Do you remember?
The days when ice water, condense, zobo, were sold for one naira per one tied nylon… Then we were given ten naira as lunch money in school and you’d buy gala and zobo, put the zobo in your front pocket and the gala in your nicker pocket, then as you pinch the gala you sip from the zobo so that your friends will not see and beg you… And even when they beg, you’d pinch one small piece and give to them…
You remember?
The days of touch and do, open kolo, Mr Macaroni, police catch thief, Suza-Suza, change your style… Asin, let me not mention mama and Papa, tinko – tinko, war start, omoooo, the list is endless…
The days when you go to school fully dressed, but return home with one missing socks or sandals… when wounds on the knee was a normal occurrence… when boils on the bumbum was like monthly periods… the days when you terrorised your friends with your ‘apolo eyes ‘…
Omoooo… Life then was so sweet… Children, especially those from slum areas were very creative with making their own toys. I remember my brother making boats that floated on water with a pair of slippers, batteries and propeller, cutting papers into human forms and making stories of fights with them… I remember playing biro covers and table soccers with players beautifully drawn in the papers by children who were not trained artists…
Do you remember too?
So where are those creativities today? Those kids that were gifted in these arts, where are they and why are they not making changes in our society? When exactly did we lose these beauties inherent in us as kids? What really changed between then and now? We weren’t so religious, political nor ethnically conscious, those were our parents attributes, yet we were happy and creative. We had dreams to be pilots, doctors and a lot more, but now we make jokes with poverty, you know, sapa, garri, it’s all cruise, but it’s the reality of many… What changed?
Oh, then we didn’t care about our ethnicity, mixed up with our pals not minding their languages, where language was a barrier we spoke in pidgin and we enjoyed it… but now we’ve been robbed off the good old days and we’ve let ethnic consciousness and a host of other vises divide us. The happy kids of those days have been pressured into despair… well guess what, these changes are not related only to Nigerian populace, but to the children of the world. we can change all of that by just teaching the kids aright. Teach them right to live right.