Nigeria and I at 50

October 1, 1960 became a landmark in the history of Nigeria when it became an independent nation with a huge celebration that showed a high level of unity among its indigenous 250 and more ethnic groups. On that same day, I was still rumbling in my mother’s uterus eager to bump into this world to start my endless restless agitation. Few days later, I was in this world and like Nigeria the celebration was almost a microcosm of it with my birth in a small town called Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun state where my father had found a fortune in business. The birth was announced to members of the extended family in Benin-city where my Dad a Christian comes from, to Ilorin in Kwara state where my Mother a Moslem Yoruba-Fulani comes from and to my maternal grand-mother’s brethrens from the Nupe/Tapa ethnic group from Niger state.  As customary, the names given depicted the family connections and they included Segun Osaretin, Ishola, Ibrahim, Toyin etc.

My fortunes were invariably linked with the ups and downs of what Nigeria was going through. In 1966 with the coup that ousted Tafa Balewa and later another that ousted Aguiyi Ironsi, the uncertainty that was in Nigeria’s aura was also in away affecting my family with the fact that an imminent war was anticipated between the “Hausas” against the “Ibos” with the expectations that the “Yorubas” will join the Hausas. Those from the Midwest including my Dad were all classified as “Ibos”. In later years when I asked some of my neighbors why a Benin man was classified as an Ibo, the answer was in a question form which was if my Dad was Hausa or Yoruba and if neither must be an Ibo.

The war eventually started in 1967 in full gear with my Dad getting caught up in one of the early fights on the way from Benin on a business trip and was cut off from the family for some months. I do remember as a kid that the war songs on the radio mobilizing the nation to support the war with the one that was ingrained in my mind being the jingo “Esobey” which I later learnt was meant to be “Apes Obey” from the derogatory ways the British Military used in mobilizing the native foot soldiers.

Within that frame, the need for my mum to take care of the family in Ilorin and the stress of the war eventually took its toll when one day in January 1968 she collapsed and died all of a sudden, an indirect casualty of the war. By early 1969, things were much better in terms of the effect of the war in the West and Midwest so we moved back to Benin-city where I continued my primary education. It was while I was in Benin that I experienced some of the direct effects of the war and learnt to lie flat while the occasional foray of the Biafra jets flew over Benin-city throwing a few bombs.

The war ended in 1970 and the great time started again in Nigeria. I later entered secondary school the following year in January 1971 few months after my 10th birthday with the future looking great and Nigeria gaining a high status through the Gowon’s regime, especially with the slogan "No Victor and No Vanquished". The friendship of some of my friends from all parts of the country also grew further.

Things continued to look great with Nigeria progressing while in my little way, I was able to pass my O level and A level with records and moved to the University of Ibadan to read Medicine. It was also during this period that Nigeria being so stinkingly rich gave huge wage bonuses to its citizens under the term “Udoji Award” and also paid the entire salary of the civil servants in the South American country of British Guyana.  Signs of bad things to come started with the 1975 coup that brought in Murtala Mohammed and the failed Dimka coup of 1976 that brought in Olusegun Obasanjo.

The country gradually started going down the hills in 1977 with the killing of some students and the arrest of the then-leader of the NUNS (National Union of Nigerian Students), Segun Okeowo. The issue of students’ daily feeding on the university campus came up where 3 meals a day at 50 kobo later became 50 kobo per meal at N1.50 per day, a 300% increase.

In my later years in the university, as things became tougher, especially during the wasteful years of Shagari’s regime with the suffering of the masses becoming unbearable, an NTA news correspondent coined the phrase Andrew checking out. I had by then risen through the rank of student unionism in Ibadan and representing Nigeria medical students in various international conferences up to the level of contesting the Presidency of the International Federation of Medical Students Association in L’Aquila, Italy in 1983. As I have explained to the younger generation, this was my access and exposure to the outside world at a time when there was no CNN, no cellular phone, and no internet. Urgent messages those days were sent by Telex or Telegram.  By the end of 1983, the country was in chaos with the Shagari’s government saying things were not that bad as people were not eating from the dustbin yet.

