[center][/center]Progress that is ignored

“Let’s talk about corruption.” He began and smiled. She smiled back and braced herself for yet another ‘In the good old days’ lecture. These old folks sure loved to reminisce and she always liked to indulge them. When one had experienced a lot and was in the last leg of one’s thoughts out loud regardless of how reticent one had been before.

“People always want to go on about how bad corruption is for our nation for the society. Indeed the one we have is vast and encroaching, allowing no room for growth but really all that needs to be done is contain corruption in the one sector that affects everyone the most, the government i.e. politicians but no one really wants to because the truth is secretly most are looking forward to being there themselves, raking in the spoils as they may.” He paused, giving her one of his rakish smiles that must have caused many a heart to flutter when he was a younger man.

“Contained corruption is greatest for our economy because you see as things balance out the wealth is distributed back in society as the corrupt ones spend it.” This brought about a double take on my part, was I hearing right? Corruption is good for us? Corruption that has always been the bane of our society? He nodded at the perplexed look on my face. He pointed at the newspaper on the page he was referring to was an editorial lavish weddings and the reflection of them upon society how it’d become norm now everyone to have one.

“I see lavish weddings as a method of re-distribution of wealth/gdp in our society, a corrupt politico or biz magnate with loads of $$$ desiring to spend 100 million naira (of the billions he has, is only generating income for the biz that are directly affected by his biz. Tell me what is wrong with this spread of wealth? This is a vast improvement to the former attitude of hoarding money in foreign accounts.” He flashed me another winning smile.

“I personally like that they (our corrupt politicos flush biz tycoons) in real estate. They are developing our land for us and aiding in meeting our housing needs. All the houses they build, can they live in them all? Of course not, so they rent out the rest and most of the times don’t get decent ROIs for their property.” Definitely food for thought, I genuflected. He wasn’t done yet.

“Most of the time, we spend so much time lamenting about the corruption all about us that we fail to see the progress being made right underneath our noses.”

“When I was a young boy in Lagos, there were only 3 secondary schools in Lagos, each of them admitted only 60 students per year. So 180 total, even if those children were Lagos residents alone, it still doesn’t match the demand for spaces in those schools. Today we have schools that at the most admit that number of students individually and remember we have lots of schools all over. They proliferate our landscape. It’s no longer a privilege to go to secondary school which is a major progress because it means literacy is available to all regardless of one’s economic strata. Now of course, the quality and level of the secondary education varies but the basic premise is ‘literacy’.” I was nodding along in assent at this. The ability for the populace in a nation to read was paramount. It meant they could decipher news for themselves and communicate by writing.

“I went to a wedding in Kaduna this weekend. It was a Nigerian wedding.” A dramatic pause. I took his cue and asked;

“What do you mean by a Nigerian wedding?” I asked. He smiled at me, glad I was giving him the go ahead to carry on with his discourse.

“The music was the same music you’d hear here in Lagos or anywhere else in the country; these young popular musicians. The food was the same as you’d eat in a reception anywhere in the nation- jollof rice, moi moi, do-do etc. Where before when you went to our different regions and ate different foods i.e. Hausa food, Yoruba food, Igbo food etc. We have gradually evolved to having the same food at our ceremonies, wear the same attires at our events and listen to the same kind of music. This is progress!”