Growing Up in Nigeria: Then and Now

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Valentine’s Day was marked out there in Europe and the western world but it was almost zero celebrations about it here in Nigeria as we almost had everyday as our Val’s days. Then love letters could evoke real emotions as young adults and adolescents had not the sort of out-going freedom experienced these days. Perming of hair and make-up were mostly the deeds of prostitutes or returnee Nigerians from the western world. In fact in Warri and Lagos those days, women or young ladies who wore lipsticks or trousers were referred to as ‘Ashawo’ (or call girls), except of course they were the educated ones who as earlier noted just returned from overseas with such lifestyles. Moreover, then, there were no hair-dressing salons in almost any neighbourhood to provide such services in the first place. What our ladies wore in those days were wigs; and it was only during festive periods. Morality was held in high regard as no family wanted to be identified with ignominious reputations.

Pupils ran away from teachers even when they were at home, off school and after school hours as memories of school and no-nonsense teachers stuck through their every waking lives. Children found with any shiny coin in those days (6 pence or 5 kobo, 12 shillings or 10 kobo and 30 shillings or 25 kobo, aka ‘dollar’) would be taken home to get assurance from their parents that the child was actually given such an amount. Kids were able to drive cars at younger ages than now and most learnt vicariously. Churches were not as many as we see these days but moral uprightness was way above what obtains these days.

Recreational facilities were plentiful and top class. Those who were bred in Lagos had a choice of places to go to. Lagos Luna Park on Randle Road, and the Apapa Amusement Park. There was also the Rowe Park in Yaba from which world beaters like Akeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon was first sighted playing basketball. Tinubu Square had its fountains spewing water day and night non-stop. Father Christmas of those days were ‘richer; than those we see around today, and they gave kids much weightier gift packs.

Extracurricular activities in schools were also in abundance and secret cults or gangs in schools were almost unheard of, except in heavily hushed forms, in the biggest Universities. Children had the Boys Scouts, Boys Brigade, Girls Guide, St John’s Ambulance Brigade, YMCA, YWCA, and the Red Cross among others, to choose from.

Funnily though, during birthday parties for most homes, food and refreshments were served for groups of invited kids. Rice spread on trays with the sauce poured on it and parts of chicken garnished on them were sumptuously relished by kids of this era’ Richer homes served refreshments per plate, and they were not so many of such around then.

Electric generating sets were virtually non-existent as the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) did very well to supply mostly constant power to the average home where electric poles could reach and there was announcement on radio about any potential power cut. But when the ECN became the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), electric power generators arrived Nigerian markets in the early 80′s for the first time.

To sum things up, the account hereunder is what this writer gave in response to a Facebook friend’s status message when he asked about how growing up was like:

‘’In my days, things were far better than today’s Nigeria as even the poorest of the poor had more nutritious meals to gobble up. There were no ‘Mr Bigg’s’ ‘Tantalizers’ or ‘Sweet sensations’ (fast food joints), but the Gala sold then were bigger and more filling and our xmases were smelt at least one month before, and the then poor could afford a live chicken or some other poultry like guinea fowl. The Udoji award was evident in almost every home. We were even fed right inside our schools, with fruits served after meals. Although there were not many nursery schools, the predominantly public primary schools had better motivated and trained teachers. Independence and Children’s day celebrations where like Xmas. We created the words AJE BUTTER and AJEPAKO, because then, butter was not sold in sachets as it is done these days to ensure affordability. Even primary school certificate holders spoke better and wrote better than some secondary school leavers we see around these days. A youth Corper? He was almost living like a king during service as he could save enough to purchase at least a VW Beetle (about 600 Naira) those days. Clamour to go abroad? No way! Most people barely knew where The US embassy was, not to talk of where the British High Commission etc was. Then the dollar was a little over 65 kobo to the naira while most travellers went abroad for education in famous institutions like Harvard or Cambridge. The UK could be visited for holidays and you needn’t have a visa for that. I remember clearly my grandma sending money

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