Navigating the Struggles of Daily Life: Reflections on Infrastructure and Governance in Nigeria

Mind-blowing infrastructure, good road network, quality healthcare system, stable electricity, quality of life, good governance and many more are what citizens look upto their government to get in order to have a good life with all the amenities that makes life easier, but unfortunately not all nations give this too her citizens and it's disappointing watching others thrive under a working system and you struggle to get all of the basic things that should have been provided for by your government.

I'm a Nigerian and have lived in this part of the world all my life except for a few days I left the shore of the country to our neighboring countries, but despite the fact that most of these countries are more like ours or ours is even much better, I still can't help but wonder why we are a nation with so many mineral resources, unlike every other country that surrounds us, and yet we can't boost the quality of the amenities that give us a good quality of life.

Growing up in this part of the world, one of the biggest cries of adults that surrounds me is to have good governance that would build the right infrastructure that makes our lives a pleasant one, and through the years we've suffered from anything you can possibly think of, ranging from bad roads, poor healthcare, unstable electricity supply, and the absence of state-of-the-art infrastructure that brings about innovation and beautifies the country.

I remember once living somewhere in Ogun State for over 6 years, and for the first 5 years of my stay in that community, we never had an electricity supply. It's disgusting and annoying when you watch the news and see other countries celebrating how they've had uninterrupted power supplies for weeks, months, or even years, and yet we don't know what it feels like to have any for half a decade.

Fast forward to the present day. After over 12 years since the time I was referring to, in the community I live in now, electricity is still a problem. We've not had power supply for the last one week, and the ones we even had before not having again are low voltage that couldn't operate most of the basic home appliances such as hotplates, blenders, refrigerators, and the like. I mean, what's the point of such power if it can't power anything within the house?

The same is true when it comes to the health care system. Through the years, we've had a poor health system due to the dilapidated hospital structures that weren't maintained or renovated in 20 years by the government, and that's not to mention the lack of necessary equipment that would have enhanced the work of medical staff and aided their ability to discharge their duties more efficiently.

And in recent years, we've come to see health practitioners such as doctors and nurses leave the shores of one country in their search for a system that'll not only enhance their performance but also recognize their impact and pay them buoyantly without delaying their wages for months before paying them like ours did.

Talk about the road network in my country; that's nothing to write home about. From the bad road to the poor networking of roads, which through the years has led to numerous accidents and several hours of being held in gridlock while you try to navigate your way to your place of work on time, due to this poor road, I can remember how I used to leave the house in Epe as early as 5am so I could get to work on time in Falomo, and due to the gridlock, I always ended up getting to work about an hour or two late.

And on a normal day, the driving distance between my home and work isn't supposed to be more than an hour, and yet I ended up spending 4 hours on the road. Going home is another struggle of such nature, and I can close at work by 4 p.m., leave for home, and not get home until around 10 p.m. at night.

Those days were terrible, and believe me, my life has been nothing fun throughout those periods due to the stress of traffic that eats up most hours of my day, depriving me of the ability to enjoy other aspects of life outside of work and traffic.

I believe a good nation is made up of good governance whose sole aim is to develop the country and make it a fortress for her citizens, a place where they've got access to everything required to have a good life, and such include a good road network, a stable power supply, a quality healthcare system, reasonable wages, the construction of infrastructure such as factories, hospitals, and tourism centers, and a good maintenance culture that's continuously top-notch and enticing.

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This is my entry for the day 8 of the #mayinleo prompt of the INLeo initiative, if you'd love to participate, you can read days about it in the announcement post.

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Thanks so much for your time. Have a wonderful day ahead and stay blessed.

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