One of my first memories is of being in the garden of the house in which I was born, and watching a file of men walk past, heading in the direction of the inner villages and towns, beyond the Yidi area of Ibadan. Those men silently filed past me while I was in the garden. I have a very distinct memory of the odd feeling that overcame that toddler who was watching that line of men in shorts walk past him. I could not have been more than four years old then.
I distinctly remember the first burglar proofs that were installed in our house in the 1970s. I can also remember that not long after that, the ever-present fetish broom that hung on the front door of many houses disappeared, to be replaced by higher and higher fences that became, in fact, almost impenetrable.
I have distinct memories of the Nigerian Enterprise Promotions Decree. Ostensibly, the decree was issued to ensure that Nigerians, rather than foreigners, captured most of the wealth that was being generated in and coming into the country. I still have memories of efforts by the Murtala Mohammed regime to enforce a degree of meritocracy, ensure that those in senior positions retired on a timely basis and that the almost cultish hold on wealth and opportunities by a few was reduced.
There was a coup that removed Buhari and Idiagbon after two years, in which the nation was seriously challenged on its values and the patterns of elite conspicuous consumption were severely curtailed. The IBB regime was probably the most destructive of value systems in Nigeria. Not just the Structural Adjustment Programme that it championed, but the materialism it unleashed on all aspects of society.