This is a love letter to the Nigerian childhood experience that raised us all — because if you look through your window now, the bicycle man selling ice cream doesn't come down the street anymore, and there is no unplanned gathering in the cool of the evening.

There is a kind of flashback that only comes in solitude, the kind that hits you quietly and makes you realise how quickly everything has moved, and how little space there is anymore to slow down.

It carries a specific kind of happiness that lives only in memory. Not the polished, Instagram-filtered kind. The real kind, sticky fingers, dusty school shoes, the sound of a bicycle bell two streets away that made you drop whatever you were doing and run.

If you grew up in Nigeria in the early 2000s, you already know exactly what that felt like. You didn't need much. The bar for joy was beautifully low, a cold drink from the right man on the right afternoon, a comic book in good condition, a parents-are-in-a-good-mood Friday that somehow ended at Mr Biggs. That was it. That was the whole dream back then.

Nobody was optimising anything or had the need to have a screen in their face every hour. The world was smaller, louder in the right ways, and full of little things that felt enormous at the time, because they were.

To a child with no bigger frame of reference, Oily Buns from a roadside glass box was a culinary experience that was always anticipated. A Ben 10 trolley bag was a status symbol.

We didn't know we were building memories. We were just living. And somehow, that made the memories stick harder.

10 Things Every Nigerian 2000s Kid Would Remember

1. There was no greater feeling than seeing that Mr Biggs sign from the backseat of your parents' car. The goal was always the same: a flaky, peppery Meat Pie paired with a cup of their signature Scooped Ice Cream. If your parents got you that combo, you were royalty for the day. You would be sitting like someone who had won something.

2. Nothing hit quite like Oily Buns from the roadside glass box. Golden, crunchy, always better when paired with a cold Fanice or FanYogo from the bicycle man. That combination was a whole afternoon experience in one purchase.

3. Before the new designs, the original FanVanille triangles were the ultimate schoolyard currency. There was actually a heated debate that they actually tasted better back then, and anyone who disagreed was clearly eating them wrong, that is, if you'd ask me personally.

4. Opening a chilled Hollandia Strawberry Yoghurt anywhere you found yourself in felt like a special occasion in itself every single time. Thick, creamy, the foil seal peeling back with that satisfying resistance. It was the GOAT of dairy snacks back then, and if you don't agree, the argument has already been closed.

5. If you rolled into school with a Ben 10 Alien Force trolley bag or any trolley bag with a special, you were the main character for the day, that week and for the term. The clicking sound of those wheels on the pavement was the theme music, and everyone in earshot knew it, even the ones pretending not to look.

6. As a kid from the early 2000s, you must agree that the first real introduction to drama didn't come from TV. It came from Sugar Girl and Eze Goes to School. If you didn't discuss Eze's journey in Primary 3, did you even attend school in Nigeria? Those books held entire communities of children hostage, in the best possible way.

7. Archie Comics were gold and GOATED. People were so protective of their copies that getting a classmate to lend you one required a level of negotiation that was frankly impressive for a nine-year-old. The conditions, collateral and the very serious look on both parties' faces.

8. Before streaming and cinema movies, there were DVD sets. Missing a volume was a household tragedy, the kind that sat in your chest for days until it was fixed. No one would move on until the whole experience was had.

9. If you had a Bobo in your insulated lunch bag, life was genuinely good. Orange, Apple, or Pineapple, the flavour didn't matter much. That small bottle was the heavyweight champion of school drinks, and whoever packed it for you that morning had done something kind.

10. Before the TV show, there were the Supa Strikas comics. Whether it came with the newspaper or you bought it solo, following Shakes and El Matador was the highlight of the week. Every kid on every pitch was trying to recreate those moves. Nobody succeeded, but everyone kept trying anyway.

The Part Where We Grew Up

Nobody warned us it would end the way it did. Not dramatically, no single moment where everything changed. It just sort of... well, thinned out. The bicycle man stopped coming down the street.

Mr Biggs quietly became something else in most locations. The DVD sets got replaced by a phone and a data plan. The Archie Comics found their way to the bottom of a box somewhere in the corner of the room.

We grew up, and the world got bigger, which is supposed to be the good news. More options, more choices, more everything. But more importantly, everything is also how we lost the specific joy of the one thing.

Because when ice cream is a click away, it stops being a reward. When every show streams instantly, nothing feels worth waiting for.

The kids growing up now will have their own version of this. Their own Mr Biggs sign, their own bicycle man. Something they don't know yet they're storing away for later, when adulthood gets heavy, and the brain goes looking for somewhere warm to rest.

But for the ones who were there, who tasted the original FanVanille and guarded their Archie Comics like national secrets, there's a particular sweetness to remembering it. Not because it was perfect. Just because it was ours, and it was enough, and for a while it was absolutely everything. We didn't know we were that happy. We just were.