A Promising Era

IMAGE IS MINE

If you could bring back something that had gone extinct, what would it be? It could be an animal, a person, a product, or even a way of life. It's just something that you believe will make a world of difference. What will your choice be? Please let us know.

When I saw this prompt, I had a longing to go back to an era of peace. I wanted to wish more than anything that I could bring back and relive the good old days. Go back in time where life was peaceful and uncomplicated. But then, as an avid reader, especially one who follows history, I began to wonder, and then the question becomes: has life ever been truly peaceful?

A quick glance at the pages of history reveals one thing, and that is, for centuries, one insatiable desire adopted by leaders across different cultures, is an appetite for land grabbing. An agenda that has been fueled by the agitation for power, resources and strategic advantages. This greed has plunged us into a time loop of conflict. Thus, instead of a peaceful coexistence over time, history has been replete with events of territorial disputes. So I can't really bring back what has never been.

However, the growing trend of migration in Nigeria, otherwise known as JAPA, is a thing of concern. One minute you are having a conversation with a friend, a loved one or an acquaintance, the next minute, they are telling you about abroad. I look around my cycle and discover that I'm the only one left in Nigeria, as all my peers are long gone to foreign countries in search of a better life.

I won't even lie, but sometimes it gets lonely. Sometimes I would want to change the environment, but then there's no one around that I could go to for a visit. I see myself trying to build new friendships, and honestly,, it doesn't feel the same. I really do miss my childhood friends, and sometimes it feels like they've left me behind. I miss the time we went out for lunch, I miss the movies together. I miss those random days when they'd just pay a visit to my home, or I would pay a visit to theirs, and we would spend the whole day indoors catching up and stuffing our faces with food.

Now, we barely keep up a conversation on our social media platforms, and all I do now is just watch their lifestyle via status as they watch mine, which I rarely even post. Really, life has changed, and I'd say it took a lot of fun memories from me.

If I could bring back anything, it would be a better future for my friends and me as adults. One that they won't have to leave to the Western world. At least there was a time when other Africans migrated to Nigeria for a better life. There was even a time when people came in from the Western world to work and live here.

There was a time when the title "The Giant Of Africa" truly fit, and our currency was considered amongst the strongest in the world. There was indeed a time in Nigeria where the future for the average Nigerian youth seemed clear and bright.

A time when the country was promising, and not once did one ever think that the deterioration would hit this bad.