[kictanet] Three days in Nigeria

[Bitange Ndemo]

John,
Thanks.  Achebe is more significant having been the first African to write
about Africa in English.  We should all remember the icon.


Ndemo.



> Daktari,
>
> This is good prose. You should seriously consider a platform for this kind
> of writing where you weave a narrative with personal observations during
> formal engagements. A welcome break from your usual policy-style writing.
> As
> a parting shot, maybe you should have quoted the more contemporary
> Chimamanda Adichie instead of Achebe. :)
>
> John Masiwe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kictanet
> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+jmasiwe=bluegate.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
> Behalf Of Bitange Ndemo
> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 11:54 PM
> To: jmasiwe at bluegate.co.ke
> Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Three days in Nigeria
>
> Three days in Nigeria
> Standing outside Abuja Airport in the soaring temperatures you get amazed
> on how similar to Kenya Nigeria is.   This is Africa's most populous
> country.   People idling around and women talking animatedly with their
> hands akimbo and they are larger than you can see in Kenya.  I had missed
> the person who was to pick me up.  Oga! Those who walked by me remarked.
> I assumed it was some greetings to a brother.  Colours of their clothing
> is
> similar to ours and perhaps the only difference with Kenya is that more
> men
> wore multi-colour kanzus.  Open shoes, Akala type are more prevalent here.
>
> I walk towards the taxis.  They are gentler than I have read in Nigerian
> literature.  They were honest too with the fare to the cities.  I had
> begun
> to settle down and give Nigeria the benefit of doubt but my mind takes me
> back to Odili, the narrator in Achebe's 1966 novel, Man of the People.
> Also
> not forgetting the many stories told about Nigerians.
>
> For a while I savor the beauty of Abuja scenery.  Green everywhere.  It
> must
> be within the rain forest.  Land is expanse and untilled.  I turn my
> attention to my driver Oku Moses.  An affable young man perhaps in his
> early
> 30's.  I tell him I am from Kenya and in Abuja for the CTO conference.  He
> smiles broadly and asked me what I thought of Nigeria as if he had read my
> mind.  I said so far so good and immediately I divert his train of thought
> to football.  I tell him Nigeria is the main hindrance to Kenya's quest to
> get to World cup.  We became friends instantly as he opened up to tell me
> more.
>
> You see that road, he says it leads to nowhere.  Corruption is the only
> problem here he adds as his tone begin to sound angrier.  I calm him down
> and tell him it happens all over Africa.  The 50 kilometer super highway
> from the airport to Abuja is as good as it gets, actually better than
> Nairobi Thika highway.  The Hotel I am headed to, is called Chelsea, named
> after the English league team Chelsea.  Oku is a fan of Arsenal another
> English league team.  He knows all the players.  He asks which team I
> support and when I tell him none, he then says that is why you will never
> go
> to world cup.
>
> At the hotel Oku bids me farewell and hands me his card.  Call me he says.
>  I will show you the best of Nigeria.  It is still hot and my room was
> steaming with heat.  This three star hotel does not have a centralized AC
> but I could do with an old cranky stand-alone cooling system.  As I
> cranked
> it up, it made more noise that I could not listen to news on TV.
> Then suddenly the lights went off - blackout!!.  Outside it was raining
> heavily.  I said Geez this is home but soon some generator boomed just
> outside my room to bring light.  I wished they had shut it down.
>
> Dinner time I joined other colleagues, Sonia, Karin, Robert and John for
> Dinner.  Me and Sonia were the vegetarians and so requested for pasta, the
> only vegetarian dish on the menu.  Alas! when the food came there was
> chicken on pasta instead of tomato.   The young waitress tells me she
> decided on chicken since there were no tomatoes.   After a few exchanges
> she seems to remember something and says I can make it vegetarian.  Wala!
> like magic she comes back with pasta alone.  I said thank you but as I
> start
> to eat, I discover or rather the waitress had forgotten that the base was
> chicken and she had only removed the toppings of chicken.  She meant well
> and wanted to do well but she missed the point.
>
> As I watched Nigerian channels that evening, I say to myself, Nigeria is
> Kenya and Kenya is Nigeria.  We were colonized by the British.  We
> attained
> independence at about the same time in the 1960s.  We have new
> constitutions
> with devolved powers.  Just like Kenya, Nigeria continues to experience
> longstanding ethnic and religious tensions.  Although in Kenya's 2008 as
> in
> Nigeria's 2003 and 2007 presidential elections were marred by significant
> irregularities and violence, but both countries are experiencing relative
> peace interrupted by the Al-Shabab and Boka Haram respectively.
>
> On Nigerian TV as in Kenya politicians complain that they need more power
> to
> states and counties.  They seem not to understand that they are the ones
> with the power to change legislation and so when they complain, the masses
> have no representation.  They also need more money yet they are the ones
> who
> appropriate resources.  They complain about soaring crime yet they are the
> ones who have the mandate to bring better security legislation.
> On the roads, motor bikes ride on the assumption that every motorist
> should
> watch on them.  Careless and dangerous like in Kenya.  If you admire the
> cleanliness of Abuja while driving, you will for sure hit one of them.
> Public places including hotels are guarded by armed policemen.
>
> In my speech at the conference I said I was glad to visit Nigeria, land of
> Okonkwo from Umuofia (one of a fictional group of nine villages in
> Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo people).   Only a handful of the people in
> the audience who knew that I was referring to Achebe's 1958 novel, Things
> Fall Apart.  Later Funke, a prominent Nigerian businesswoman and friend
> tells me that intellectualism died in Nigeria.  There was a time in
> Nigeria
> prominent writers were the role model of society.  These were the people
> who
> put our oral history on paper but we decided to chase them away.  It is
> sad
> that Achebe had to die in foreign land alone without his people.  I tell
> Funke, it is so strikingly similar to Kenya that our prominent writers are
> getting old and wasted away in foreign lands.
>
> Haruna is driving me back to the airport.  He like Oku is polite but with
> much better intellect than an ordinary driver.  His grasp of African
> matters
> is excellent.  Out of the blue he tells me, you worked with government.  I
> tell him yes and I quickly ask him why.  No I just wanted to know, he
> says.
> Then he tells me that he is driving a car (VX Land
> Cruiser) that he will never afford to buy in his entire life. I note the
> ambition in him and tell him that if you know then you are capable of
> buying
> the car.  I am not in government, he says.  I tell him you do not need to
> be
> in government to buy the car.  You see I was in government but I still
> cannot drive such a thing.  He looks at me then he says, it is by choice
> on
> your part.  I tipped him $20 and bade him farewell.  He was stunned.
>
> I leave Nigeria with many fond memories.  It was three days but enough to
> grasp the dreams of other people.  Their desires.  Their hopes.  We are
> all
> the same and hopefully one day we shall change the stigma of corruption by
> improving the fortunes of our Africa.  God bless Africa.
>
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
> University of Nairobi
> Business School, Lower Kabete Campus
>
>
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University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus