Becoming the Change…Part 2

February 11, 2011 at 11:02 pm (Me, Myself & I)

Okay so the reason for this splitting my second Blog Post in two is simply because I really just wanted that second article officially published and because two News stories have dominated my week and both are related to the death of two young people with two different cultures and belief systems.

‘I (a)M POSSIBLE’

Mohamed Bouazizi

Claudia Aderotimi

I am going to start with Claudia as I am able to relate with her story more and because her story helps me to remember my past whereas Mohamed’s story which although is more remote to my previous existence is actually one that I hope will help to shape my future.

Claudia Aderotimi was a very stunning looking young lady but presently she is in fact the ‘butt’ of many internet jokes…yes its a bad joke but the pun is very much needed because the sad reality is that this beautiful young sister of mine wasted her life because of her desire to change her body shape in the aspirations to becoming a Video Chick of all things!!!

Now as strange as it may seem but I relate to Claudia’s story because it is a painful reminder of the damage I believe exposure to the Western culture is having on British Nigerians. In discussing the news with a friend he pointed out that this “don put her mama inside sh*t” (her death will cause undue embarrassment and blame solely on the mother’s head) as “u wan tell me say her mama no go know about dis” (mothers are in charge of their children and their whereabouts). Well his assertions reminded me of  when I was her age and whilst I was not aspiring to becoming a Video Chick (more a Psychologist by day and Stripper by night…yet another story to be told another day) I was very much living the British life. I remember a particular incident in which I wanted to attend a Pool Party organised by DJ Tim Westwood and knowing no way in hell would my mother allow me, I promptly lied to her that I was travelling outside London.

Now ALL teenagers/early adults lie to their parents, heck on my ‘Summer before Suddenly’ trip to Lagos, my cousin that took me to the Dbanj show had lied to her parents that she was taking me to her University in another state whilst we spent the whole weekend at her boyfriend’s apartment 10 minutes drive from her family’s house! But I can only imagine the lies that Claudia would have told her mother and family about her trip to ‘Yankee’ or the even scarier thought that her mother fully knowing Claudia’s dreams and aspirations had fully supported this trip. You see I relate to Claudia because when I look at her I see ‘a friend’; ‘a cousin’; ‘a somebody I know’ and as a mother of a young girl the fear of my daughter’s exposure from growing up in a Western culture resulting in such a tragic headline as this (as extreme as it is) has reaffirmed that taking her to Nigeria was definitely the right action.

I am also talking about Mohamed Bouazizi because whilst his name has not been splashed on the papers or talked about as much within the Nigerian online community as Claudia has been…his story holds so much more significant to myself (and I pray to Nigeria also).

As I write this post

Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt for the past 30years has resigned and the reason for that can be attributed to Mohamed Bouazizi. This 26 year old Tunisian man committed suicide by setting himself on fire on December 17, 2010 in protest of the unjust dealings of living his entire life under a dictatorship regime. This single act by an (extra)ordinary young man duly prompted a REVOLUTION not only in his Country but in many other countries across Northern Africa and the Arab world.

This has prompted many discourses in the Nigerian press to merely dismissivey ponder on the reasons why Revolution could not happen in this country fondly remembered as the ‘Giant of Africa’. Whilst Nigeria has had ‘democratic elections’ following the return to Civilian rule 12 years ago, the same party PDP have ‘won’ subsequently having been in power ever since and quite frankly this is the reason Nigerians can no longer feel proud about their country. To those who suggest that Revolution knows or has no place in Nigerian society I would just like to remind them that just a few weeks ago, the World would have simply stated that the forced resignation of Hosni Mubarak through relatively peaceful protests by the Egypt people was an IMPOSSIBLE feat but yet Mohamed Bouazizi has single handedly caused the history books to be re-written and changed the words to I (a)M POSSIBLE.

Once upon a time I believed that ‘I’ could also change the world but then I thought this was a case of Mission IMPOSSIBLE and merely settled for ‘Making a difference’ however small. But now I think of Mohamed Bouazizi and I realise that I can Make a Difference…just a GREATER one by striving to change not only MY world but that of my country.

I (a)M POSSIBLE!