#Independenceday - Musings Of A Nigerian Teenager.

Here's a throwback piece on Nigeria.

Photo - Image Faculty.

The nation of 'Up Nepa' and 'Our Transformer don blow'
The nation of Danfo stickers that read 'God dey' 'No be me na papa God' 'Wabilahi Taofek'.

A peculiar nation. The nation of Azikwe, Bola Ige, Soyinka, Achebe, Saro Wiwa, Dele Giwa, Ironsi, Gani Fawehinmi. *raises celebration glass*

The nation where PHCN unfailingly sends a monthly bill, despite my being on alternative electricity 23 1/2 hours of each day. The only country where cars from all around the manufacturing world daily grace our pot holled roads.
The nation of "...omo Naija ni mi. Naija l'obi mi si. Naija ni mo ti bere si ni ka ABC..."
The only nation of the sprinting olympics worthy gala/recharge card/tom tom/handkerchief/pirated cd's/car charger hawkers.

The nation of 'I better pass my neighbor generators'

The Green and White Nation
The nation of wazobia
The nation of overtly religious men and women forever waiting for their own 'big break'
The nation of Kilishi, Suya and Mr Biggs
The nation of ridiculous and pointless 'go slow'
The nation of owo, ego, kudi
The nation of Fela, Fuji, King Sunny Ade, Lagbaja, Dagrin

The nation of 'Owambes' and 'aso ebi'

923,768 Square kilometers of 521 languages
Home of eba, amala, iyan, lafu, tuwo, akpu, kunu, zobo, afang soup, egusi and miyan yakuwa.
The nation of THISDAY style and Elan
Oh great Nigeria of Okin biscuits and Olasco films

The nation that survived the Biafra war and the Abacha regime

Nigeria is all these things and a carton of Indomie noodles
The only place we outdo ourselves with the non-existent level of enthusiasm and optimism
Nigeria I hail thee.

Bunmi Victoria Adegboye.

Its Independence Day.

Photo - mynameisentirelyigbo.tumblr.com

When I was much younger, I used to look forward to October 1st. It meant hearing the same inspiring stories my dad always used to tell me with his head raised high like our Sunday preacher, about how it had happened in 1960, from the march past, to the sounds of trumpets of rejoicing. He would even give details on the pen that was used to sign the declaration of independence.

And then my mum would dress me up in the cutest (or what she thought was the cutest then) green and white outfits and take me for parades, one year I even got to present a bouquet to a governor. I can definitely say it was one of the coolest days of the year for me, maybe even third coolest after my birthday and Christmas day.

Now I'm older and Nigeria's Independence Day means nothing more to me than a day off school, a day of excessive BBM broadcast messages and maybe the only day Nigeria gets to trend worldwide on twitter all day..but hey, our loss to Team USA in the Olympic men's basketball has taken that cake this year.

The point is the essence of celebrating Independence Day in this country has been lost and the only real reason few people celebrate it is the hope for a better tomorrow. And so today, I'm joining the minority who celebrate this country and I'm  raising a glass of optimism and hope that future independence anniversary celebrations gives us more reasons to celebrate.

Happy Independence Day and Happy holidays.

God bless Nigeria.