Echo

One of the advantages of Lagos' bad traffic (and yes, there are advantages) are the long, uninterrupted conversations that take life with whomever your travel companion might be. Yesterday, it was with my friend Annette and her driver Echo.

Echo is from South-South, the area rich in oil that often biases media representations of Nigeria with stories of armed roadside robberies and kidnappings. During conversations with Nigerian nationals, the discussion inevitably turns to political topics, perhaps because of the indiscriminate poverty that litters the streets or an incessant expat curiosity about things that are done differently than home. The conversation was no different today.

The political situation in Nigeria seems hopeless in Echo's eyes. Though elections are held freely, the same corrupt leaders seem to sneak their way in, rotating the power based on whose turn it is to run the country. It has been said that election results are decided before the election actually takes place. Outside politicians may be let in, but are forced to succumb to the corrupt ways of their predecessors or face certain death.

Looking around at people on the side of the road, happy but without much to call their own and obviously struggling for survival in poverty-stricken Lagos, I ask Echo if the Nigerian people felt they could do anything, change anything, influence the government in any way. To change would be to coups, and the horrors of the Civil War (Biafra War) are still burned in the memories of many Nigerians. The hope lies now with future generations further from the realities of war.

Echo seemed sad as he continued to talk, remember days of agricultural prosperity that have since passed. But could one person make a difference, I ask. Echo begins to speak of Ghana's former president Jerry Rawlings who boldly removed corruption from the government and transformed Ghana from a country of poverty to one of prosperity. Yes, one leader could make a difference. But Echo does not know that person here. Perhaps Anini came closest, though his Robin-Hood tactics were seen as less than justifiable and he was eventually executed by the government. And so it remains...a dysfunctional and corrupt government that has little concern for the people it represents and offers little hope for a more prosperous future.