Saturday 1 October 2016

How Come, How Long.... Independence Reminiscence

He remembered the 30th of
september, 1960... His mother had excitedly cooked enough to feed an army and his father had gone out to find fireworks as was everybody
in the country.
High life music softly played and
the scent of fried animals wafted around his nose. It was exactly 10pm and in two hours time,
nigeria will be made independent.

He watched his senior sister, Nwanka as she pulled off her
shoes and staggered a little bit.... She said a drunken 'kedu' and a scream of 'independence'.
Nwanka will surely miss that her white boyfriend but then good riddance to bad rubbish. It was an anamazing time, Nigeria for once was just one people awaiting freedom.

He saw the yoruba
professor across the street engaged in a heated but friendly argument with the hausa vendor and laughed... He went back to the
sitting room and sat down beside his stonedsister...
'Nwanka, you know daddy is going to kill you...'
His senior sister eyed him ' Obinze, biko..apu maka'.. And she stumbled back to the room...
He started dozing off until he heard the national anthem playing, he checked his watch...11:55pm...he rushed out into the neigbourhood,
his parents and his now sober sister were already singing in tune to the anthem with the neigbours 'Nigeria we hail thee....' After singing,
they put up the national flag of green and white and saluted it, and then the allnight party began...he sipped his drink as he double checked the time '00:00..1st october, 1960'...he raised his glass cup to the flag 'Happy birthday, Nigeria'

56 years later.....
'Grandpa, so why would we celebrate?' ike asked
76 years old Obinze smiled at his 20 years old grandson 'because it is our country... Listen young man, you all ...youths of these days only know how to complain... In my days, we lived for what we believed in.

I lost your grandmother in
that stupid civil war... For Biafra, yes i did! But it never came... What of the likes of Zik of Africa or Awolowo...or Ken Tsaro Wiwa who died while trying to tell the truth... You all complaining about some hard times, we saw hard times son!
Military regimes, civil wars. Nigeria has always had problems and we have always found a way out and we will find a way out again...so quit
whining and get me a bottle of whisky'....

Ike laughed and poured two shots of whisky...giving one to his grandfather...
Obinze downed it and looked at the Nigerian flag in his son's study
'God bless Nigeria...' he whispered..

The national anthem continued playing on the radio... '.... To serve our father's land with love and strength and faith....the labour of our heros past shall never be in vain......'

It is october 1st 2016 and we are wishing Nigeria a happy
birthday...you should know that you are getting old already...God bless you,we love you and
Africa loves you!

By
#DeeAdebayo

(Edited for blogging by Da Jandy)

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