Casual Musing with Chioma Emezi
Email: chyemezi
Way back in my primary and secondary school days, we were taught in social studies and geography that Nigeria had two seasons: the Rainy and the Dry seasons. Then at the end of a school year, there is usually a long break period between July and September to enable students and teachers rest so as to prepare for a new academic session. That break was known as “The Long Vac”.
I looked forward to it because the long vacation meant it was time for me to go spend quality time with my grandparents in the village with my cousins. Coming from the city, life in the rural area was exciting and was more or less an adventure for me. The visits to the farmland, the palm plantation, the village stream, the markets, the festivals as well as church services remain deeply etched in my memory.
Nowadays, times have changed.
In trying to keep up with the trend, the word “summer” has been introduced into the Nigerian clime as well as the school session.
We now have “summer classes”, “summer breaks”, “summer schools”, “summer camps” and so on. The most amusing part of it all is the trips abroad popularly known as the “summer vacation”. The schools they attend do not help matters because once the resume, the very first assignment would be “WRITE AN ESSAY ON HOW YOU SPENT YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAY”… with emphasis on the word “summer”. In my time, the topic would have been “WRITE AN ESSAY ON HOW YOU SPENT YOUR HOLIDAY”.
For lots of privileged children, the summer vacations have become a norm. Did I say norm? They see it as their birth right. Once they vacate from school, they start to bug their parents and ask when they would be traveling for “summer”. They compare notes with their mates when school resumes to the extent that they would ask if they flew Economy, Business or First Class!!
At a birthday party organised by the parents of a child who attends one of the highbrow schools on Victoria Island, a child was overheard telling her friends how she sat “in front of the plane with her parents and her brother but she saw a classmate of hers at the back with her own family where her nanny was seating” Seriously??
A childhood friend of mine shared her experience with me. When her children vacated, they started asking her when they would travel for summer. She told them that there would be no summer trip this year because they have decided to put the travel funds to better use. She explained further that their father wanted to complete the house he was building so that they would move out of their rented apartment and move into their own home. To her shock, the children got very upset and threw tantrums. The older one even retorted “why should a stupid house project prevent me from going on my summer holiday? What will I tell my friends in school?”
At that point, my friend knew they had bitten more than they could chew. She knew there and then that her children have come to see the annual trips abroad as their right and she needed to put a stop to that.
“So what did you do?” I asked.
“Chioma, immediately I got into my room, I called my parents in the village, briefed them of what was going on and told them to expect us over the weekend”
Her parents were retired and had moved back home. Her hometown was in a very remote rural area in the South East with barely any network from any telecommunication company.
She continued: “Next I confiscated their phones and gadgets and proceeded to disconnect the cable TV. I left only the one in my room but banned them from entering my room for any reason”.
Once the weekend came, she took them to the bus station and gave them their very first 10-hour road trip experience in Nigeria. She dropped them off with her parents and returned to Lagos. Her father owns a large cassava farm and she told him to ensure her kids followed him to the farm on a regular basis. She also wanted them to learn how the food they eat is grown and processed. Enough of the needless pampering.
She told her husband that they would stop taking the children on annual trips abroad during the long school holidays unless it is absolutely necessary; rather she would send them to her parents so that they would be in touch with reality and not have their heads in the clouds. After all, summer is not a season in Nigeria
I know why this lady and I have remained friends for so long. She calls a spade a spade and knows that ‘khaki no be leather’.
Finally, dear parents, kindly help our future generation and drum it into their ears that summer is not a season in Nigeria. Those vacations abroad are Privileges and not Rights. Teach them to understand and appreciate all you do for them. Do this early to avoid “stories that touch”.
A word is enough for the wise.
