ABODE OR ABROAD???

Just this once, please allow me to put aside trying to be proper and worrying about correct tenses and punctuations. I want to talk to you in a language we can both understand without punctuations and grammar/spell check getting in the way and slowing me down.

This is not one of my funny witty notes,im sorry if i disappoint you writing this,i just thought i get a bit serious for a change.

if you are reading this note right now,im sure you are either outside the shores of Nigeria,or you are planning to leave soon...i mean very soon,either you are processing your passport or you have an appointment at the embassy.if you are not among d above listed people,im sure u have a close (or not close) relation some where outside Nigeria,be it the us,UK,France,Italy,Canada,south Africa,Austria,Belgium,Bulgaria,Malaysia,china,Israel,Vanuatu(yes it exists!)Pakistan,Iran,Australia,panama,Ukraine,Iceland,Brazil,Benin republic(what???they have 24hrs uninterrupted power supply!) or any sovereign nation u can think of,you are sure to find a Nigerian there,so far its outside our boarder,we are always represented everywhere on the globe.

Education,relocation,better leaving conditions,marriage,greener pastures,business,pleasure,child trafficking,money laundering(don't act like u don't know),international career,health,shopping are some of the many reasons Nigerians leave their abode for abroad(plus your reason).the present political and economic situation back home are not helping matters either,electricity,poverty,education,security and unemployment have aided and abated the vast movement of people to foreign lands,irrespective of the kind and manner of arrangements made for their arrival overseas.the urge and desire to leave Nigeria by all means always add an irresistible determination to succeed in the most stringent and harsh conditions abroad.besides,we all have this naija never say die spirit cus we easily adjust to new environment and conditions,no matter how bad!a friend of mine once got a visa to Cyprus,neither did he know where Cyprus was on the map nor did he have anybody to stay with over there(hotel reservation for where?)he so much crave to leave naija he cared less about what was in stock for him over there.be it a drive for success or lack of opportunity back home,he was hellbent on leaving for Cyprus by all means possible.

im not disheartened by the mass movement of Nigerians abroad,im only worried on why they never want to come back home?we keep giving one excuse or the other for never wanting to return to Nigeria,my sister was always quick to jump to the same reason every time i ask her the dreaded question when will she finally make the trip to fatherland?its been 6 years now and she keeps giving me the same reasons over and over again......there is no employment in naija,jaye no light,the hospitals are bad jaree,jaye u people have very bad roads(cant believe she said you people!),jaye no this,jaye no that.sister mi please say something else,i have not died because we don't have regular power supply,neither have i been hospitalized since you left 6yrs back because we don't have good facilities in our hospitals!

Nigeria may not be as good as where you all are now,or where u are planning to go(now im talking to every1 abroad,not my sister alone,) but the little we can do is at least have some optimism about what the future holds.
the negativity surrounding the country Nigeria itself has made it extremely difficult for we as Nigerians to think anything good will ever come out of our nation.the British wake up in the morning and say god bless the queen,the Americans wake up and say god bless America,but we Nigerians all we do is rain curses and remain pessimist about naija,not only when we wake up but even in our sleep.if we keep being skeptic about the future of our country,what do we expect other people to think?we are always too quick to rubbish or write off any positive thing associated with our country and weather we like it or not,irrespective of the number of decades or centuries you have lived in foreign man's land,our identity will never change.forget your British accent or your American way of life,deep deep within you lies that naija spirit you don't want to recognize.

i agree things may not be working quite well(at least for now) maybe due to the bad leaders we have or the corruption everywhere,or the electoral fraud,or maybe the decaying educational sector,or even the bad electricty abi the scandals and bribery at top levels..well maybe all of the above(now ur smiling)but there is more we can do than sit down and fold our arms waiting to see how things unfold.the time to act is now.i understand education in Nigeria is nothing compared to the one gotten overseas,maybe that is a good reason why a lot of us seek to get educated outside Nigeria.my school has been on strike for 3 months now while im wasting away my time everyday writing this note and updating my status every minute on Facebook while my friends elsewhere are facing their books getting updated with quality knowledge abroad.which bring me to you guys,(yes you!),im sure you have little or no plans to come back home after your studies over there,maybe you get a job in one of does high rise buildings on wall street,or you get an appointment with that accounting firm on isslington,better still,you may be getting ready to be an attending in Seattle grace hospital,no matter how good that job offer is,im sure you merit it,after years in college and high costs of tuition,its only normal you get rewarded and appreciated for you are a degree holder or more.however,you should have this at the back of your minds that your country needs your knowledge and ideas more than where you are applying it.the university hospital in Durban southafrica has far more medical doctors than we have in lagos university teaching hospital,majority of this doctors at one point or the other,have schooled in the best universities around Europe and America,but instead of staying back and take jobs abroad,they have decided to come back home and contribute their quota to national development.patriotism or not,we do more when we give back to the community than doing elsewhere,without this,we only end up increasing the long gap between the developed country you schooled and the developing country you come from.most of my friends and families only come home when they want to make Ghana braids or renew their passport,after that,they zoom off to their base.its so not fair.i was speaking with a very good friend of mine who is taking her masters in forensic science in the us if she was thinking of starting a career in Nigeria when she is through and she sounded unenthusiastic about the whole idea,how many forensic scientist do we have in naija she asked?i said i was not too sure but she can be the first and set a landmark for others to follow if she liked,she only laughed away my suggestion(like "this guy is a big joker").

you wonder why i have been ranting since?well this is why.there is quite a lot of expectation from our generation concerning the future of our country(im talking about Nigeria this time).our generation is seen as the golden one,where everything is done at an advanced and improvised stage compared to what the previous generation are doing now,everything around us has changed at a very fast pace leaving hardly any room for failures or corrections.our fathers at this age were used to writing letters and sending posts while we use the email and other electronic devices(thanks to the internet) so we are charged with a lot of responsibilities regarding change and development of our nation...

conclusively,all im trying to say is,its about time we take charge and make moves to make our nation better again.lets get involved and make certain contributions to take our country forward to that position it really belong to.its high time we stop asking the question what Nigeria is doing for you,its now what are you doing for Nigeria?only you have does answers and the earlier we act,the better it become for all of us.lets stop the negativity about everything about naija,lets be positive and hope that if it doesn't work now,it will very soon.so lets all stand up and be counted.there is more to naija than hair dos
if you have read my notes and liked it,you need to check out my other notes.And if you have read my note and think its rubbish,please read my other notes.thanks