The Lagos sun is merciless. You don’t want a piece of it, talk less of a seat in it. No one wants to bake in it or even buy a stake in it. Even bankers would rather market their services in the comfort of an air-conditioned ride than go foraging on the streets. No one, not even the biblical Prodigal Son, should be punished with kneeling in the Lagos sun.
I saw a school kid of about 12 years old walking home in the sun this afternoon and my heart sank below my waist. He tied his shirt around his waist and had his sandals in his hands. His bag, which should hang over his shoulder, dangled over his back, hanging from his forehead. His blue under shirt was soaked through and his head hung low. He looked like he had walked quite a distance, and judging by his pace and since I met him walking over a bridge, he still had a long way to go. Sadly, he looked used to it.
My discomfiture came from the fact that I was that boy some 15 years ago. The difference is I walked home by choice. My dad would offer to come pick me up from school. I would decline, knowing the extra cash would buy me and my friends “Agbaluma,” “Gorigo,” and sugared ice along the way. There were trees along the way to lessen the heat of the northern sun on our skin and we could play on the sidewalk with little fear of auto crashes. Okadas didn’t exist in Kaduna then.
This boy dare not play or he might join the tall pile of unclaimed corpses at the mortuary. He must be weary of which pure water he buys or cholera might come calling. He better be streetwise or some nut may steal him away for money rituals. That is the world as he knows it.
As I sat in that bus, on my way to see my four-day old daughter and her beautiful mum, my over-imaginative mind transposed my child’s angelic face over that of the school boy. Tears welled up in my eyes. I thought to myself, “12 years from now and my baby may be walking home in this mad sun!”
I pushed that thought out of my mind quickly and said Psalm 100 three times. There is no way I going to let my child go through what I am going through. Never! So what am I doing about it? Well, I’m going to vote wisely in 2011 and get others around me to do same.
I can just hear you all now saying “See this fool oo! Instead make e find way to hammer come send the pikin go yankee, e dey say him go vote. What nonsense?!”
But think about it. I could sell my conscience for the Ford Jeep I hear Jonathan is giving all the artistes singing for him, or cut my share of the many billions IBB is offering people from other political camps. I could use that money to go anywhere in the world and settle down, but I’d carry one thing; my Nigerian passport. Nigerians are the most despised and suspected people on the planet. We are called scammers, looters, thieves and Mutallab and MEND just recently made us bombers and terrorists to boot. If we get the wrong president in 2011, those titles would only be reinforced.
Now, imagine what our reputation would be like in five years, if we have a Looter-In-Chief like IBB there? My child would have to be strip searched each time she goes in or out of a Walmart. She would be triple checked for bombs when she boards a plane and all her friend would prefer her on a different school bus on her way home. Being Nigerian would be like carrying a pungent odour.
So, to you who say I’m crazy or disrespectful to yab our current president for failing at securing our collective lives and IBB for threatening to rape us likes he did my parents, I say, “Save your breath.” I will scream on the hill tops and in the valley. If my generation has failed to see the opportunity we have right in front of our eyes, then I will be their sight.
They say Nigeria is too complex, so we need experienced people to lead us. But that is just a bucket of crap.  Solve the problem of electricity and fix the economy, all other things will fall in place. If those guys butchering and burning in the Plateau had jobs, they would have no time to fight. If the guys in the Niger Delta eat their fill after a hard day’s job, they would be too heavy to kidnap anybody. If the youth were productive, no one would be round to fight in Ife and Modakeke riots.
Goodluck has been there for six months and nothing good has come out of it. The time may be short, but he has shown me no sign that he is ready to do what it takes. If it is my shouting, and that of guys like Tolu Ogunlese and Cheta Nwenze, that will change things, then wait while I fill my lungs.
The revolution may not be twitted or facebooked, but it is a pretty good place to start.

The way he laugh and talk about the art of coup plotting on africa magic with mo really irritate me. Ibb has no respect for constitionality or people's feeling

Basket mouth is Dele Momodu's guy.

jumobi1:

Basket mouth is Dele Momodu's guy.

shows you were not born in the 70s

Your trying to paint in vivid pictures the way that school boy was suffering is not the right picture on the ground. We suffer here, but please, the sun has not gotten hotter just because we have bad leaders.
In my days in school, there was nothing like school buses conveying me to school, now there is for urban dwellers.
None of us had the priviledge to wear sandals, we walked barefooted on hot ground, now every child, no matter how poor, wears second hand sandals.
More schools are now nearer to our homes, our own days we trekked long distances.
Teachers could be owed six months wages then, now they are paid monthly.

All am sayng is that we are slowly improving, lets not focus only on the bad aspects. However, you are free to take your family to yankee, all of us cannot leave our fatherland at once. What are we running from? Lets vote right and insist our votes count, that is a first step at strenghtening our country.

Nice piece,makes sense.we really need to vote wisely but where are the credible candidates?

ibb killed dele giwa and obasanjo killed bola ige and killed two communities - one from bayelsa and one from benue.
ibb anulled june 12 and obj made a mess of 2007 elections. who do we condem here? the man who was able to prove to nigerians that a free and fair election can be organised here(ibb) or the one who said even Jesus Christ cannot organise a free and fair election in nigeria(obj)
both men wanted to continue and possibly die on the seat but bowed out from public preasure. one stepped aside(ibb) while the other imposed his candidate on us(obj).
one was surposed to be operating under military decrees(ibb) while the other was surposed to be operating with a constitution of the federal republic of nigeria(obj).
without boring ppl arround here, i must say this, OBASANJO IS THE REASON FOR PPL LIKE IBB TO STILL FEEL RELEVANT TO THIS JUNGLE CALLED NIGERIA.
assuming all the noise obj and ribadu were making between 1999 and 2007 was real, men like ibb shld have been jailed for life and will never get his freedom talkless of vying for presidency.
till today, nigerians are still concerned over the death of dele giwa while an attorney general of the federation was killed in cold blood without a trace and no one is worried abt that. two communities deleted by obj without querry. funny enough, we wasted the most important 8 yrs of our history as a ppl claiming democracy 99 - 07. if we continue looking at the presence of ibb, we must relate it to our current president of which we will agree that we did not vote him. fraudulently he entered aso rock and his presence there is a symbol of corruption which has engulfed this country.
the only way forward for this country is to make our constitution the impartial judge and make our inec the independent body that it shld be.
nigerians must with one voice ask these men who have decided to use us and tissue papers to go and this must be done without fear or favour.
if the only criminal nigerians konw is ibb and he has been away for 17 years, every citizen of this nation shld have been relieved in one way or the other.
2011 must be a year to define our democracy and independence.
obasanjo must learn to retire to allow this country embrace democracy free of his impositions and selections. our votes must count.

It makes me proud to know dat dere r still people lyk dis in dis country. People who believe dat running away wont make d problems go away.we hv bin oppressed 4 2 long & we can change dat by cuming out in throngs 2 get registered so as 2 vote 4 dose who we kno r d rite ones. True word basket mouth.

Credible Election For dis Naija wey we dey so?

No make me laugh abeg