This is for the Nigerians out there..for anyone of us who gets to see this.
I don't get out much as my workspace is cyberspace, but occasionally I need to get people to do jobs for me (like today), or something else. And then I'm out with my headphones (you CAN'T catch me without those..I CAN'T go a full day without music ).
I know Benin City isn't the best place here; not even close. But I've been around the country much and it's not so different. Lagos I hold in my heart (I'll be back there when my short romance with BC comes to a close by the end of next year), and Port is where I lived the dream for a while (I love that city..will be back)..it's the same sh*t once you're out the gated communities like VGC..even on the Island, Ikoyi, Ikeja..there are a lot of things that are just wrong.
I see people hustling; struggling. Market women. Hawkers who should be in school chasing buses in the blazing heat. Young, young kids on the street. I even saw this really pretty girl selling bananas from a wheelbarrow earlier in the evening..that BROKE me. The bus drivers and conductors. Beggars. Unnecessary victims of the brutality of Shari'a law.
Once it's dusk, there are a few of the ashawos getting ready. Tricking earlier than usual. I see a bit of that most nights.
The seedy underbelly of Nigeria. Crazy.
A lot of times I'm pissed at myself for not being as successful as I planned for this point in my life. There's this major feeling of entitlement. But then I get out and see just how low our dead economy has made us. How much it has bruised the commoner. And then I'm grateful.
I came back home tonight and fought back a tear while writing the Young Jeezy status update.
It hurts.
Our kleptocratic leaders have left us to die and rot. But we are more than them. We have our hands and a massive brain. We can and WILL make it without doing anything illegal. I'm far from where I ought to be in terms of my life goals, and a series of mistakes set me back by a few years. But I recovered and I'm pulling myself by my bootstraps. I want to prove that we can all rise above our decayed system without thievery or corruption.
There are a lot of young folks like me out there, proving the world wrong and creating our dynasties from bare sandy ground. Making it on our own terms. Understanding the secrets of not only creating wealth, but maintaining it. Not searching for non-existent jobs, but becoming mega-businesses. Making brands from raw ideas. Getting through without the credit facilites, venture capital, and loans that our mates in serious countries take for granted. Getting the job done where there's barely electricity supply, and stagflation has made the cost of living unbearable.
We can't stop. We shouldn't. We have to build a legacy. Some of us will leave this sh*thole; the patriots amongst us will stay. But I pledge to keep giving to help the needy here.
Nobody gave me anything much of the time..I had to and I'm still earning every dollar, and we're just getting started. It took me years to create a workable plan after I and my friend's company crashed, but I'm slowly making it happen. A lot of sleepless nights and delayed gratification, but the picture's finally unravelling.
I promise to get the kids off the street. To get the whores off the joints. To get the guys off their guns. To get the single mums off the amoral aristoes. I don't have all the answers, and probably much of the billions won't salvage the situation. But I see what my people go through on a daily basis and I WON'T turn away.
I'm going to be global, but I'm still a Nigerian afterall. And wherever I go, my heart will still pump green and white blood.
Softly softly, my people. We go make am. #ChasingTheNigerianDream.
BY: ALOU ORAELOSI.
visit https://www.facebook.com/#!/alou.oraelosi
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