I Love what Nigeria Can Become (Part 1)

Last week my older sister who resides in the U.K came to Nigeria for a friend's wedding. About a week before she came to Nigeria, she called me to ask if we had a working internet connection at home and of course I quickly replied in the affirmative. Why wouldn't I? I have a starcomms modem which in my opinion is relatively fast, and if for some reasons it decided not to function properly when my sister was around, we have a back up multi-links modem as well. So I was sure she wasn't going to have any problems getting connected to the internet when she was around, thus I assured her that everything was set. I even teased her about looking down on my beloved country. What my sister didn't tell me was that she was coming with her work laptop which had already been customized by the company she works for, and so it wouldn't accept installations from any external source (I guess she didn't think it was necessary).

My sister eventually got to Nigeria and sadly she couldn't make use of either of the modems because her computer wouldn't accept the installations. The next day she went with my mum to my mum's office hoping she would be able to make use of the "wireless" connection there. On getting there, it was discovered that they didn't exactly have a wireless connection there and for this reason her computer didn't respond to the connection. Anyways we started our journey in search of internet connection that would be able to work with her laptop. Finally she was able to get a wireless connection, but then the network was fluctuating. At last she found a working connection, by then she had missed her deadline. She found it difficult to believe that in this age and time, a wireless connection will be a big deal in any part of the world.

My furious sister began ranting and raving about how messed up Nigeria is, she said she had never experienced any hardship getting internet connection on her laptop anywhere in the U.K. She further complained of how the generator was practically on 24 hours everyday during the period she was around because there was barely NEPA/ PHCN light. I need not forget to add that she once followed us to queue up for fuel during the fuel scarcity when she came over last week. Finally she concluded that she was never coming to settle down permanently in Nigeria.

Having been to the U.K myself, I totally understand my sister's fury. Coming from a country where the system works more often than not, it is not very easy to live in a country like ours where nothing works. For example I was in London between December 2010 and January 2011 during the period I totally forgot that there was anything like power shortage. I watched youtube videos at a stretch like I was watching a dvd unlike back in Nigeria where a 3 minute video will be buffering for as long as 10-15 minutes or even more. I knew I was safe on a zebra crossing even when a car was approaching in the distance because contrary to what I am used to in Nigeria, once on the zebra crossing, a pedestrian has right of way. There was water gushing out from the tap all the while I was  there even though my sister didn't have a bore hole in her house. In fairness to the British people, I was enjoying the comforts of their society plus I was having a good time with my family.  Nevertheless I wanted to come back to Nigeria. Funny enough the morning I returned to Nigeria there was no electricity at home, however I was very happy to be back home. We may not have our acts together as a nation, but we definitely have a few things going on for us and I guess that's what I was running back to.