Looking back there are but two things we can do either to appreciate the kind of lives we have lived so far or think of how to improve on the current lifestyle or state of things in order to prepare for a better tomorrow let's say 2decades to come or many more. Whether we like it or not, changes are inevitable, and either we witness a positive change or things turn around for the worse, which is often the case we wouldn't want to experience. Some changes can happen to us and our environments suddenly, like yams added to flour. This is a gradual process that we barely notice until it begins to affect us.

Security

I can say that 20 years ago, we felt more secure in my community than we do today. Even though I have had the privilege to have lived in two or three communities within that time range, I can say the same thing for all of them, security-wise.

During summer periods, we feel safe sleeping outside our houses. There were not many of the luxury houses we see these days; hence, everyone laid their mats in front of their homes at night. We sleep all night outside our homes. While the women gist into the night, we have some older grandmas who take us through some tales by moonlight. I was a happy child and enjoyed all the fake yet impactful stories back then.

As of today, I still have a grandma who tells me stories, not of the tales of the moonlight kind but of her real-life experiences, because she is in her late 80s now. Everyone felt safe, and Grandma related how she could travel on bicycle for the day and even late into the night without fear of armed robbers or bandits on the way. Business was done without fear, and grandma is a trader; traveling to buy goods from one town to another is the norm for her.
I love listening to grandma here, who makes it a hobby, tell me stories of how peaceful life was back then.

Nowadays, you can barely travel during the day without fear of thieves, armed robbers, or kidnappers. Just a week ago, one of our neighbors stores was robbed overnight. She sells cooked food at her small stall, yet the thieves broke in and carted away her raw food and cooking gas tank. The reason for this is not far-fetched and can be seen from my next point.

Inflation and the high cost of living.

So many factors, put together, have increased the cost of living and inflation over time. A lot of people abandoned agriculture for white-collar jobs, even though the Nigerian soil is rich and fertile. Coupled with the insecurity of the lives of farmers, the country relies on imported goods for survival.
The devaluation of the country's currency made everything worse. The cost of imported foods went on a continual rise until it got to a point where people could no longer endure it. Stealing is gradually becoming rampant, and kidnapping is done to collect huge ransoms from communists.

No one feels safe in their own homes, even in broad daylight. Locking your doors and having a dog close by is the order of the day.

Health Sector

I can say that I am really quite impressed with the development in the health sector. Over the years, the rate of infant and maternal mortality has been reduced to the nearest minimum. Prior to this time, a lot of women preferred to have their labor and childbirth at home with the midwives, who are usually the older women in the community. There were very few hospitals, and they are usually quite far away from the people. But now we have a lot of federal and local government hospitals and emergency clinics in almost every community.

In addition to this, we have a good number of private hospitals as well. I lost four of my siblings to health complications because of a shortage of health education, but now we have a series of awareness and campaign campaigns about various infections and deadly diseases and how we can prevent them. The only recent challenge is the migration of health workers and a decrease in labor in that category due to inflation, which is causing medical practitioners to seek greener pastures in other countries of the world.

Water supply and road network

While other services chose to go the wrong way, I can only be happy and satisfied that we still have some things to be proud of as a form of positive progress.

I grew up drinking river water, then it advanced to well water, but now I can have some clean borehole water to quench my thirst. Every developmental process in the community wasn't left at the mercy of our government. Individuals build personal boreholes and share the clean water with us, which has been very helpful. Having more than 3–6 boreholes in a community is a relief, as they can charitablely give out water that will bless the people.

Our road networks are way better than what I have known them to be.
Unlike in some remote parts of the country, the community here has a good road network, and I can travel to any town with the road network and bridges linking these places.
More bridges are being constructed on a regular basis to reduce gridlock in the towns. It's really impressive and commendable.

Power Supply.

Well, two decades ago, we had a light bulb that barely came on, even once every three months. The kerosene lamps were actively in use, but they have now been replaced with rechargeable torch lights and solar lamps, and the power supply has improved over time.

Means of Communication

Two decades ago, there was no mobile phone, no hive, and I was really too young to understand what blockchain meant. The means of communication in my community was only via rising fire smoke for farmers on the farm, the use of trumpets, and local guns. Nowadays, even siblings can communicate with each other while living under the same roof. Paradvebture, I need to call my sister; there is no need to scream out her name when a single dial can get to her wherever she may be

Hotels and tourism

Two decades ago it was a taboo to hear of hotels in our communities, our religious belives has made us to understand that only prostitute and whoremongers visit such places and we were taught to avoid it at all cost. But now we all understand how to use hotels for board meetings and as relaxation centeres. You won't be viewed as a sinner when you visit a hotel and in that wise we have alot of beautiful hotels and sight seeing centers. And there is of course various club centeres for those who love clubbing.

There are several other points to talk about, but I will stop at these for today. I can't really say if I prefer our lives back then to what they are now, we gained some things and lost some others. While some areas experienced development reverse is the case for other areas nevertheless I believe that if we desire a better future, it is still possible to work, have a positive and clear mindset, and join hands together to build that future so that 20 decades from now we can have a better story to tell and perhaps with plenty of successes in many areas rather than what we have today.

*All images are mine

This is my submission to the #mayinleo and I'm using this medium to invite other hivers to come and participate in this prompt with a lot of interesting topics via this link

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