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How Nigeria has changed.

Reported by John Bayode · Lagos market · 7 min

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John B goes into a Nigerian market to ask the older women there how the country has changed in their lifetime. The answer is not nostalgia. It is a structured account, subject by subject, of a system that used to deliver something and now does not.

She starts with education, because that is where she starts, and walks through a route that no longer exists: primary school, then modern school, then teachers college, form one through form five. What replaced it worries her for a specific reason rather than a sentimental one. “That is why you see some graduates cannot speak two correct sentences.”

Then the economy, and a comparison she can make because she lived both ends of it. “When we are young, in the primary school, we used to go to school barefooted.” Money was scarce and things were cheap. Now: “Whoever wants to buy a television now and does not have up to six hundred, seven hundred thousand cannot afford it.”

The sharpest passage is about work, and about a promise that was kept and then withdrawn. “Then, there was work for school leavers. You pass out of the university, government, you will be given a car, a driver, as a graduate. But this time around, if you are a graduate, even if you have your master’s, there is no work.” She connects that directly to emigration: “That is why our children are moving out of the country en masse to seek for greener pastures, which should not be.”

She is equally direct about crime and about what a night used to be. “You can even move freely in the nights without stress, without problem. Now you cannot move out of your house after twelve.”

And then marriage, which she reads as an economic outcome rather than a cultural one: men not marrying into their thirties and forties because there is no steady work, and women making the same calculation.

She ends where she can, which is with prayer: for God to intervene, and for the government to hear every member of the country.

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0:00Jim, my name is John B. This is for poidh and We Them Media. So we’ve been interviewing some of our old women here in the market to ask them about how the world has changed in their lifetime and how it has affected them or how it has changed them. So come along as we interview our mama here. So and let’s hear what she has to say about that person. Good afternoon ma’am. Uh my name is John and um we are interviewing random old women to just ask them about how the world has changed in their lifetime and how it has affected them. Um so that’s question

0:37good afternoon. How are you? Fine. How is your during our time things as things is not as it is now? during the during the the days when we were young. Let me start from the education aspect of in terms of education when we were young. We we faced a lot of thorough education from the primary level up to secondary school level up to level. Initially we went through primary education to modern school education there was what we call modern school education after primary school teachers college secondary school you will start from then the you pass through the other school then you will start from form one. Mhm. Finish at from five. But

1:46these days it is no more like that. You go to go to nurs primary school to primary school to secondary school to tary institution. Academically it has affected most of these material especially if their background is not as solid as as it should be. It used to affect them educationally and that is why you see some graduates cannot speak two correct sentences when you get to graduates and some they can they can be fluent because they will be using English language get with them when they were young yet when they get to higher institution some of them are not complete is but then there wasn’t nothing like it in

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2:46terms of economic activities learning our own time things were money were scarce there was no enough money our own time to to enjoy life for instance when we are young in the primary school we used to go to schools barefooted without sugar. But later but this time around you can hardly see a a a student of nursery primary school that will not put on shoe as well as then there was then there was little money. So, but now whoever wants to buy a television now and does not have up to 600,000 700 700,000 cannot afford it. So, economically things has changed. The price of goods and services has

3:50moved up seriously. And in terms of work for school levers, then there was work for school levers. You are a graduate then nearly you pass out of the university government you will be given a car a driver as a graduate but this time around if you are a graduate even if you have your MSE there is no work so things are changing rapidly and it is not favoring the whole nation at large look at What happened to this economy? That is why our people our children are moving out of the country mass to another country to seek for greener pasture which should not be. So

4:43all things has changed and social life of our of our people have changed seriously and that is why some children now move to be involved in fraud criminal activities and all those things. They involve themselves in jawu practices in ritual practices and all those things during that during our days there wasn’t anything like that. You can even move freely in the nights without stress without problem. Now it is a a situation where now you cannot move out of your house after 12 otherwise they will kidnap such people. So things are changing rapidly and they are not is not beneficiary to everybody terms of marriage. Some friends these days are not ready to

5:50get married because there was no there was no financial backing that amazed them to get married even after 30 40 years. Some men are still are still not ready to get married and the reason is there was no money there was no steady work for graduates after leaving schools. Likewise, women or girls rather, some of them not ready to get married because of the affecting the population of the country because some people some people these days some men and some women and men these days even when they get married and there is little or No disagreement between themselves. They can force themselves. So this is all that are happening in the

6:54country these days. They are not okay. So we can only pray for God’s intervention. If God intervene and if the government of the country lost every member of the country, there is going to be changes in the situation.

That was the whole tape.

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