By Enyinne Owunwanne
Ask me to recite the alphabet backwards, and I won’t skip a beat. However, ask me where I’m from and I’ll mince my words faster than any Iron Chef minces carrots.
I was made in Nigeria, born in America, and raised in Kuwait until the first Persian Gulf War. Since then, I’ve lived, studied, and worked in the US, Paris, Hong Kong, Swaziland, and now Nigeria. I like to think of myself as a Citizen of the World. Or as Buhari would say, “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”. Yet, after close to one year of living and working in Nigeria for the very first time in my life – throughout the good, the bad, and the ugly – I can truly say that it finally feels good to be home.
Now with that said, don’t get me wrong, there was absolutely nothing that could prepare me for the “VIM!” I experience as I navigate my way through our beloved country. Absolutely nothing!
Countless conversations with predecessor returnees before taking the plunge to relocate? Nope, not that. Euphoric, and sometimes not-so-euphoric, stories that my parents would fondly relay to my siblings and I as we were growing up? Nope, not that either. Studying Igbo for 4 semesters while attending the University of Pennsylvania for my first degree? Mbanu! Even summers spent between Port Harcourt and my parents’ village as a child, and frequent jaunts to Lagos for business and leisure as an adult, could not prepare me for one of the most important moves of my life.
After accepting my job offer to join Avon HMO, I carefully picked out gifts for everyone whom I Interviewed with as a small token of my appreciation to say thank you for your time and for your support. I was later told this was perceived as an act of bribery. Ah ah! Who would have thought?! Once I touched down in Lagos, I began my apartment search. I’ve enjoyed the freedom of living in my own home for more than the past decade and I was certainly looking forward to doing the same here in Lagos. I was soon, however, introduced to the term ‘spinster’, by real estate agents who not-so-surreptitiously mistook my independence, for a woman who enjoys illicit behaviours. Kai! I no sabi that one. Most recently, I’ve started driving myself around Lagos. At first, I would wind down my window and stick out my arm to courteously indicate that I would like to switch lanes. After nearly becoming an amputee, I quickly realized that good ole suburban manners don’t apply to these streets. Ah well, you win some, you lose some!
Amidst the commonalities and differences that I’ve experienced here thus far, one thing remains glaringly evident – Nigeria is undoubtedly “God’s Own Country”. There’s an interesting sense of irony that keeps our nation in flux. Nothing works here. Yet somehow, everything still works. Most people have just cause to be irritated well before hitting the snooze button, yet we, as Nigerians, are amongst the happiest people in the world [hyperlink to article]. We are a boisterous people, to say the least. And it’s that contagious sense of vigour, one that I’m yet to experience with such magnitude anywhere else in the world, that keeps me clamouring for more VIM!
