Tell me, future me, has the grass gotten greener over the other side? What year is it? We in the present are still in 2015 Nigeria groping in darkness despite the abundance of light outside and an electric switch nearby.

It is like we are swimming in the Imo River but still have soap in our eyes (I know it sounds impossible but that, as strange as it sounds, is our reality).

Future me do you remember that song we sang in church when we were younger?

“Ekwensu ka ihere me gi n’uwa (devil you must be shamed in this world)

Ma gi na ndi otu gi (you and your followers)

K’ihere me gi”(you must be shamed)

Believe me that song has failed to be true. The devil is yet to be ashamed neither has his followers developed a sense of shame. They seem hell bent on filling our mouth with sand and pushing us beyond our breaking point. But I still get confused about who the devil is. Whether he is human but described metaphorically as a supernatural being. Or am I wrong? I think he is human. Human beings cause problems for other humans. The gods, in all honesty, are not to be blamed. Don’t you think so?

You see; a score and one year ago she birthed us, named us ChukwuEmeka and added a full stop after, she was done with birthing. She had hopes, high hopes, that her children will be her insurance policy so she can enjoy life’s wealth before arthritics sets in –unlike her mother who only tasted honey when her light was dimming. But can you see us now, she still suffers for us but somehow she hopes her insurance cover won’t blow over.

Hmm! The worst problem a man can have is when his own problem comes from inside him and he consciously adds fuel to it. My brother, what could be worse than that? In the north people, are bombing others for reasons best known to them, and the gods. Down south, others are kidnapping and putting human beings in body bags. Come to the centre and the putrefying stench of corruption will scarcely let you breath. You see in this country we are our own worst enemy –and we know it. It is no longer rats that bite on our toes, whilst blowing air on it, we do it on ourselves. The gods (and the devil even) are not to be blamed. We are.

But tell me future me, what is our hope? We whom our fathers still cultivate the soil to feed and our mothers stake their best wrappers to send us to school? Do you not see it as I see it, that we have become like the tailless cow whom its Chi must help fight off flies? But then our problem becomes complicated as it seems that even our Chi have gone to sleep at high-noon.

Ah ChukwuEmeka! Will you forget? Do you not remember how in primary five, before you were bumped up to six, our class teacher, Ms. Comfort, had made the whole class cut cardboard papers into alphabets that she later pasted on the wall.

“We are the leaders of tomorrow. We set the pace for others to follow.” She had written with the cardboard letters.

Were you not hopeful then that one day you will become as we were called –leaders of tomorrow? But look, tomorrow has failed to reach. The sun circles the earth daily but yet it has failed to bring tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow will never come. But tell me, future me, has tomorrow finally come? Are you living in tomorrow? Have we become the leaders of tomorrow like we were told?

Do you hold a government position? Or do you sit in a large government office and make money disappear the way Professor Peller, the famous magician, made things to vanish? Have you become like those we sent to Abuja and to the government houses, but who ended up biting us harder than mosquitoes in wet season? Tufiakwa! Tell me you have not.

Do you remember how our mother cried out in anger years ago at the difficulty in finding a good secondary school for you and your siblings? Today another mother is still crying at the difficulty in finding a good school for her children. Do you still remember the story of the man who died on the operating table due to a combined woe of medical incompetency and power outages? Truly, things have not changed much. We, in 2015, are still exchanging blows with problems of yesteryears –problems that won’t be a problem if selfishness didn’t exist. Worst still is the fact that these problems are not felt by the rich but by the middle and lower class. Maybe if they felt the pinch as much as we do things would be better.

What new discovery has been made in the future? Has science discovered what happens after death? Have they found a way to take from or send money to the land of the dead? I suppose they haven’t but if they have please keep that knowledge to yourself (tell no one in the present, even I) for human greed is unfathomable.

Remember as you rise in life that there is a low. That though money is sweet, love is sweeter. It is not for nothing that the good book tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And that the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower- a slave of the lender.

Yours always;

Today’s ChukwuEmeka

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Article written by ChukwuEmeka Nwankwo