By Olukorede Yishau
As a boy growing up in Lagos and schooling later in Ogun State, there were things I experienced and nothing forewarned me that some decades later, they will be relics. Forgotten. Consigned to the museum.
In those days, owning a cassette player was a big deal and owning a video cassette player was a bigger deal. Kids from homes without these devices would look for opportunities to perch by the windows of homes with these luxuries. With time, audio CD, VCD and DVD players took over and we all scrambled to belong. Though CD, VCD and DVD are not totally out, their time in the sun is almost long gone. Memory cards and other forms of data storage are relegating them to the background.
Time was when photographers could not do without dark rooms, chemicals and Polaroid cameras. We had to wait for days before we could get our photographs delivered to us. If you wanted your photos badly, you had to pay the photographer to destroy the rest of the film.
Do you remember when IBM typewriters were the king after overthrowing manual typewriters? Computers have taken over and IBM is history. Before the IBM typewriters, there were manual typewriters. No office was complete without the typewriters and there were the ubiquitous typists/secretaries who manned them. Journalism training was incomplete without taking a course in typing and shorthand writing. If you tell young journalists about that era, it will appear as though you were talking about the 60s, but this was still the situation even up to the 90s. It is all about time and season.
So popular was Daily Times that it became a generic name for every newspaper in Nigeria. That was the era when reporters in outstations had to send their reports through fax machines and the frustration of waiting for dialing tones. Fax machines are now relics.
About the time Daily Times was reigning, Macleans was the name every other toothpaste was known by. Though Macleans is still in the market, that era of it dwarfing every other toothpaste is no more.
Before DSTV and private television stations, there was no way of becoming a star in the entertainment industry without appearing on NTA. Now, many of us only mistakenly find ourselves watching NTA. The power dynamics have changed.
Back in the days, if you never used a Nokia phone, you were on a long thing. Saigem, Trium and Motorola also had their time. Many will still remember “Hello Moto” with nostalgia. Now, Samsung, I-phone, Huawei and some other new comers are running the show.
Time was when musicians celebrated the purchase of Peugeot and many would scream:”Ọkọ̀ ni pijó, Àwé!” (My friend, Peugeot is the ultimate vehicle).
Time was when a musical concert in Nigeria was unthinkable without Daddy Showkey, Baba Fryo and so on. Now, younger musicians have seized the podium.
There was a time Lagos was incomplete without Joseph Adeniran Ajao and Da Rocha; they were rich in cash and property. Ajao was the brain behind Ajao Estates in many parts of Lagos. They enjoyed their time and season and left.
Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s words were law for eight years. When he sneezed, multitudes caught cold. But today, his words are no longer law. They stopped being years ago and they never will again. Our annals are replete with many like him, who are now just grateful for the gift of life. It is all about time and season.
Do you remember the time when the demi-god called Idi Amin in Uganda saw himself as the beginning and the end, tore his country and people apart, laughed at Asian-Ugandans’ misfortune and never saw a tomorrow without him. He forgot that time moves, and once it moves away from your side, your season is up and there is no turning back? His brothers— Mobutu Sese Seko, Laurent Kabila, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe—also never understood the concept of time and season. Time is not like a piece of clothing that one person can use and over-use until it becomes a rag. Time outlives all.
The concept of time and season is a sermon for us all and, if we can internalise it, we will know that life is nothing much and should be used only for the good of the majority. There is nothing wrong with making money, but it is better when we use our wealth for the greater good because that is the only way posterity will remember us. The size of our bank account, the number of cars we have, the acres of land on which our houses are built, and so on, will not amount to anything.
A major proof of the lesson taught by time and season can be seen in homes on acres of land which are now wasting away. The homes, which once hosted who-is-who, are now controlled by reptiles, rats, and geckos and they have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in sitting rooms that used to host men of money and influence.
If we appreciate the concept of time and season, we will be rid of sick men who rape minors and adults, we will have a society free of avarice and we will say bye to bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers and ‘ritualists’. But, the bad news that take over our nation shows that many of us will never appreciate the sermon being preached by time and season. Only some days back, a girl, who just finished university education and was job-hunting, was found dead. She was raped and killed by a monster in human form who lured her with a job offer. The killer is a good example of men who are not bothered about their tomorrow. Today is all that matters. To hell with tomorrow is their attitude to life.
My final take: If video cassette players, IBM typewriters, men and women of influence can become relics, it is a matter of time before we are all overtaken, and if being overtaken by time is as sure as the oceans being interconnected, why can’t we be exceptionally good to the cause of bettering humanity? It is not a difficult thing to do. We just need to try.
• Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author of ‘In The Name of Our Father’ and ‘Vaults of Secrets’.