I had seen a lot of changes in the fortunes of my fellow students with people eating bread “without” all day just to survive. Obafemi Awolowo before the 1983 election had warned that the national treasury was empty and that the country was going downhill. As a young man then without much understanding of the economy, it was no rocket science that Nigeria was in a financial dire strait with foreign exchange difficult to come by for any business transaction, basic travelers’ allowance(BTA) was cut from N2000(which was about $2500) to only $50.00 per person. The prices of Garri had gone way up and Fela Kuti’s song ODOO (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake) depicted the story of a struggling civil servant trying to buy a fan with efforts made saving towards buying but with the price going up astronomically every year with the citizen unable to have enough to ever buy a fan.

The arrival of Buhari-idiagbon in late 1983 was a relief with hope for greater things to come and the introduction of War Against Indiscipline(WAI) and the prosecution of some of the politicians. But that was short-lived with the arrival of Babangida in August 1985 with rhetoric that the government will not take loans or assent to the IMF’s advice on Naira devaluation. At this point, I was finishing my NYSC (a mandatory youth national service) and hoping to go abroad to specialize but all that changed when the Naira gradually became devalued initially at a ratio of 2:1 to the US dollar and then 4:1. It was at this rate that I felt my fortune was getting screwed along with that of my country and the option was to get out and do an Andrew check out before it is too late. The only problem was my lack of ability to do hard work, so-called gburu that I instead opted to do the US medical examinations in Nigeria before even leaving and a year later I was able to sit the exams in Nigeria and passed with joy that once I get to the US, I will be able to go straight into a residency training program. Then, the country was in bad shape and many people were getting desperate to leave the country. My old passport which had visas of my previous trips to many countries in Europe, Australia, Singapore, and some African countries was stolen and a new blank passport was a disaster to its holder. Realizing that many young professionals were leaving the country, Babangida instructed the foreign Embassies in Lagos not to encourage professionals less than 30 years of age to leave the country. This was made clear to me when I visited the US embassy to get a visa to go for a residency training program interview in New York. I was denied despite the US law saying those who have passed the FMGEMS(as the medical exam was then called, it is now called USMLE) should be allowed into the country and given a J-1 visa. The consular officer at the counter told me that she knew that on my getting into the US, I was more likely to marry the first prostitute that came my way and likely never to come back to Nigeria. This type of insult was not uncommon as Nigeria’s fortunes diminished with young professionals unable to find jobs and young doctors on graduating could not even find a place to do their house jobs.

It was within this state of confusion in Nigeria and my own state of confusion on not knowing the next step to take that an option to go to Trinidad came up. With the country going down the drain, I got a job in Trinidad and decided to go there through Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but things got ugly and ended up spending another 7-8 weeks going through Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, and British Guyana before getting into Trinidad. That journey is one that will be told in a book that I am currently writing.

Before leaving Nigeria, I had joined the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights with Beko Ransome-Kuti and Femi Falana there and when I got to Trinidad, I was made the first Caribbean representative of the organization. While Nigeria was dying gradually, Trinidad became a safe-haven for some young Nigerian doctors who met huge discrimination and abuse from non-black colleagues who formed the majority of the professionals in that country. It became a different battle as I became the Vice-president of the African-Trinidad Friendship Organization and took the grievances and abuse of Nigerian doctors to the government of Trinidad with some of those issues resolved. We were also able to expose the funding of some of the Trinidadian politicians by Babangida. After 12 months, the time to move beckoned and went to England and sat the medical examinations which were passed and started a residency training program within four weeks of arriving there but with the same issues of experiencing discrimination almost everywhere.

By 1992 with the cancellation of the June 12 election and later Abacha’s arrival on the scene as Nigeria’s head of state, Naira had become 60:1 US dollars and going back to Nigeria was no longer an option. I was then advised not to go back to Nigeria because of my past activities and one was turned technically into a refugee as Nigeria became a pariah state. Sometime in 1995, by chance I applied for the Green card lottery and won at the same year got accepted into a residency program outside match which started in 1996.

By this, it took me an unnecessary seven years of go-around to find myself as a young man where I had wanted to be but was unable to because I came from a country that was so messed up by successive uncaring leaders. I am probably lucky because I took that risk to Rio de Janeiro that paid off. While I have learnt from this sojourn and got the skills to survive, Nigeria remains in a downhill spiral without an end in sight. The younger generations are in a worse situation than I was with little hope and fewer opportunities for a change.

Nothing is lost as I still have great hope for my country Nigeria. One needs to be focused, and resilient and not rest on our oars in ensuring that we all promote the cardinal principles of righteousness, equity, justice, and sincerity of purpose in our leaders.

I love my country and with this, I wish Nigeria a happy birthday.  God bless Nigeria and its people.