Glittering Hero On A Street Of Zeroes

... blame the system, don't blame them

I never understood what the word ‘hero’ truly meant until I saw the making of one.

Where I grew up, there are no role models. There are only people who you don't want to be like as a kid. So many of my peers ended up being like them because they couldn't be anything else.

The only thing you become at times is that thing or person you never want to become. Choices came at a premium, seeking the decapitation of heads to be available.

The closest I've had to being in these guys’ shoes was many years ago.

I jogged miles to school - a private primary school for the cool kids. But no be all of us dey ok like that.

As a kid, less than 10 at the time. I was late for school and it rained. My brother and I hid out somewhere till it stopped. We saw no cabs or bikes and took the long haul. That was me seeing the very first impression of what those guys I lived with faced on a daily basis.

Many walked to school without sandals. So many others had torn shirts and ripped shorts. Their bags were either polythene, or poly-torn. The ones who had sandals dealt with broken buckles. You remember Kito? It reigned at the time, but very few of these kids could afford it. They wore rubber sandals to school, with all its accompanying suffering.

Football was that one thing that brought us together. It united us every time. On the pitch, we had no class. The sons of the average-but-woke can't differentiate from the sons of the woke-but-broke. We were all the same there and every nightfall made our realities dawn on us. Those kids grew thick skins to their problems. After all, e no dey finish.

As we grew older, we hardly stayed apart. There was the guy who sold Akara for his mum from JS1 to SS3. Preparation for WAEC saved his head. We used to call him “Quadrilakara”. Brilliant, young guy.

There were many others who grew up seeing factories as their best jobs. They were paid peanuts but they worked all the same. For those who couldn’t, they became urchins, miscreants, and everything else. Drug abuse? That’s like the code for growth.

I’m not kidding. There aren’t role models on my street. If you see one, you probably never can face what he did.

On many occasions, regular cult clashes end up preparing your mind for gunshots. It became a thing. And when you keep your ears to the ground, you’ll be told the kid you used to play with was one of them.

I dey see boys wey I dey dribble that year Dey carry guitar. You go fear oo

Life comes back bouncing in your face all over again.

There I was chasing admission into the university. Looking to live the next good life or a better one. Have opportunities and a chance at survival and freedom. Those guys who didn’t tow same lane want the same thing, it only took me some years to understand.

I saw a system designed for them to be second fiddle fizzle them out. But they refused. If you’re from anywhere like where I’m from, you’ll understand me. You sometimes will want to be judgmental and demanding, but when you think about it, you look at the many things you have. They don’t! And no be like say you sef get but… you just can’t compare.

So Nigeria is dealing with a lot of problems today. Its image before the rest of the world seems broken, partially. Na as some dey work make e better others dey flash evil for people.

The system that makes every Nigerian pretends to be the same, but in actual fact, it’s far from being that. It’s tilted, lopsided, designed to keep many people in penury and just window-shopping at dreams.

You can hear motivational stories and say these guys from my area didn’t rise because they never wanted to. But this Nigeria wey law graduate dey rugged her small chops for roadside, what’s the hope of the hopeless? I’ve seen people who are hopeless! No be by skin colour, or hairstyle.

They play football, weave dreams, then reality dawns and they never have sponsors. Their dream dies, and they move to the next thing. And most of the next thing never equates them with the high level. It’s difficult to survive and shine at that level.

I saw people drop out of university because they couldn’t cope with the fees. They don’t have sponsors, zero support. It’s easy to say they didn’t do enough. I think I must have said so too. But every time I step back in that area and I see people’s reality, I just stop blaming them for not becoming who they never may become.

Those guys are still there, far away from their aspirations, but they are moving closer to reality and are doing everything to survive. Some days, they run from their own world, other times, they move closer to it.

Some of them go away for a very long time and they return with a wrecking ball. Angry, ready to destroy what’s left. They take up arms and school kids into festering hopelessness. If you come from anywhere like mine, you’ll understand that you’re not a hero per se.

You could own cars, live in a good house, nurture dreams. Those you think are zeroes have been doing exactly the same. Plot twist. Lol!

They found a way out, regardless of what the government or people think. They could make others cry and cheer in clubs. The club owner also depends on them to make his own dough. The efficiency of hopelessness is high in my country.

So high people don’t care who they snatch it from. They just want to run with one.

And you have the system to blame. A system that builds, nurtures and encourages rot!