I am very angry! Perhaps a better word would be melancholic as angry is too strong a word. I tried all weekend to ignore the happenings in Nigeria ref: the elections but couldn't. As i tried to search the internet and even the Nigerian tv station on sky, i was left to rely on reuters and the BBC....and we all know what sort of information you would be presented with when you go there. When will we realise that we need a media of our own? Alright, i am about to go off on a tangent so i'll stop there.
Back to my anger or melancholia or whatever it is i am feeling. My friend's dad passed away last weekend. Well, he is not actually my friend's dad but more his uncle. Any Nigerian reader would understand how this works as surrogate parenting is a norm in that part of the world where society overtakes the government in its duties. The man was very young...only about fifty if only just about. He worked away from home and worked very hard. Its a typical sad story. The kids are young and all at university. The eldest got jammed by JAMB (the awful matriculation exams to get into university which succeeds more at keeping people out than getting people in) and so is a late starter. The woman does not work and knows little about the man's business. The eldest boy is a teenager who is supceptible to manipulation. Bound by tradition, he is now the head of the family and therefore decision maker. I could go on and on about the woes of this issue. How do they survive someone might ask? They will. It is Nigeria afterall. Somehow everyone does.
I was reading on a comment posted by another reader on Funmi Iyanda's blog which talked about the death of a young man as a result of the unavailability of a dialysis machine which costs a mere 70k US dollars. The tragedy of this. Even more pronounced as i watched the London Marathon on television yesterday, people running for good causes and the like.
I apologise if i come across as incoherent, i am just confused right now. It is wrong that the little people suffer in this way. No one even knows what killed my friend's father. And then, there is the case of the dialysis machine which is just pathetic. Isn't it ironic that it costs the same as some governor's wife pocket money for summer in London? All this happens as Atiku and Buhari jostle for THAT power on the guise of protecting democracy. On the other side of the world, a real battle of ideologies ensues as Nikolas Szarkozy and Segolene royale battle our France...what is wrong with this world?
I better leave it, this is beginning to get to me!

There is a link to Funmi's blog on the left pane