My union with this old lady called “Naija” nee Nigeria and Niger area can not be termed as golden not for the obvious fact Naija has not lived up to the expectation placed on it by my humble self and the world at large but simply because i am yet to even celebrate a silver jubilee with her talk less of a golden one (well y’all now know i am below 25yrs of age :)… lol)
That said, in my twenty something years relationship with this great nation i have seen a lot of changes take place, the changes if plotted on a graph sheet would be similar to a combined graph of the heart beat of someone coming from a state of coma with the little fluctuations and that of an athlete who just finished a long distance race.
Let me talk about “Then and Now”, then being in d 80’s and now being 2010.
NYSC:
It use to be a thing of pride to serve ones country back then, putting on the well ironed khaki and the jungle boots even gives some people a little more pride than putting on the convocation gown. Corp members were welcomed in every community they were assigned to and they were being treated as visitor with respect. I can’t recollect if people were adamant on influencing their posting or lobbying to work in blue chip companies back then but what i know is that if it existed, it would have been done only by a small percentage. NYSC was aimed at strengthening our nationhood and the concept of a federation.
Now we have all sort of problems with the scheme! to the extent there were calls for it to be scrapped around 2008 and the Senate presidents remark of a two years tenure was definitely not welcome early 2010 with insult flying in from all quarters. Parents lobby to have their children posted to choice states, the officials make a whole lot of money from the shady deals. The prestige is no longer there
Higher Education
Hmmm this one makes my heart bleed… The “then” of this particular one is definitely not in the 80’s but in the 70’s because i only hear the good news from people way older than myself. The University system in Nigeria was a landmark to the whole of Africa, the teachers (professors) were willing to pass down the knowledge not lobbying for political positions. I heard they had three square meal, cleaners in the dorm, free laundry, great accommodation, on-campus recruitment exercises, 24 hours electricity, conducive environment, great student unions etc… How i wish i was around then to enjoy all :(.
The population grew rapidly and the enrolment in both primary and secondary schools jumped up, thus the pressure was on the higher institutions to expand so as to meet up with the demand. The “now” story is terrible unimaginably and unimaginably terrible!!! there are virtually no schools to cater for the thousand of students seeking admission, due to poor funding of the schools the admission process has been turned to a money making jamboree for the universities, teachers go on strike as often as they ought to be in class imparting knowledge, the lecturers exploit the students, the students threaten the lecturers, cultism thrives, the calendar is no longer predictable, the equation is now ({Paper Duration of program * x} = Actual duration of program) where x=nth variable which ideally should be 1.
The private universities are there to help accommodate the growing population but they are way too expensive for the average Nigerian while only a few can boast of having quality in their output part of which is my alma mater Covenant University :).
Music
Yea i love music too and I've got my favourite past and marvellous present crop of music and musicians. Back then we had quality music from the local scene made in our local dialects, i can still remember rocking to Afro Juju by Sir Shina Peters at a birthday party in the early 90’s as well as songs from KSA, Barrister and the Abami Eda himself Fela. Stage performances were the bomb! musicians had their bands which brought creativity to the fore. while the local dialect musicians were making good music same could not be totally said of the “hip hop” musicians that were singing in English dialect, we had the likes of Remedies (Tony, Eddy and Eedris), Plantation boiz (Black face, Tu Face and Faze), Maintain (Tolu and Olu)… though they set the pace for the present crop to thrive, their music videos were not of the best quality, lyrics wise only Plantation boiz tripped me!!! Others were just singing crap. Just as Rugged man put it in his song titled “Ruggedy Baba”… “back then 3 rappers on stage was like 10 throwing a tantrum”
The “Now” Music in Nigeria has got a lot better for the musicians that sing in English dialect or pidgin, lyrical wise we have improved even though some musicians still sing crap, genre wise we have got a lot of variety that we cannot even categorise again (afro hip hop, afro pop, Yoruba pop, Afron RnB etc). The beat seems to be what makes the music when the lyrics isn't tight, Stage performance wise I'd say there is still a whole lot of room for improvement… only the likes of Asa, Dare Art Alade and Tu Face trip me with creativity on stage, others simply lip-sing/mime to their song playing in the background(not even the instrumental). The quality and concept of our videos make me go ‘WOW’ but I'm beginning to see repetition maybe due to the few numbers of music video directors it is either DJ Tee, Clarence Peter, Kemi Adetiba or Sesan.
On the overall i will say “Big Ups” to the current musicians making us proud. Especially Asa, MI, Tu Face
This write up is as a result of boredom but I’m sure you were not bored reading the piece. :)
Back to the celebration of Nigeria
NB: Crucify me for any mistake in this write up and note that everything herein is my own point of view. Feel free to put your comments below or better still you can recount your own “then and now” below. Cheers
That said, in my twenty something years relationship with this great nation i have seen a lot of changes take place, the changes if plotted on a graph sheet would be similar to a combined graph of the heart beat of someone coming from a state of coma with the little fluctuations and that of an athlete who just finished a long distance race.
