If there is one thing constant in life, that's change, and we always pray for positive change because things can also change for the worse as well, sometimes we look around us and wonder how certain changes happened in our environments while we were there all the while, just yesterday, I had a deep discussion with an elderly woman in my environment who happens to be one of my favorite clients, she had visited me to help her in making new dresses, and when I told her the current prices to get the materials needed, she couldn't contain her shock and took me back in time to when she bought same materials at an insignificant amount compared to the current amount, I couldn't believe my ears on how inflated the prices of these goods has increased over the years, in our chitchat, we dived into other basic life needs, like food, clothing, housing, etc there has been significant changes over the years sadly not for the best in most cases, and I'll be sharing these changes with us.

No More Coins As Means Of Exchange

Over 20 years ago I was in my pre-teen years, I remember I could purchase some items such as snacks, detergent, biscuits, etc using coins known as kobo, but now we don't use coins anymore even though it's still a legal tender in Nigeria, the inflation in the prices of goods and commodity has successfully driven out our precious coins to extinct, I doubt some of the present generation children know what the Nigerian Kobo looks like, I can't even remember the last time I saw these metal piece.

High Rates of Insecurities

I remember my parents never had any need for locks in our homes even though we lived in an apartment that housed 10 extra tenants, we could go as far as to the church and spend several hours there and still get home with everything intact at homes, in fact, if our neighbors saw something that didn't belong to them, they would go round the apartments to find the real owners. Security has taken the worst turn in today's world, we dare not leave the house unlocked, and when house hunting, we would rather choose to live in a house that is occupied by fewer or no other tenants due to the dishonesty among man and insecurity, people now steal from their neighbors without any fear, We dare not leave the house doors unlocked, even when locked, some wicked men still find their way, breaking into the house and carting away some of our properties, which has made the use of not only locks but burglary proofs as well a common sight on the windows and doors of people living in my environment.

Good Roads and Network

If there was one thing we suffered dearly in the past, it was bad roads, especially during the rainy periods, our streets would usually be filled with muddy waters and transporting to different locations was a herculean task during these periods, thankfully we've gotten quite an improved change in this sector, the government finally heard our long cries and construction was done on our roads which lasted for some couple of years, we have good roads now, and these roads were also connected to make transporting from one location to another easier, not forgetting the introduction of our state-controlled public means of transport known as BRT, which made the cost of transportation cheaper and also faster compared to other means of transport present before now.

Improved Health Facilities

Another sector that cannot be ignored is the health sector especially, in the past, there used to be a high mortality rate fir pregnant mums and children because our environment lacked the needed health facilities, but now, we have health centers spread across different local governments, even more than one for each local government area, and most of the services rendered to pregnant women such as ante-natal and post-natal are free services to encourage mothers to regularly visit the health center for a checkup, services also include family planning and other minor health check-ups, which has generally improved the health of people living in my environment and also reduced the mortality rate for mothers and children.

Sometimes we don't see how far we've come in a positive light, not until we pause and reflect on life, just like the Mayinleo topic for today has inspired us to write about the noticeable changes in my environment in the past 20 years and even though we still hope for more positive changes we can't neglect and not appreciate how far we've come.

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Thank you for reading.❤❤

All images used are mine