Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth, has a wonderful people, called Nigerians. The nation has equally passed through different types of leaders since independence – visionary, myopic, selfish, improvident, tyrannical, wasteful, despotic, abysmal and hyperopic leaders. Its two hundred and sixty ethnic nationalities are in every part of the world and are always sought after anywhere they are, both for good and for bad. Hence, Nigerians are always in the news.


They live in a new world very much different from the world their parents knew. They are more self-assured and better informed about what they want out of life, less willing to compromise, ever ready to experiment or pursue their dreams. Thus, they have been labeled selfish and self-centered, though very peace loving.


Nigeria, a coinage of the colonialists, found no root in any of the Nigerian languages, whether in spoken word or in the way it is written. However, the Nigerian spirit is agile, peaceful, enduring, energetic, almost restless and bursting to the seams. It is the free and generous spirit that knows no boundaries. It is welcoming, embracing, warm and hospitable. It is the hilarious, one that is its own first critic and laughs at its own follies and inadequacies.


Nigeria is our own, our homestead; the only country we can call our own. It is the place where excesses are tolerated. It is generously gifted in collective amnesia and ‘forge ahead syndrome’ without the essential introspection and reflection. It is uniquely blessed with the aptitude and capacity for ‘suffering and smiling’ and its inhabitants have been noted as the ‘world’s happiest people’.


Nowhere in the world is like Nigeria, where you are greeted policies and programmes, which take years to plan and yet disrupted at implementation stage. It is a place where you must pay your monthly light bill, even when you have been in total darkness the whole month, or you risk being disconnected from source and still pay a reconnection fee for no fault of yours. It is a country where the rich chases the poor into the bush with siren to enable the rich to pass. It is a country where projects are abandoned, even when funds have been mobilized. Nigeria is a nation where its citizens are very law abiding, obedient and disciplined, only when they travel out.


Nigeria is a country where most of its leaders – Religious, political, economic and traditional – have strangulated the led. Our leaders have made Nigeria a laughing stock in comity of nations. Over the years, our leaders have left Nigerians in a state of penury, suspense, dependent and servitude. Nigerians are known to be suffering and smiling.

Nigeria has since become a place where today’s youth virtually do not know the difference between right and wrong or where to draw the line in acceptable behaviour, as the preceding generations have progressively destroyed our value system that even pre-dated colonialism. To them, anything goes.


Nigeria is where you beg for what is your right as nothing is guaranteed. You cannot be sure that one plus one will give you two or what the next hour will be; so you are in a perpetual state of anxiety and uncertainty. This state of affairs has disorganized many and has pre-maturely raised the blood pressure of the young and old alike.


However, Nigerians, anywhere they are, know that there is no place like Nigeria. Our God and creator is very reliable and dependable; our foods are palatable and unbeatable; our soil, very productive; our weather, very conducive; our culture, very adaptable and our music, so entertaining. There is much fun in Nigeria, despite the ignoble activities of our leaders in all spheres of life.


The so-called ‘common man’ has found a voice in Nigeria because he is the main keeper and its true representative. It is in the masses that you readily find the truth that takes ages to be untwined in the elite. The innocent hard worker and untiring labourer, perpetually waiting on God and ever hopeful that tomorrow will be better.


This is the fiery and irrepressible Nigerian spirit – it is the unwavering optimist and the one that lives to fight another day. Yet, we believe that one day, the gap between the rich, who is seen as a semi-god, and the poor will be bridged. God help us.

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