A Nigerian life

I come across certain people and after talking with them I feel like my life is ordinary. I start to ask myself what my purpose in life really is.

There are some professions that I can never understand why the people in them are there in the first place. I can never comprehend why someone will ever want to work in an airplane that flies. I can understand the engineers who maintain it when it is on ground, but the flight attendants, I can never understand. When I am in the plane I keep matching my invisible brakes at the slightest turbulence. I have nightmares weeks before I go on a journey if I am travelling by air. And whenever I get on it, I smile at the air hostesses so that they remember to save me if anything happened (how silly). It’s still a prayer point for me.

Another occupation I am terrified of is the police force, especially here in Nigeria. First, these people are paid very meagrely, they are also not well armed yet they are made to take positions  at very dangerous spots at night guarding against thieves who are in most cases better armed than the police. And again, before they know that an oncoming vehicle is occupied by thieves, they themselves are already targets of these men of the underworld. Whenever, I see a Nigerian Police,man or woman,  the first thing I feel for him is pity. Their whole appearance tells you that these people need help. (The Commissioner of Police, Lagos state does not fall under this description oh, that guy is too clean, mehn). Whenever, I have some money on me, I give to the policemen once they pull me over. Not because I’m bribing them to let me go, hubby makes sure my vehicle papers are always up to date, (so nothing to worry about) but because I pity them. These men, especially the ones on the roads are so poor. They are the biggest receivers of the dividends of bad governance in Nigeria.  If you want to know how wretched the Nigerian policemen are, please visit the Police barracks where they live with their families. Dirty, smelly and in very deplorable states. Then their salaries are so low like I learnt. The next time an angry police officer pulls you over, please overlook their anger, and think of the reason for their anger.

I came across a soldier over the weekend and we got talking, when he told me that he was headed back to his post, I asked where his post was. I literally stopped breathing when he said Sambisa. “Sambisa?!” I screamed. At this point I wanted to ask for a selfie, an autograph, his army cap or any keepsake at all) from him. I was standing next to a hero, a true Nigerian hero. I asked him why he decided to be a soldier and he said that he just wanted to, if everyone stayed away from the occupation, who would do the job. I asked him a whole lot of other questions, all at once. I felt I wouldn’t see him again (God forbid).  “Have you killed before?” “So you carry your gun around?” ”Are you really in the forest?” he answered all my questions one at a time. But the answer that brought tears to my ears was the salary. They were all paid thirty thousand naira to risk their lives, fighting to keep our country safe from terrorists. Thirty thousand naira to these brave men who fight for us every day? He also said to me that if not for the soldiers that the insurgency would have reached other parts of the country. Here I was speaking to an unsung hero.

A lot of us will not go near Bornu state even for half a million naira. He also acknowledged that a good number of the soldiers were there because they couldn’t find something else to do. (see why we see the brutality we see some times?) after I left him, I found an answer to a question I often asked myself, “What is the worth of a Nigerian life?” a Nigerian life is worth only thirty thousand naira. Sad! Sad! Sad! With all the money looted and recovered, our soldiers are paid just 30k? I can't get over this.  These men sleep in abandoned schools in the most uncomfortable conditions. Their only companions are their phones, they have WIFI (thankfully), they hardly sleep but when they do it is with one eye open.

If you would usually go to work grudgingly on a Monday, please put on a cheerful face for the sake of those who are doing the real work yet do not get appreciated. As you step out this Monday, may favour go with you, love, peace and harmony be all yours. May new doors of opportunity open for us this new week, business deals sealed, and promotions happen.

AMEN!

Please spare a thought for the young men and women who sacrifice their lives on a daily bases. and please share this post to see if the lawmakers will read and review our dear soldiers' salaries

God bless!