Reflections…yes. They have a way of driving us down memory lane .Lying in bed in the dark room, expecting light from the distribution company, the thought of a certain Mr Inadequate invaded my mind. He was our Agricultural Science teacher in Senior Secondary School [SSS]1. He had a slim build and had just enough height to that passed for average.”Inadequate is coming”, the students would chorus with a glee, whenever they spotted him come for his classes.
His first class dwelt on the factors that stalled the development of agriculture in Nigeria ; Inadequate capital, inadequate land, inadequate education, inadequate storage facilities, inadequate transport facilities, etc.
With all these inadequates, coupled with his average size, we all sooner than later forgot his real name as Mr Inadequate sufficed. This was in 1993. About 27 years after, almost everything is still struggling to become adequate in this country, agriculturally or otherwise. In fact, other inhibiting factors have been added to the list in recent times; The over-running of farms by gun-wielding herders, and recently, the gruesome murder of dozens of farmers in Northern Nigeria.
Fast-forward to mulching. This is the use of shredded vegetables, or occasionally mineral matters, to cover the top layer of soil to protect, insulate or decorate it, to prevent or discourage weeds or retain moisture. Hindsight tells me that mulching could also help prevent nutrients from being washed away or being washed deeper into the soil,
As it stands now in Africa, and indeed Nigeria, mulching is what we need if the little nutrient left of us is not to be washed away. But one is left to wonder whether there are farmers with adequate agricultural knowledge here. Our leaders virtually do not care to mulch the land;
There is not much to protect us from the effects of climate change. As the annual floods come, those on prone areas only wait with gasped breathe to be embraced by the tides

The African/Nigerian man does not quite bother about the decorating effect of mulching. Just mulch to insulate and protect, and he will be fine.In the absence of this, the nutrients in Africa get washed away; our experts/professionals either drift abroad, hoping to be catered for by farmers with adequate knowledge.Many more offer to be trafficked into slavery and prostitution, knowingly or otherwise. Even the tales of mishaps on the Atlantic do not deter them. ‘ Why stay here until we die’, they ask.

Recall the rude shock the world was confronted with in 2018 upon the news of the man’s inhumanity to man in Libya; the gory tales of Nigerians and indeed other African descents in Libya. Reports had it that while many regularly drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, many others also died in the desert while many others were sold as slaves in the modern slave market in Libya.
Still, others run into certain Donald Trumps, who relate them with shit hole countries, and as a people who would never return to their huts once they land in America. For these sins therefore, they do not deserve to be let in.
Africans and their leaders celebrate the defeat of Trump on the one hand, and the inauguration of Joe Biden on the other hand. With the ease of travel restrictions by Biden, they are already praising him to high heavens. No one is thinking of making Africa the dream destination of the world. Africans are continually forced to look to the West for green pasture. As at September 2019 for instance, Nigerian prisoners abroad stood at 16500, with 300 of them on death row, according to Legal Defense and Assistance Project [LEDAP].
With heavy reliance on crude oil that we do not even refine, and the falling price of same oil, coupled with non-accountable use of the dwarfing oil derivation, juxtaposed with our untamed craving for loans that that can hardly meet their purposes, even in the ocean of the recovered but unaccounted  loots, embellished with religious wars,ethnic arrogance and the resultant nepotism, brain drain, either by migration or by death become inevitable.
While I’m angry with Trump for his ”shit hole” insult, I’m also patiently waiting for Africa/Nigeria to etch a qualifier for herself that is different from Trump’s. For, considering the rate at which people struggle to leave the continent for the West, it will not be out of place to suggest that majority of those left behind are only waiting for the slightest opportunity to check out like Andrew.
The time to etch that name is now.