I grew up in the 80's and early 90's

Then, its until 4:00 PM before TV stations resume broadcast and they begin with the National Anthem

Chicken George and Mr. Biggs' were the only places parents take kids to if kids have excelled very well in exams

Before third mainland bridge was built, It was only Carter and Eko bridge that was linking the Island and the Mainland

Lekki was non-existent and the biggest highbrow area was Ikeja especially the GRA.

We never had smart phones, XBox, PSP or smart devices...The Behind game we had then was 'Brick Game' with 99 in 1 game device. Other games were field games e.g Bubble gum-bubble gum, catcher, Ten-ten, Suwe, Mother may I, Mr Macaroni, etc

Electricity was much more better compared to what we have now.

We had very few TV stations which are NTA 10, NTA 7, NTA 2 channel 5, LTV/LWT, OGTV, (AIT and DBN joined later in the 90's), etc

Best kiddies TV programs includes: Kidi vision 101, Speak out, Dr. Who, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Cartoons (Voltron, Super Ted, Atom Ant, Danger Mouse, Chuckle Hounds, Incredible Hulk, etc.

The Nigerian Police force was more professional and more effective than it is now.

Parents can so beat the hell out of children...unlike now that parents and Children negotiate or even argue. You dare not look your parents in the eye.

That's all I can remember...

I grew up middle class in Yaba in the late 80s and early 90s. I was surrounded by children. We lived on a secondary school campus, because my mom was a teacher, and the school gave subsidized housing). We lived in a block of 24 flats, and there were dozens of kids my age. We were kind of like a gang, roaming the huge school campus, playing catcher on the school field, and hide and seek in the school buildings. Climbing guava trees and trying to find the really ripe ones that were pink inside, instead of white.

My mother used to send my siblings and I to Sabo market to buy vegetables and fruit for the family. I was navigating Yaba traffic by myself at age 10. Nobody stopped us to ask why these children were walking alone on the main road. My sisters and I used to take the bus to Tejuosho sometimes to go and price second-hand clothes and bras. I remember hating TJ because the male traders would grab young girls like me and harrass us. Some would just reach out and touch you as you walked by. A trip to the market always ended with chicken pie and icecream at Mr. Biggs.

I went to a primary school in Yaba that was located in a railway compound. Sometimes the rail workers would go on strike and they would not let the students/parents enter the compound. Once they threw tear gas into the school while we kids were there. I remember the coughing and crying.

Actually, I remember a lot of riots. I didn't understand anything about politics, so I had no idea about Babangida or Abacha. All I knew was when people start rioting, you put tree branches in the window shield of the car, to show that you are a supporter. My parents shielded me from the turmoil of those times, but it wasn't always possible because of the riots, and the reports on TV of people being executed.

Every child I knew in primary school also had "lessons" after school. If we were not playing outside or singing in church, we were at Lesson. My teacher was Mr. Nnaemeka. Several of the kids from my block of flats would walk the 20 or so minutes to his house together unsupervised - he was WICKED. He beat us with twisted wire if we did not do our homework or were unable to recite the meaning of English words we'd learn every Friday. I remember he never beat my younger sister, because she was so cute. One time he was getting ready to beat her and she started crying, so he left her alone. The rest of us were not so lucky. On the way home we would buy sweets and biscuits from the mallams along the main road.

In secondary school, when Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed, a girl in my class was crying. That was the moment I realized there was a lot I didn't know about Nigeria. I remember looking at her and wondering who the hell was Ken Saro-Wiwa to generate such copious tears. When Abacha died in the mid nineties, I was sick with malaria and staying at the "sick bay." It rained heavily that day. The nurses said that God was crying in relief. A lot of people (at least in the South) were happy.

UrennaNkoli:
Last time I posted was 5 years ago but I had to drop this due to nostalgia.





There's was little means of communication. If you don't have the patience of sending letters through post office , I think only NiTEL was available at thay point and it was not reliable. I lived briefly at dodan barracks. I remember we kids hailing babangida as his convoy leaves . Baba go just use newspaper cover his face lol. Very handsome man and likeable man. The rich lived in ikeja and surulere, there was nothing like lekki, those places were just villages mostly huts, on the mainland it was as if where civilization ended was iyanaipaja. Anything beyond that was just Bush. Berger was very scanty. Going further to ibafo was just bush . Scanty settlements as you drive to ibadan.. then mowe was another scanty settlement coz it led to ofada and owode egba. You could also access abeokuta through that route. There were very few TV stations tho they had times they opened and closed can't remember. We watched local contents at night. There were richer contents on Saturday and Sunday nights. Sunday night food was usually moi moi and garri.

There was also constant riots and protest such that once they start somewhere, it rapidly escalates . Everybody starts closing shops and running home. Students were also forced to close from school and go home. I didnt know much about politics then so i didnt know what was going on. Children played together till late night when everyone is tired. When abacha died, people were running up and down celebrating. I thought nigeria had won the world cup or something. I was a teenager then, it felt so weird seeing people jubilate that someone had just died. . Oh did I forget the once in a blue moon Sunday trips to Mr biggs. Life generally was bitter sweet.

ConfidentialDoc:
A bottle of coke was less than 50k

UrennaNkoli:

We were buying goldspot for 15 naira

vastolord4:
We look at our aunties and uncles playing rough play and well be laughing without knowing they were tapping current.. I swear, kids then were soo innocent

Light supply wasn't the problem then, the problem was what to do with the light.. schedule was really tight then.. the only tv program we saw then was Santa babra, sledge hammer, power rangers, voltron