Nigeria’s birthday, my ‘badday’

WHEN last week this columnist wrote about the poor customer service in the telecommunication sector especially in MTN and Zain network provider, little did I know that worse fate was waiting for me on the issue and similar issues we have all along been speaking and writing about in the course of development or underdevelopment of this country. Nigeria’s week, last week, was my saddest ever! On its Sunday, I lost my beloved phone, waited for over five hours at the MTN friendship centre for a sim swap, could not get connected for the whole week, was invaded by burglar(s) on Saturday and as a result lost cash, properties and good worth over N150, 000 (one hundred and fifty thousand naira) only, what a week!
In one of my earlier pieces, I wrote that what Nigeria, as it is today can celebrate are malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis, polio, armed robbery, prostitution, corruption, kidnapping etc, and not 50th anniversary of achievements. As if I was inviting this artificial creation to a dugout, Nigeria visited me with my worst setback. While thinking that losing my phone with MTN sim was a serious drawback, as I lost all my contacts, wasted some precious economic time to get a replacement for the sim and needed to cough out some few thousands of naira to get another phone, I never envisaged that that was only a tip of the iceberg of calamities to follow. The welcome back MTN gave me on Monday did not work until Friday. What I was used to was some few hours of processing and you are back communicating. But alas! It took MTN the whole week to put my line back in use. At a point during the past week, I was even thinking that maybe because of the harsh words I used on MTN in my weekly piece, they have decided to bar me from their network and I took the courage to go back to them. This time, I did not go to Allen Office but their Matori Friendship Centre. I was confronted with the reality of not using my line until some few more days. But on Friday morning, it finally worked as I heaved a sigh of relief as if getting connected means automatic breakthrough.
Meanwhile, I seized the opportunity of the lost phone to get a more sophisticated one that has crazy features the old one lacked. Features like mobile television, recordable TV and radio applications, dual sim compatibility and host of other fantastic features. I was looking ahead of enjoying this new powerful gadget. But as fate was lurking around, the following day was the last day I would see my new phone! I had slept that night with the sad and unfortunate news that some Nigerians were dead as a result of the bomb blasts, while several others were being looked after at various hospitals in the FCT. I had to fix my generator to be able to be abreast of events, so, I slept late listening to news and information. While ordinarily I would sleep in the sitting room, on this fateful day, I chose the bedroom, but not after I had confirmed that my doors were locked. But I did not lock the door enough as it was only my ‘net door’ that was locked from inside. Between 11pm on Saturday and 4am on Sunday, burglar(s) gained entrance into my apartment by cutting my net from outside and opened my door from inside. My sitting room was almost stripped naked. Coins that were lying idle on my table were gathered. This is the extent of sweep. My wife’s goods and cash in her bags were also moved. In all, we lost close to N160, 000. Recharge cards that my wife just bought for sale were also stolen.
This is my share of the national cake. I had warned that Nigeria should lie low and offer a low key event instead of celebrations. What are we celebrating ‘gan’? These are some of the issues we need to critically look into. So many Nigerian youths are jobless and the effect will be that we the lucky few who are working will be disturbed because one way or the other, these layabouts must survive. Our leaders should endeavour to make this country habitable. Its frustrating for us to have our younger ones we have seen through school to still come to us for living stipends. We have not reached where we thought we should be and they are coming to us for livelihood, how do we do it? While it is not an excuse to steal for want of opportunities, Nigeria needs to look beyond its current celebration jamboree and start to take issues head on. While this takes shape, the anniversary cake Nigeria shares me is most unbecoming of a ‘GREAT’ nation it calls itself. Serious economic issues are now being trivialized to mere security concerns. Please pray for me instead of this big for nothing fool at 50!