What I love about Naija: Why you should love Nigerians

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(Edited)

Nigeria, a country of over two hundred million (200,000,000) inhabitants, over two hundred and fifty (250) ethnic groups, and over five hundred (500) different languages. If chaos is a country, I really do not think any other country in the world would beat Nigeria to it.


The Nigerian flag

The chaos has brought in different leaders into the leadership sphere of the country, ranging from military juntas to supposedly democratically elected leaders. A neutral watching the country from afar will generally agree that there has not been much difference between the two genres of leadership.

Since her independence in 1960, the country has been plagued with a variety of social-economic problems. It all started with the civil war in 1967, about four years after becoming a republic. The main curse came when crude oil was discovered in the southern part of the country in the early 70s.

Since then, the little care for citizens and social-economic development that use to be a thing became a thing of the past. Different government regimes come and go, looting the country to the maximum. The agriculture that use to be the mainstay of the economy became redundant.

Everyone, including the populace, wanted a share of the national cake. Entrepreneurship was frown at and white-collar jobs became a vogue. Even those that studied agriculture and entrepreneurship in school distance themselves from applying what they studied.

The result was massive unemployment, corruption and nepotism, and of course, what Nigerians seem to be notorious for within the international community, fraud. If I were to get an HBD for each time I have witnessed Nigerians being mocked for fraud on the hive blockchain, I will probably be a few thousand dollars richer.


Nigerians are hustlers

In the midst of the chaos, some sections of the populace developed a thick skin, double down, and will rather work 24/7 for a penny than engage in fraud for a million. Nigerians are well known for their doggedness, hard work, loyalty, brilliance, and faithfulness both within and outside the country.

In actual fact, those known for fraud and other vices within and outside the country represent a tiny section of the population; they are more of an exception rather than normal. Unfortunately, the centralized media will only show you the sides that fit the agenda of their sponsors.

Below is a video by Fareed Zakaria that depicts some of the brilliance of Nigerians.

More recently, Howard University of the United State graduated 97 medical students out of which 46 are Nigerians. As if that is not enough, Nigerians picked up 16 out of the 27 awards of excellence dolled out to the graduates.

All over the world, the footprints of Nigerians can be seen in relation to excellence but like I said, the centralized media will barely show you these as it does not fit into the agenda of their sponsors.

On the hive blockchain, there might have have been a few black sheep among the numerous Nigerians that are busy putting-in a shift to create good content in order to drive the value of the platform, the honest ones far outshadow the dubious ones.

Some deride Nigerians for not powering up their earnings but I do not see that as a crime in any book. Several of us survive from our hands to our mouths.

Just as there exist bad eggs in every country, I really do not think the case of Nigeria/Nigerians is exceptional and worthy of the label. While our leaders continue to plunder the commonwealth of the country, some of us will continue to look for legitimate means of survival until we breathe no more. I love all my hardworking and honest countrymen and I think everyone all over the world should love us.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



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17 comments
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The media try to portray us as bad people but the reality is that the vast majority want an honest living. That is why whenever Nigerians leave this system to pastures outside, we tend to excel.

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For the majority that works hard, we always excel when we leave an oppressive system. To the extent that our successes are now being sees as a threat by several nationals.

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Very written post. I hoped with this topic we can highlight some of the amazing things about Nigeria and you've done just that. There is not denying the potentials of this great Nation and it's inhabitants and I believe sooner or later things will align.

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We are the giant of Africa and that tag will naturally come with enemies. Our number one enemy is the media that will always echo the negatives and keep mute about the positives. We will continue to blow our own trumpet.

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(Edited)

Earth is my nationality, I dont care what passports say.

Coming back to upvote this with full power.

Loved the read, thanks for participating.

God bless every honest living man out there with a good heart.

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You are welcome. Only if everyone can have that attitude of 'earth is my nationality, I don't care what passports say'

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Nigeria will be a powerhouse economy in 50 years; just have to look at the age demographics.

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Unless a serious government comes into power. For now, the productive youth are busy migrating to more saner climes.

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This was a very nice piece of text about your country, that I don't know much. In France, not much is said about it in the media (in short, no information is provided, regardless of the good and bad direction).

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Perhaps you don't watch/listen to the news much (which is understandable considering how busy you are always). Nigerians are generally brilliant just that those within the confine of the country are limited by several factors. Those that choose to utilize their brilliance in honest ways usually come out atop in a competitive environment abroad while those that utilize it in dishonest ways often do the same. My issue is that the honest brilliance of many is not propagated as much as the dishonest brilliance of few. Thanks to the western media

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French news are very French-centric. I must admit I prefer to get a more international overview, but I have very little time to read newspapers ;)

As always, the bad are the noisy ones... This suffers from no exception unfortunately.

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Yea, I agree with you. Bad news usually sell

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Yeah
Nice article here @gentleshaid.
Nigeria is blessed with so much, but the irony of the whole scene is that the people hardly benefit from what belongs to us.
But no matter what we just have to develop a thick skin for survival.
God bless Nigeria.
Our motherland.

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Indeed. The righteousness of honest people will never be put to shame.

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