Let me talk about “Then and Now”, then being in d 80’s and now being 2010.
NYSC:
It use to be a thing of pride to serve ones country back then, putting on the well ironed khaki and the jungle boots even gives some people a little more pride than putting on the convocation gown. Corp members were welcomed in every community they were assigned to and they were being treated as visitor with respect. I can’t recollect if people were adamant on influencing their posting or lobbying to work in blue chip companies back then but what i know is that if it existed, it would have been done only by a small percentage. NYSC was aimed at strengthening our nationhood and the concept of a federation.
Now we have all sort of problems with the scheme! to the extent there were calls for it to be scrapped around 2008 and the Senate presidents remark of a two years tenure was definitely not welcome early 2010 with insult flying in from all quarters. Parents lobby to have their children posted to choice states, the officials make a whole lot of money from the shady deals. The prestige is no longer there
“i never wore my khaki to my PPA for the whole one year period of the assignment.”Employers see Corps members as cheap labour, the federal governments allowance can not afford the fresh graduates constant three square meals for one month! who is to be blamed and what is the way forward? These are definitely discussions for another day.
Higher Education
Hmmm this one makes my heart bleed… The “then” of this particular one is definitely not in the 80’s but in the 70’s because i only hear the good news from people way older than myself. The University system in Nigeria was a landmark to the whole of Africa, the teachers (professors) were willing to pass down the knowledge not lobbying for political positions. I heard they had three square meal, cleaners in the dorm, free laundry, great accommodation, on-campus recruitment exercises, 24 hours electricity, conducive environment, great student unions etc… How i wish i was around then to enjoy all :(.
The population grew rapidly and the enrolment in both primary and secondary schools jumped up, thus the pressure was on the higher institutions to expand so as to meet up with the demand. The “now” story is terrible unimaginably and unimaginably terrible!!! there are virtually no schools to cater for the thousand of students seeking admission, due to poor funding of the schools the admission process has been turned to a money making jamboree for the universities, teachers go on strike as often as they ought to be in class imparting knowledge, the lecturers exploit the students, the students threaten the lecturers, cultism thrives, the calendar is no longer predictable, the equation is now ({Paper Duration of program * x} = Actual duration of program) where x=nth variable which ideally should be 1.
The private universities are there to help accommodate the growing population but they are way too expensive for the average Nigerian while only a few can boast of having quality in their output part of which is my alma mater Covenant University :).
Music
Yea i love music too and I've got my favourite past and marvellous present crop of music and musicians. Back then we had quality music from the local scene made in our local dialects, i can still remember rocking to Afro Juju by Sir Shina Peters at a birthday party in the early 90’s as well as songs from KSA, Barrister and the Abami Eda himself Fela. Stage performances were the bomb! musicians had their bands which brought creativity to the fore. while the local dialect musicians were making good music same could not be totally said of the “hip hop” musicians that were singing in English dialect, we had the likes of Remedies (Tony, Eddy and Eedris), Plantation boiz (Black face, Tu Face and Faze), Maintain (Tolu and Olu)… though they set the pace for the present crop to thrive, their music videos were not of the best quality, lyrics wise only Plantation boiz tripped me!!! Others were just singing crap. Just as Rugged man put it in his song titled “Ruggedy Baba”… “back then 3 rappers on stage was like 10 throwing a tantrum”
The “Now” Music in Nigeria has got a lot better for the musicians that sing in English dialect or pidgin, lyrical wise we have improved even though some musicians still sing crap, genre wise we have got a lot of variety that we cannot even categorise again (afro hip hop, afro pop, Yoruba pop, Afron RnB etc). The beat seems to be what makes the music when the lyrics isn't tight, Stage performance wise I'd say there is still a whole lot of room for improvement… only the likes of Asa, Dare Art Alade and Tu Face trip me with creativity on stage, others simply lip-sing/mime to their song playing in the background(not even the instrumental). The quality and concept of our videos make me go ‘WOW’ but I'm beginning to see repetition maybe due to the few numbers of music video directors it is either DJ Tee, Clarence Peter, Kemi Adetiba or Sesan.
On the overall i will say “Big Ups” to the current musicians making us proud. Especially Asa, MI, Tu Face
This write up is as a result of boredom but I’m sure you were not bored reading the piece. :)
Back to the celebration of Nigeria
“if the yam harvest is good we celebrate if its bad we still celebrate while we ask for blessing” Debaters 2010thus i say Cheers to Nigeria, Happy Anniversary. Love you lots. x
NB: Crucify me for any mistake in this write up and note that everything herein is my own point of view. Feel free to put your comments below or better still you can recount your own “then and now” below. Cheers
