Walnut

by Damilola Oladimeji (Nigeria)

A leap into the unknown Nigeria

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Nigeria is two lobes of walnut separated by endocarps of roads, water, and cultural, ideological and religious differences. The Northerners, who have a larger share of landmass and allocation are mostly Muslims and people of high-culture. The Southerners are mostly Christians, open-minded and educated people. I have spent a large percentage of my life in Southern Nigeria, hearing a lot of stories about the North. Consequently, I decided to peek at the Northern part of the country during my youth service, a one-year federal government scheme compulsory for able-bodied Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions. "Don't be like lobes of a walnut, children of the same parents who never see," my mother used to warn whenever I had a quarrel with any of my siblings. The slogan pulled my heart to choose a state in the North for the scheme. I chose Kaduna. In July 2018, I left the South for the North. It was when I left the last state in Southern Nigeria and entered the first in the North that I first came across the worse eyesore that any human eyes could behold on this planet. It was a discovery, but a tragic one. Young boys, holding plate and water bottles with faces white as snow, dirty from hair to toes. Their heels were broken when it wasn't Harmattan. When they spoke to me through the window, it felt like a graveyard had been opened and the smell unleashed. I felt irritated, angry, yet moved to pity. I had heard a lot about the Almajirinci practice, but I had thought that the stories were all fiction until I set on the journey. Politicians from Nigeria's North defend this practice with religion, but their children school and live abroad. Almajirinci explains why there is terrorism, banditary, thuggery and underage voting in the North. It explains why Nigeria, especially the North, retrogresses as we advance in age. Despite the stiff language barrier, I leapt into the unknown Almajirinci idea. I interviewed a boy who was probably around six and fended for himself with the plate and bottle. When I asked about his parents, he said his father was a truck driver. He had eight boys and nine girls. He sent the boys with bottles and plates in hand to beg. But the term was "we want them to learn." This is the truth, Nigeria is nurturing offsprings of destruction for her future.