Blog

Thank you so much if you’re here via the link on my WhatsApp status, Instagram stories, or Twitter. It means a lot to me.

I know, it’s been so long since I shared my thoughts here, and for good reason. I had to pause because of work and also to take care of my mind- it’s been a long year for me.

Maybe you didn’t notice or you did, 22musings.com is gone (very long story). Fortunately, 22musings.net happened to be available so I had to make some quick moves to secure the domain.

Anyway, the most important thing is that I’m back so, let’s catch up!

Challenges

Living in Nigeria right now is tough. These past 7 years feel like 15 years have passed by. Most Nigerians aren’t having it easy but the millennials are going through it!

Many Nigerians living in Nigeria are struggling due to the deplorable state of the economy, police brutality, lack of job security, ridiculous high standard of living, outrageous inflation, and foreign exchange rates. Forget what you see on social media and observe your immediate environment- real life. We’re surrounded by hardship. Reasons why the emigration rate has kept increasing since 2016-date.

According to the Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey 2021 taken by the African Polling Institute, 7 out of 10 Nigerians were eager to leave the country if offered the opportunity. The majority were millennials.

This isn’t surprising in the least bit. I can bet that if you’re reading this from Nigeria, the thought of leaving the country has crossed your mind more than once this year.

I’m a millennial and I feel the pain and frustrations of my counterparts. At age 30-35, 80% of our parents had already given birth to us and built or bought houses with other valuable assets. How many of us can say the same today? Remember, I’m talking about the majority here because there are exceptions to this.

I can’t blame everything on the current state of the country as some of these occurrences are borne by personal choices.  However, the fact remains that we’re going through tough times.

Our government-owned universities have been shut down since February and students have lost valuable time that they can never get back.

Now, what does the Nigerian government have in store for the youth population? Nothing.

I recently saw a tweet that said the capital of Nigeria is the UK and rightly so. We’re running away from home to find greener pastures and a better life in different parts of the world.

After all, man must survive.

Hopes

There’s always hope no matter how bad a situation may seem. I’m an optimist so I tend to see a silver lining in every dark cloud. I still have hope in Nigeria even though it’s the hardest thing to do lately.

It gives me immense joy to see that despite the challenges and limitations, we keep pushing to make things work for ourselves without any form of government assistance. We have access to acquiring an unlimited amount of in-demand skills, thanks to the internet. Then there’s remote work which has allowed us to work for any organization/individual, anywhere in the world (thanks, Covid).

Our government has failed us woefully but we have the chance to elect trustworthy and competent leaders in the upcoming 2023 elections. We’ve endured almost 8 years of hardship and the power to change this for good lies in our hands. To my fellow Nigerians living in Nigeria, please, do well to get your PVC and be prepared to cast your votes next year.

If you feel discouraged and hopeless at this point, I’m begging you to hang in there. Everything happening now will begin to make sense to you sooner than later.

How have you been? Do you think the situation of things in Nigeria can improve? Do you have your PVC? Are you going to vote in the upcoming election?

Share your thoughts with me in the comments and let’s keep the conversation going.