{"id":147,"date":"2006-10-01T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-01T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com.s96953.gridserver.com\/site\/?p=147"},"modified":"2006-10-01T15:43:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-01T15:43:00","slug":"happy-independence-day-naija","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Independence Day, Naija!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So my dear Naija is now forty-six, huh? Awww, ain&#8217;t that cute? I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>So, I have a question sha. I&#8217;m sure every1 has heard that <em>&#8216;life begins @ forty&#8217;<\/em>, right? And my father&#8217;s personal favorite, <em>&#8216;a fool at 40 is a fool forever.&#8217;<\/em> (Actually, my dad says, <em>&#8220;a fool <strong>@ your age<\/strong> is a fool forever&#8221;<\/em>, but anyways&#8230;) Now, what does that say about our dear, Naija? At 40, Naija was definitely a fool, but now that she is 46, she really isn&#8217;t doing much better. Does that mean there is no hope for her?<\/p>\n<p>Who even came up with the idea that life really begins @ 40? Every1 seems 2 think life begins @ whatever age he or she is. I remember when Oprah turned 50 (can&#8217;t remember if it was last yr or two years ago), and she said that was when her life really began. If that be the case, then I can hope that Naija will continue to grow. But mehn, there is so much work to be done in Naija sha. 4 starters, they need 2 have a reliable government &#8211; the one that actually practices democracy. Right now, they say it&#8217;s democracy, but we know they are really running a millitarian government.<\/p>\n<p>And more thing, they need 2 come up with some social security number system. I mean, there is no way 2 account 4 the people in Naija. Things are so out of whack. Can you imagine having mapquest in Naija? Do houses still have numbers? Do streets have names, abi are they just referred to as &#8216;the street with the big orange house at the end&#8217;? Nawa o.<\/p>\n<p>What about the postal system? Is there even a postal system? Thinking back now, I don&#8217;t ever remember us receiving a at home (unless it was from DHL, UPS, etc). We always used the address of my dad&#8217;s clinic&#8230;which was an hour away from us o! I know my father&#8217;s P.O.Box worked because I used to send himm letter (even though we lived in the same house). I guess I was just bored.<\/p>\n<p>Oh well. I just pray for our dear Naija. There are so many problems there. So much corruption, betrayal, back-stabbing, looting, coups, etc. It&#8217;s just a who-pass-who country. Every1 wants 2 prove to be greater than the other. Vanity upon vanity. I pray God just weeds all the bad ones out. Naija has great potential. I&#8217;m yet to understand how and why we supply America with gas but can hardly find any in our country. Ah ah, na wetin now?<\/p>\n<p>Anyhow sha, Happy Birthday Naija.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So my dear Naija is now forty-six, huh? Awww, ain&#8217;t that cute? I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. So, I have a question sha. I&#8217;m sure every1 has heard that &#8216;life begins @ forty&#8217;, right? And my father&#8217;s personal favorite, &#8216;a fool at 40 is a fool forever.&#8217; (Actually, my<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_14738191_14738191":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1222],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-vl","tag-vl","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy Independence Day, Naija! - Verastic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vera Ezimora\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html\",\"name\":\"Happy Independence Day, Naija! - Verastic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-10-01T15:43:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2c1b7969fbea03a45b97d54a5228cc1a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/vl\/happy-independence-day-naija.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Happy Independence Day, Naija!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/\",\"name\":\"Verastic\",\"description\":\"Recklessly authentic.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2c1b7969fbea03a45b97d54a5228cc1a\",\"name\":\"Vera Ezimora\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6c1e19c23a08351aab97f35d3ca650f0b87e7e96937f85baf0faf6e0834bc51?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6c1e19c23a08351aab97f35d3ca650f0b87e7e96937f85baf0faf6e0834bc51?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Vera Ezimora\"},\"description\":\"I mean, I'm a lot of things - a Writer, Blogger, Speaker, Vlogger, Content Creator, Storyteller, Truth-Sayer, Milk-Lover, Yogurt-Addict, Entrepreneur, Daughter, Wife, Mom, &amp; Nwa Jesu. 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