A Letter To Nigeria

Dear Nigeria,

How are you and how are your kids? I guess I need not ask after those 'watching' over you ‘cos am sure they will be doing great in their 'bank accounts' both home and abroad.

I know you've gotten and will still get so many letters from the 'who is who' both in and outside the country wishing you happy independence but I hope and wish this little letter of one of your troubled kids get to you.

Today is a day of celebration so I’m not here to remind us of the bad times but after 51 years of chasing the colonial masters out of your life, ARE WE THERE YET???

Mother, in this trying times, we still have smiles on our faces and we still see a need to celebrate you, little wonder why we were tagged the happiest people on earth. I just hope and pray that the bomb of Boko Haram will never get to ‘us’ but we all know that the occupants of a house who’s roof is on fire should never leave the fire fighters to battle with the fire while they are busy having dinner inside that same house.


Some few months ago, your custodian said after a bomb blast that 'He' himself is not safe, that if they can blow up the Police headquarters, then who/where can't they blow up? I wonder what might have been the faith of the United States if Bush had said this back then after the happenings of 9/11 but #IsThatWhyWeAreHere?

51 years down the lane after chasing the white men out and taking custody of your life, we are still chasing their tail begging to enter their country and doing all sorts of things just to get there. I actually thought we chased them out of your life so that we can be 'independent' and have full control over ours but educationally, economically, medically, to name just a few, we depend on them. Now, is that what they call Independence??

Libya after 60years of independence saw a need for ‘re-independence’ and they went on a revolution. Nigeria is just 51 but I think we are moving faster and getting closer to a 'revolution' than Libya did. The question now is not if after the revolution, I will get to see the Nigeria of my dreams but if the revolution will ever bring forth a ‘New Nigeria’ rather than splitting us into different independent nations based on our ethnic divide or tribal differences.

All said, I will like to leave you with a quote from a friend of mine; an economist, who updated his facebook status and wrote "51years ago today we got rid of the British and tried to rule ourselves, while we're not where we dreamt of, this painful stage must be passed, this bad state must be faced this shameful cup must be drunk to its full, so when the good times come, we remember our history was not a fairy tale but one with blood, sweat and tears - Happy Independence day Nigeria" (Wale Okunrinboye, 2011).



Your Son
Mafaba Alaso