mad even without your consent
What started out as comical banter on the decision to leave, how to leave, polishing our “I Wanna, gonna, shoulda” accents and what the color of the Nigerian blood is, turned to discussions on the Nigerian history and what exactly is wrong here, when it went wrong and who really is to be blamed. I must put it out that I do enjoy conversations like this where you put in your two kobo and learn from others’ two naira. It spanned for most of the bus ride back which spanned for hours.
What I did realize was the fact that beyond the laughter, tears, chair banging, thigh slapping, jolly atmosphere, we were all tired of the state of things. We all wished it could be better and we all agreed that religion has very well become a coping mechanism not necessarily because we love God, but because we want to live to see another day in this country. Honestly I can’t be more tired than this, but I guess the high energy discussions were necessary, are necessary. I hear more reasons to stay, I discover more reasons to leave. And like me, the arm wrestle rages on in the minds of youth and elderly alike. To leave or to stay for love of country and people.