Life in Nigeria is more about adaptation to your environment and resistance to bad influence, accepting all good values and obedience to the laws of the land as well as following typical Nigerian parent principles. Living in Nigeria has to deal with learning to endure every challenge and winning them like never before.
A mother is pregnant for approximately nine months. Then when it’s time, she gets into labour and brings to life a beautiful baby girl. That is when life begins, the moment you breathe in that "dirty" yet refreshing Nigerian air. Then, she lets out her first cry after feeling what you are probably in for. A lot of eyes are on her, admiring the cute little angel before them. Weeks pass by with the little angel still trying to adapt to the situation of every moment, with her family always around wondering what their sweet baby would become in the nearest future.
“Our future lawyer” or “the family doctor” they would say
“or my Engineer”
"no, she has the sharp dazzling eyes of a pilot.”
Life goes on, and she is four months old. Our baby is growing into a big girl. She has gained a few pounds of weight and looking as chubby as she can be. She is already learning to sit down.
Her life still bounces on till she is eight months old ready to crawl and making attempts to walk, that’s what kids love to do. "You don't have to rush into things sweetheart, crawl first then you walk, “everything in life is one step at a time" her mum would say. Of course, she still has a lot of steps to climb, she is still a child.
Did I forget to mention the stressful nights when she had to keep mum and dad awake, just to stop her from crying, but some nights she kept on crying for a reason they still don't understand. Obviously, reasons are best known to her.
She keeps growing till the first time she says the word "mummy" at that point she has made her mum one of the happiest mothers on earth and if instead she says "daddy" you take your dad to the highest attainable cloud, some say it's cloud nine....whatever it is, you are still the reason why your parents are just full of joy and happiness
As she gets older, her next step of life begins; her first day at a typical Nigeria school. As I mentioned earlier, "life in Nigeria is much more surrounded with your ability to adapt". She has always never been away from mum and dad and have only known the faces of people in her family, now she will get to see new faces, be away from her parents and home for a specific period of time, and seeing her teacher holding a long tiny stick often called "Mr koboko", a cane. I'm pretty sure that is the main reason why she often crys when her dad is about to drop her at the classroom door. Then her daddy says "my baby girl you've got to stop crying and be a good girl, listen carefully to all that your teacher teaches and make sure you are nice to everyone around you". And with that, he bids her goodbye. The moment he is gone, she will take her time to take in her new environment and get used to the faces she will likely be seeing every day. As time goes by, she still don't find school fun to go especially when she has someone who has made it his or her hobby to bully and make fun of her. Obviously, she is bound to find people like that or her teacher who spanks her and makes her cry for not grasping what she has been teaching for the past one hour. She is usually her happiest when she gets to see her dad or mom come pick her up after school.
There are also days when she fall sick or have a high temperature which leaves her parents really worried at that moment, she will probably refuse to eat her food, even her favorite meal. Days when her mum would scold her for being so naughty. It's all part of being a Nigerian, getting flogged for messing around or getting shouted on for not eating your lunch at school. Getting scolded for failing your assignments and so on.
Being in nursery school has a lot of things coming along sides with it...little did you know you had a lot more than just nursery rhymes to know.
This is so relatable!!!