Stella Damasus: Naija, smell the coffee

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Naija, smell the coffee

I have been reading all sorts and different versions of congratulatory messages to celebrate Nigeria. Even from people who just a few days ago wrote negative and derogatory things about our dear country. These same folks have been pissed off about the Asuu strike, the almost six hundred people who came into America as entourage with the presidency for the United Nations conference and how much was spent, the unresolved Boko haram issue, the underage marriage and the deliberate silence from the senate and so many other things they are unhappy about. But as the hypocrites we all are, we find the need to go on social media just to be seen as relevant. We start to use different apps to create beautiful pictures of Nigeria including our pictures to say happy independence. If it ended there I will not mind because we cannot change the event nor the date. But when some people who want to sound intelligent start to say things like Nigeria is the most industrious, courageous and safest country, NIGERIA is an example to the whole world because we are the giants and so many other things I personally consider to be eye service, it baffles me.
Instead of siting and lying about the country you claim you love why don't you say happy independence and then go ahead to proffer solutions that you believe will help the country to be the place we all believe it can and should be, the place our parents described to us, the place blessed with so much that other countries will do anything to be us.
Let us be honest here, are these things the truths about what is going on?

Do not be like those whose answers will always be "it is well" even when you are dying and need help then when it gets extremely bad it becomes an embarrassing situation where everyone will know and then have no choice but to help.

Let us call a spade a spade.
Let today be a day of reflections,
Let today be a day where we all sit and think of what we can do to help our nation as opposed to what our nation can do for us.

These little teenage boys who are school dropouts are all trying to run away and they are being caught everyday at the airport. Instead of laughing at the situation let today be a day were we can decide to set up a football team and give them activities that will give them hope of someday becoming the next Kanu Nwakwo or Jay Jay Okocha, find a small space were you can take free weekends to teach classes with the help of friends and family of mathematic and English possibly social studies, you can make t-shirts and engage them in crafts or technical activities that boys love, if you cannot handle that what about the young girls who don't know who they are apart from what society has called them, you can mentor them and teach them to read and write. What about your community and the people around you who have never been to school? Do they know about the new banking policies? If you understand it why not teach them. What about creating small workshops to teach and groom people into becoming great entrepreneurs. Teach them how to use technology to get ahead. How about the simplest one, PRAY for our country and not deceive its people. We are not under any pressure or obligation to look for sweet lies to tweet about or put out on Facebook.

Nigeria was created to be the greatest country but the usual suspects have decided to make it their own limited liability company, making the rest of us their coffee boys and toilet cleaners who don't have a voice or proper representation and who did not even get a contract that can protect us when we got employment. How can we talk when we never got a chance to sit inside any office, all we do is come in clean the place, get coffee for them, hear all the conversations and see all the money exchanging hands. All we get is the promise of prompt basic salary, which never happens, but we are too afraid to quit because we know we cannot find work anywhere else. Some people are too old to start over, some are too afraid, some just like to be were the action is but never take part, some are still deceiving themselves, believing that by saying nothing the greedy boss will make them managers from being coffee boys, some are just too dumb to know they are being reaped off their father's company. While some of us who know that the company belongs to everyone, have come out to tell the world the truth and are working everyday to take back what belongs to us. Not by fighting but by changing the Minds of the ones who will have the strength and determination to stand for what they believe in and take it back.