The Man in the Mirror

One of the many things I love about travel is how it makes it so easy for one to become an observer and a beneficiary of life’s many wonders. Like a friend of mine would often say, travel teaches you to become a tourist in your homeland. As we drive through shrugging hills cloaked in swatches of lush green and drab gray, I think of how different Abuja is from the Southeastern part of the country where I live. Observing how the opulence of Asokoro as a whole intersperses slyly with the squalor of next door Asokoro market, I realize how Abuja is a compendium of most of life’s most precious paradoxes.

On all my trips to Abuja, I soak up experiences that are deeper than beautiful vistas and houses squatting on either side of the winding road. I observe and experience people too. In that respect, Abuja is no different from any other state in Nigeria- or anywhere in the world. This particular trip was a confirmation of what I believe is the African problem.

Different people have different theories on why Africa (read Nigeria) is the way it is.

Some believe the government is at fault.

Others say it is the ever interfering hands of foreign bodies.

Another demographic believes intransitive factors like tribalism, sectionalism, godfatherism, and other -isms are at fault.

And they are not wrong.

Yes, politicians ferret money away abroad and run the nation into the dust.

Yes, pale, invisible hands sometimes guide the movements of the country.

However, all these are superficial answers to a skin-deep issue.

Anyone that has ever been to any embassy in Nigeria, for an exam or a visa appointment, knows how much of a learning experience can be. You become Po. Only this time, the gift you are mastering is patience and Master Shifu is the gateman at the entrance, testing all your limits.

Yes, the gateman.

Like a friend of mine that had an appointment at the US Embassy would say, “It is not the Americans inside that are the problem. Those ones are nice to a fault. The problem is the Nigerians at the gate.” With forbidding expressions and an air of importance thicker than an IG model’s body, they go about their jobs zealously…