Although I did not go beyond California while vacationing in the US, my experiences are enough to convince any reasonable person thatAmerica is a great country. Of course, the US is not a paradise: America is not a land where manna falls from heaven, as some people erroneously believe.
Acquisitiveness, gun violence, excessive freedom accorded to children, racism, police brutality to minority groups (especially African-Americans), and the ever-present danger of terrorist attack make life in America quite challenging. However, to be candid, despite the issues highlighted above, living in the US is preferable to living in Nigeria, particularly for middle and low-income-earners.
Aside from solid reliable infrastructureand amenities, in addition to the affordable prices of food items and groceries, a hardworking person with low income can live reasonably well in America, unlike here in Nigeria where one requires a lot of money to procure and sustain the basic comforts of life. Some self-deceivers who live in denial pretend to be patriotic by arguing that “there is no place like home” or that “east or west, home is the best.”
They sermonise that no matter how bad the situation in Nigeria might be, one must stick around because “it is well,” “we have no other country to call our own,” and other shibboleths. But that argument is fallacious: it ignores the phenomenon of dual nationality and people who deliberately repudiate their country of origin for some reason to assume another country as their own. Life is too short for any human being to live on hope all the time, or even most of the time. In our rapidly globalising world characterised by massive migrations of people, I believe that “home” is wherever anybody finds peace, productive work, love,happiness and good neighbourliness over a reasonable period, irrespective of the contingent fact of his or her place of origin.
Throughout my stay in America, I did not encounter the problems of epileptic electricity,erratic water supply, poorly maintained roads,foul smelling heaps of refuse on roadsides, irritating harmattan weather, fuel scarcity, etc.Because things work efficiently, thousands of Nigerians are struggling relentlessly to be in the US. Indeed, I would relocate to America if I had enough resources to do so because, based on the real situation in both countries right now, the future of my two daughters is brighter there. Sometimes when you interact with Nigerians living in the United States,
Britain, Germany,and so on, they complain bitterly about racism, bills and taxes, and express the desire to return home. Some of them are ashamed that they have achieved virtually nothing and would not want their relatives to know how poor they really are having wasted good opportunities for success while abroad through self-indulgent sybaritic lifestyles and have nothing to fall back upon if they come back home. Others who have the wherewithal to return to Nigeria but stillstayed put just do not want to take on the added responsibility of catering for relativesand friends. Some Nigerians who discourage others from joining them abroad are so selfish and myopic that they do not want others to enjoy the kind of life they are enjoying overseas or are afraid that relatives or friends they brought over might be more successful than them in future.
Evidently, Nigeria has adequate resources to belong to the comity of developed nations through solid socioeconomic development and employment opportunities that would unleash the creative potentials of her people andminimise poverty, destitution, alienation and hopelessness. Unfortunately, the vicious recycling of mediocre leadership has virtually destroyed Nigeria to the extent that presently an increasing number of our people are scavenging refuse dumps at great personal risk to eke out a miserable living.
Our Presidents, governors, ministers and members of the ruling elite visit developed countries regularly and enjoy the excellent facilities put in place by their counterparts. Yet, when they return to Nigeria, it appears that a wicked virus deletes from their brains memories of their experiences while abroad and renders them incapable of working to replicate those things here. In my opinion, our leaders should be ashamed of themselves; they deserve long prison terms with hard labour for wasting wonderful opportunities to make Nigeria great because of greed and wickedness.
Sadly, the mediocrity of our leaders is complemented by the lethargy of Nigerians who are on a daily diet of intellectually, morally and spiritually corrosive religious superstition served by spiritually bankrupt and hypocritical religious preachers. While on the issue of religion, Frank, my host, took me to churches in California on two separate Sundays, hoping for my miraculous reconversion to Christianity.
I told him that my disavowal of conventional religion is final and that going to church with him is a kind of religious or theological tourism. Therefore, while the congregation was praying, I was busy looking around and taking photographs. Now, unlike Pentecostal churches in Nigeria that collect multiple offerings during each church service, the churches I visited in America collected offering only once. Also, whereas some Nigerian pastors instil fear and intimidate their church members by always preaching about the horrors of hell fire and invoking “holy ghost fire” to destroy imaginary enemies, American pastors tend to be more positive and rational by emphasising kindness, enhanced sense of self, and unflinching belief in God’s power to forgive sins inspite of ineradicable human fallibility.
Overall, I enjoyed my Christmas vacation in America. On my return journey, as the pilot announced that the aircraft would land at Murtala Mohammed International airport in thirty minutes, I became unhappy: the prospect of returning to Nigeria to face harsh weather, incessant power outages, and all the existential anomalies and anxieties of daily life in the country depressed me. Silently, I futilely wished for an excuse that would make the pilot fly us back to where we were coming from. I got home to the warm embrace of my wife and daughters – I really missed them. I had a fulfilling vacation, despite the shortage of money to buy things for my family and friends to the extent I wanted.
I use this opportunity to thank Apostle Frank Uwakwe and his amiable wife, Ngozi, for their hospitality and warm-heartedness. Without them, my Christmas vacation in America would not have been as enjoyable as it was. Mrs. Uwakwe, thank you so much for your care and concern: I really enjoyed the delicious meals you served daily, which have actually made me to regain all the weight I lost while in Nigeria. I miss your three lively daughters, Nnedi, Ugonma and Ugochi – I fondly call the last two abubu, their childlike corruption of the expression “I poo poo.” I wish the Uwakwes peace profound, excellent health, lasting happiness and success in all their undertakings. Concluded.
VANGUARD
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