This is Nigeria

I'm writing this from an aircraft bound for Lagos, a flight delayed for three hours. Of course, the delay shouldn't have surprised me. But it did, just like almost every other chaos I left behind when I relocated from Nigeria almost three years ago. I'd expected things to have improved slightly upon my return. One week after returning to Nigeria, everything is in disarray — and that's putting it lightly. The delayed flight is just one example of the numerous chaos that defines this country.

Another example is the issue of electricity. I seriously don't understand why electricity is still a problem in this nation. I wasn't expecting an overnight fix to this decades-long crisis, but I didn't think it would be this bad — worse than I left it. Something is fundamentally wrong with the people who rule this country. How are we regressing instead of progressing? The regression facing basic amenities should be a serious cause for concern. It is incredibly surprising how everyone in the country seems to have accepted this total failure of what a sane society is supposed to look like. My first reaction to the state of electricity when I returned was: 'Una still dey struggle with light for this country?'

The other issue is affordability. How is everything so expensive, with little to no purchasing power? I'm not sure how people are surviving in these conditions. The country is operating like a poorly run start-up. We are about to turn sixty-six in October with absolutely nothing to show for it. This is a country riddled with poverty and suffering. I am not sure what the endgame is, but the quality of living of two-thirds of the population is definitely in the gutter.

Don't get me started on the roads. Dusty, broken roads in every corner of the country, with potholes punctuating the ancient tar. It's suffering all around; you can't catch a break. I am telling you right now: there's no catching a break from the amount of suffering and disorganisation in Nigeria.

The country is in ruins. Every department is in tatters — from airlines, to security, to education, to infrastructure, to affordability — all underwater. The country is practically finished. Where exactly do we go from here?

This is Nigeria — a country we have no choice but to call our own despite all its flaws, its brokenness. But for too long it seems the country we call our own is being taken from us. It is time we take it back. Protect what's yours and the generation after you will thank you for it.

I go back to London in about a week, where I will face a different kind of insanity, but tolerable nonetheless. The human degeneracy in the West is off the chart, but I'll choose living in a sane clime with all its functioning social amenities and adherence to law and order over subjecting myself to the utter chaos here at home.

I will miss the culture, the people, the food, the liveliness, and believe it or not, a bit of the chaos. However, I would rather build a life in a society with a standard of living that makes that journey easier, even though there is the human degeneracy to deal with — that I can control.