Why I paused writing about Nigeria
I wrote this as a status on WhatsApp
I refrained from making sociopolitical comments about Nigeria for three things. I won’t mention the first two publicly, but the last one is because it breaks my heart and affects my emotions every time.
That’s why I have not written any article in that direction for more than a year now (I think). To write stuff like that, I have to read a lot of resources (to avoid libel, atbbl), internalise the information, and synthesize it in my mind before touching any keyboard.
That’s my surest method of writing a proper critical analysis about something — mix all the data in your mind and breathe your uniqueness into it.
Right now, using that process to write about happenings in Nigeria feels like torturing myself.
Ah! Processing in my mind the stolen billions, padded budgets, armed forces shenanigans, and the like? No.
Although I have attempted writing about it a few times this year for a good price (yup, i write for the media and train people too), but not yet for myself.
More so, my emotions have gone a little soft with the presence of children in my life — na small thing deh make me cry now😂 (that’s on a lighter note, don’t try me).
If I begin writing about Nigeria’s fuel price, food price, etc, I may just be crying for my countrymen every week that I write.
...but who coined the name T-Pain for Nigeria’s GCFR? It cracks me up every time😂. I don’t spend as much time listening to the news (both home & abroad) as before, but the title 'T-Pain' grabbed my attention. Like kila gbe kila ju🤷🏾♂️
In a nutshell, I don’t want to spend my emotions on writing about the social and political stuff in Nigeria (for now).
And just to mention — we’re not out of touch with the realities of the average Nigerian. I know people abroad who just recovered from the national hopelessness (according to them) that they experienced after the 2023 elections.
May eyes and ears be open in 2027 (or 2031) to see what we’ve been shouting all along. Nigerians spoke loud and clear at the polls last year (according to INEC). So we can say that we brought this upon ourselves.
Amen?
