"WILL NIGERIA EVER BE BETTER LIKE THE DAYS OF OUR PARENTS?!", SAYS A BARBER

Caption: Ikeja-Lagos. Photo credit: Slumphotos 

By Davy Fidel

Writer/Freelance

A few weeks ago, on the  26th of March, 2022 at Iyano Sashi i.e the other part of Lagos as I chose to call it. I was in a barber's shop and a discussion ensued. It is on the question of Nigeria and whether there is any hope, now and in the future. It is a question a lot of people are asking themselves every day the clock is ticking while the country is roasting. 

At the shop, there was a man of 65 years old, I guess, three young men that might be in their early 40s and a teenager in his mid-20s. The subject of Nigeria came up and an argument started. "Will Nigeria ever be better like the days of our parents" was what took the centre part of the discussion. It was an angry expression from the barber, who was cutting the hair of his customer. 

"Of course", one of the customers who were to be attended to reply. But he was interrupted by another of his peer who said. "I doubted whether Nigeria will be better." He continued, "my brother you can't compare it with the days of our fathers. It wasn't like this. Things are not hard like what we have presently. Abi no bi so papa?" he asked with seriousness on his face.

But the old man, who at first doesn't want to join in the discussion has no choice but to reply to the question posed to him. "Of course", he replied. "Compare to what we have today. Our time wasn't as tough as today. Things were a little bit fair. However, it was tough", he explained. "It doesn't mean everything was going well as you people think it was."

"Nigeria was hard for us then as young people. Though, those minimal things like food, water etc are something people don't have to beg for as it is today. However", he explained, "people have to work to eat. The government then wasn't doing everything for us. The military, they weren't doing everything for us. There is nothing like free education, healthcare etc as people usually think it was. Except in the first republic and also in the time of Jakande"

"Papa", the barber asked without slicing his question. "If Nigeria is not better and people have to struggle as you said. Why didn't you people fight to make it right so we will not be suffering today?" The other person who was there to cut his hair joined the barber to reemphasise the question in a stronger tone. The old man smiled without any atom of anger on his face. 

In his response he said. "You will think we didn't fight as today's generation will assume. We fought! It is just that our leaders were our problems. They always betrayed us." The man sighted an example. "People like Adams Oshiomole is one person in the place I worked then, Textiles. He doesn't want workers to raise their voices against the management. He was our union leader then." 

"It was sad that things went the other way round", he explained. "So, my brothers", he said with a smile on his face. "We did something ooo." But the reaction from the barber, who knows the papa and the other two men wasn't satisfactory. They thought otherwise. One among them said, "the endsars is just a taste of what we youth shall do again. This set of leaders is not ready to correct the nonsense in this country."

"See the way", he explained, "people are suffering. There is hunger everywhere. No job, no food, no water. Nothing is working in this country. Everything is going down every day in this Nigeria we are all living. The government we have don't care. They are only interested in stealing our money the way they like." He spoke with anger that the old man had to calm him down and said, "my friend, you need to take it easy."

"Easy?!" he replied while the barber was making him look good. "Papa, we no nid to tek tins easy fo dem. Dis country, no bi only dem get am. We sef folo get am." Everyone smiles to ease the tension on their faces. After a while, the old man threw a word and said. "We need a revolution to change things in this country. For Ghana", he said. "They kill all their bad leaders. This is what Rawlings did."

"Papa" a customer who met the old man mentioned "revolution" and he asked. "Do you think it is going to work papa?" The old man wanted to reply but he was interrupted when his phone rang. The barber, who brought up the subject of Nigeria said. "I don't know much about what happened in Ghana. What I know is that we need to come out as youth to change the way things are going on in this country."

"You are not lying. We need to change it" Another customer mentioned. "But how are we going to change it when people are not ready to come together because of their tribe and language." A young chap who also met the discussion joined in it and said. "I don't think our language is our problem. At least, I was at the endsars protest. I am a student of the University of Lagos and I participated."

"What we need is to come together as people who are denied good lives and a better future so we can correct the unusual in our country. Unless", he explained, "we are comfortable with the kind of suffering we are passing through under this set of leaders. Nigeria can't be better, then and now, if we don't put aside our tribe and sentiment. Nothing will change for us."

"I think", the lad explained. "One of my lecturers once told us that Nigeria of the old and the Nigeria of today do not have any difference. They are both the same. The only thing", he explained, "as my lecturer said is the people who are in power. That is the only thing that has changed since Nigeria had Independence." He quoted his lecturer and said, "Nigeria can only be better when people think of other ways out."

 A new person came in to cut his hair i.e. after he had spent twenty minutes asked. "Do you mean to say 'revolution' as papa who just left a few minutes said will solve our problem?"  The lad was quiet, because, then, he was about to sit for the barber to cut his hair. His reply to the question was that "I don't mean that kind of 'revolution' but something different."

"Something different?" Two other customers in the Barber's shop asked. "Of course", the Unilag students replied. "I mean something that won't look the same as the one of Ghana. Just like what a professor lecturing our history and political science lectured before the endsars protest lit the country," he explained. 

"I think", he continued, "the future of Nigeria can only be better with us." A few minutes afterwards, the discussion was diluted into the sport and everyone around started arguing about the politics of the game in the English Premier League and another existing league in other European countries.