ARTICLE CULLED FROM:
http://www.independentng.com/sunday/graug280501.htm
The craze for handsets!
Olayinka Oyegbile
Ogbile@yahoo.com
Nigerians, from whatever angle you look at it, are interesting and fashionable people. I have come across several people who wonder at how colourful Nigerian streets would look with our fanciful dresses that most of us take pride in wearing.
I remember an American asking me one day if “all Nigerians dress in this kind of fine shirt”, she was referring to my characteristic adire top. When I replied that mine is just one out of several, she marvelled at how lovely we would all look. But that is perhaps where it stops.
In my mind, I told myself that we are proud of some of our own things while on the other hand we crave so many things that are not original to us.
For instance, since the advent of the GSM in Nigeria in 2001, a lot of things have been happening. I see very sophisticated and expensive handsets with my compatriots and I marvel at how anyone would invest so much on “ordinary handset” that is just meant to convey messages on the airwave.
I see people who boast at meetings and rendezvous about how “latest” their handsets are and what various things they could do with the sets. The latest is that of using a handset as both a tool to answer calls and at the same time take pictures with it and send it around.
I know many who would spend fortunes to get a handset even if for weeks or months they have no money to buy airtime. The contentment is that they have “the latest and expensive” handset.
As Nigerians, we seem to have the knack to be able to get something from the originators and appropriate it and use it “better” than them!
When I was leaving Lagos to come to Atlanta in June, I got tons and tons of requests from friends and associates that I should “buy very good handsets” for them when returning home.
That is where my dilemma now lies. Apart from the fact that it may be cheaper to buy them at home than here, the major problem I’ve had to encounter is that the kinds of handsets I see in Lagos I have not come across such since I came here!
Yes, that is the home truth. And I know a lot of people would find it hard to believe me. But the truth is that in the last few months that I’ve been here, I’ve met top scientists, researchers and a handful of politicians and business men. But the kinds of handsets I see them use are the “common” ones that I see all over the streets of Lagos!
And these are all important men here. I look around and want to see Thuraya, Navigator or any of those expensive handsets that I see our politicians and rich men flaunt about, but I’ve met with no success. Why?
The malaise of trying to impress with handsets has gone so widespread in Nigeria that I remember a father once lamenting to my hearing that his son who is a student in one of our universities is using a handset that he, the father and the financier of his education, cannot afford! The son had the temerity to tell his father that if he doesn’t use such a handset his colleagues in school would mock him, and that his is just “ordinary” compared to those used by some of his colleagues! It is amazing that Nigeria has today become a ground for all sorts of goods from all corners of the world.
Whenever anyone is travelling abroad, people, even students, hardly talk of buying them books that are necessary for their education; what they ask you to buy for them when returning home are handsets. Most even give you specifications of the type they want.
Where do you now scout for what would be appreciated when most of what you see with people and in phone stores here are the same you see at home? Do you have to go to Korea or China where most of these handsets are manufactured before you buy a “good” one that would be appreciated? Or do you risk buying one of those ones you see in stores and then have it thrown back at you or be told “Is this all you can bring from America?”
This craze is not limited to handsets alone. Even on a daily basis, as I move around the city here I don’t see those kinds of gaudy, expensive cars I see on the streets of Lagos and Abuja. Please, do not get me wrong. I am not by this implying that there are no expensive cars here. There are, but they are not as common and many as those I see on every street at home. By all standards, I do not think anyone would want to say that Lagos residents or Nigerians are by far richer than Atlanta residents or Americans.
The difference here is that rather than invest in an expensive handset or car, many would prefer to put such money into a foundation that would serve the less privileged and help the world.
I am very sure that if I have the opportunity to go to the White House or meet with President George Bush’s cabinet members, the handset I’ll see with most of them would not be anything compared to those we see with some ministers in Abuja or commissioners in Lagos.
In Nigeria, the handset one uses has become a thing of status; a kind of “Show me your handset and I’ll tell you how much you are worth.” This craze for handsets has become so fierce that the first thing thieves or armed robbers ask when they attack is “where is your handset?”
The tale has been told of how passengers were beaten blue by robbers who hijacked a bus and found out that one or two passengers had “pure water” handsets, that is the ones that are very common and inexpensive!
Why do we continue to place emphasis on things that are not important? That is the difference between us and Americans. Or have I been meeting with ‘poor’ Americans who don’t know how to make fashion statements?
I don’t think so. Fashion statements and fanciful handsets and cars are mainly used by film stars and musicians and not serious minded researchers and even politicians!