While
taking a stroll down the streets of Abuja with a friend of mine, a young lady
probably in her late twenties accosted us wearing a very pitiful look on her
face. “Good evening sir! Please sir I was just coming from…” Before she was
able to complete her sentence I quickly told her we couldn’t help and we moved
on. Before you judge me, allow me to mention that it was the roughly the third
evening in a row that I was approached by a stranded person, a grieving person and yes, another stranded
person (most of them seem to be stranded).
Now I am not being disrespectful to
people who appeal for assistance (trying to avoid the word “beg’’) but this is
a new trend in the Capital city. You can almost conclude that any stranger who wants
to exchange greetings with you is stranded. I should be stating the obvious if
I tell you most of them make up such stories, they are mostly people who have
nothing to eat or nothing to do for a living. Alright, here comes the cliché, ‘’The
country is hard, very hard’’.
Like my friend will say ‘’Before, if
you talk APC people go shout CHANGE but now if you talk am people go CHANGE am
for you.’’ The continuous dwindling of the Nigerian economy is far from a joke.
What’s actually more disturbing about this is the typical Nigerian way of adaptation.
Nigerians seem to be tired of complaining. Other means however, are adopted for
survival. From increase in theft, kidnapping, internet fraud, ATM fraud to
begging (trust me I tried) Nigerians have further started adjusting to the
promised change and no one seems to be ready to find a permanent solution to
this.
When the promise of change came up,
am not sure the idea sold to us was that the change should start from the poor
masses. Words can’t describe what I feel when I hear lame excuses from the
government about the present situation of the country. Yes, we are facing a recession and the
country has not been in good hands from past administration but the APC
government didn’t win the Nigerian election to govern the most perfect country
in the world and they were fully aware of what they were going into.
Rather than empty speeches, I think
the government should make smart moves and concentrate on positive actions to
make the country much better than it is now. If we don’t see a better change
from the one we have now, the problems we had in the past may look like
blessings to what the future holds (I really hope not). God bless Nigeria.
