LETTER TO MY CHILDREN

                                                                  LETTER TO MY CHILDREN

I know it looks like I’m in a hurry to carry you in my arms and nurse you. I know it may sound as if I’m not placing my priorities right by aiming to have you at a time when I am not yet done with the preparation to usher you into my world. These notwithstanding, I feel it impertinent to drop these lines. I know that you will have lots of questions to ask about our country. Truth is that we are guilty, and I am no exception.

You will want to know why every Nigerian is a prime suspect at international airports around the world. Why deviant behaviour is common among my peers should give you worries. The rationale behind our universities not making the list of the 5000 best in the world may appear weird to you. Perhaps the most poignant question you may ask is the part I have played to correct the misfortunes that now plough our country?

I will tell you the truth because there is nothing to lie about anyway. I am thrust into a world where I have to pay for the sins of my fathers. My society is one where the ‘word’ peace exists at the last page of the dictionary. Think Boko Haram and other senseless crises! I can’t sleep at night due to the noise from the generators. Do you know that sometimes when the neighbor’s generator develops a fault, I feel a tinge of happiness because that means less noise, but that may be short-lived as gunshots take over as robbers’ raid for survival.  These robbers are usually young people like me who have allowed themselves to be victims of what the country has turned. It may sadden you to know that some of my peers cannot afford to pay the fees demanded by higher institutions. They have been turned into the dregs of the society and they engage in violence acts of retaliation.

I sometimes have to queue at the bus stop for God’s knows how long as I wait for a vehicle to convey me to my destination. There is always a story to tell each morning at the bus stop: if it is not fuel scarcity, it will be the area boys or the police mounting roadblocks to extort motorists.

The other time as I sat down with my roommates, we could not explain how money flies out of our hands. Ours is a federal university reputed to be the most prestigious and cheapest in the land. Our lecturers don’t exploit us by forcing us to buy ‘handouts’ as is the norm in other institutions , but we sometimes need to buy recommended text books so as to build up on what we  have been taught.  Our challenge has always been how to live by our means. The question you might ask is: “how come your leaders folded their hands and watched while inflation ate this deep into the economy?

My dear ones, to be candid with you, we never had leaders in the first place, even when we practice a system of government called democracy. What we have now is self-appointed leaders who rig themselves into power. Perhaps when you grow, you will read about a state called Ekiti, a city of intellectuals yet shrouded in the brick of poverty and underdevelopment. The rerun election that was conducted in that state in the year 2009 showed to the world how Nigerians failed democracy. Can you imagine that even a then 74 years old grandmother, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, could not match her worth as a Christian with a clear  conscience as she succumbed to pressures to declare fake results. She was lost on the kind of courage Ernest Hemingway defined as “grace under pressure”.

My children, you are the generation yet to be born. You are the ones who will reap what we are sowing today. Your future depends on the decisions you make today. We are the ones who are supposed to clear the path for you so that you can tread smoothly without hurting your fragile legs. I will continue to do all I can within my power to ensure that you meet a good life. But, please, pray that we will get leaders before your time: leaders are what we lack now.