Thread by @sarnchos

Ever since I relocated to the farm, I have cemented my "rejection" of the bourgeois mindset as unrepresentative of the true essence of what Nigeria represents

Just like many city-born middle class individuals of the late 70s and 80s, I was born into a cocoon of privilege that

scarcely acknowledged the existence of any other social and income bracket other than itself

As far as we were concerned, every govt scholarship, job opening, healthcare perk, access to coveted recreational facilities, travel opportunity, etc, was our exclusive domain.

This is why we believed such claptrap like Nigeria's literacy rate being 88% in 1990

As far as we were concerned, our reality was the only one that existed.

My jolt into reality happened when my dad died in a car accident in 1992 & I was violently brought down to earth as a kid

I found myself visiting bend down boutiques after secondary school to load up on used clothing by the railway

I wept that day (silly me. This was several urban dwellers' everyday reality that was so absurd to me)

Having struggled through university on the proceeds of my late

dad's savings, I discovered I was still occupying an elite stratum of society.

I had colleagues who sent themselves to school (in spite of both parents being alive), and surviving on 2-3 "square" daily meals of beans for months on end

It was in OAU I learnt to cook delicious

beans with only salt & pepper (no maggi or any other ingredient)

I had an orphan friend (a genius) who completed his bachelor's (a 1st class) by teaching tutorials to "freshers" for his whole time in school.

Having completed school, I slipped back into the cocoon of privilege

by practicing my studied profession of architecture.

Marriage & children came.

But my destiny of rural empowerment kept on calling me throughout the years until, first my move from Lagos to ibadan in 2015,

And my final village "retreat" in 2019

Having subsumed myself into the

native wisdom and culture of my people for this short while, I am more appreciative of what it is that makes us tick.

I am no longer apprehensive when I hear about droves of our professionals seceding from Nigeria.

Trust me, there's far more where they came from

Our ingenuity

remains intact

My infrequent forays back into the bourgeois cocoon, these days just leaves me with revulsion.

Urban snobbery isn't who I am anymore

I'm more comfortable with the broken english speaking ordinary folk I come across daily in the heartland of Nigeria than with our

"fake" city hustlers living a contrived reality

Nigeria is truly a great country

Our greatness lies in the plurality of what forms our core as a people

10 million emigrants out of Nigeria can't detract away from what substantiates who we really are as a people

I love Nigeria!