Nigeria in the 1990s will go down in history as the period when a lot of things changed for us. Formerly under the military rule, the Republic tasted democracy once again after a very long hiatus and since then we have continued our politics that way. Although our democracy remained the same, there a few things that we gladly let go of for the new millennia. Here are five that should bring a smile to your face.
NITEL: Nigerian Telecommunication Limited or NITEL as it was popularly known was the principal telecommunication company in Nigeria and was owned by the government. Prior to our iPhones, Androids and Blackberries, phone booths were the norm and to make calls, one needed to have the NITEL card and the stamina for long queues because unfortunately that was the way life was.
Black and White TV: Unlike now that high definition TV is changing our viewing experience, back in the days, only few families could boast of a television set that allowed you to see images in colours. Black and white TV as it was popularly called was the order of the day and some of us even thought foreign countries existed in monochrome (at one point I did).
TV Stations: Do you remember those times that you would come back from school only to eagerly wait in front of the TV set praying for the TV stations to start work so you can watch your favourite programmes? If you do then I need not say further on the torture it was.
Eateries: We only had one champion then in this category and that was Mr Biggs. As a little child, that name was synonymous to all your snacking dreams coming through. Most amusing of all is the fact that some of us actually would dress up in our finest outfits once we were ‘privileged’ to visit. Theses days, eateries pop up on our street corners every other day and they have somewhat lost their novelty.
Video Cassettes: This was what our movie collections consisted of mainly because there were no CDs, Bluetooth or any of the other modern means we have of watching our videos these days. All thanks to technology, we have more space for other things instead of the signature cassette stash.
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