By Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews contributor in Abidjan, Ivory CoastI am a Nigerian but I've not been always proud to affirm this. I have hidden my true identity more than once. I have shammed fake identities oftentimes.
Photos courtesy of the BBC News Network
You would probably say I am weak in the heart and oddly unpatriotic, but it wasn't my fault. I simply had reasons to have behaved as such.
Look, I don’t know of any other country in the world that bears the burden of social stigma upon itself and its citizenry like Nigeria. To so many people around the world, the names: Nigeria and Nigerians stink. These names are greeted with disgustful grimace. They are kept at arm’s length for safety reasons. Nobody wants to trust people from this giant West African nation. Nobody wants to do business with people from this country, potentially one of the richest in the world. Nobody wants to befriend people from this land, the second most evangelized in the world. But why?
The problem
While researching for this article, I interviewed so many Nigerians and non-Nigerians. A better part of what I got from the Nigerians was notion that the world is passing a wrong judgment on Nigeria and its citizens.
“Nigerians are good people!” I agree because I am one of those, but why is this bad reputation syndrome keep intensifying?Almost all the non-Nigerians I spoke to gave a sharp contrast of what the Nigerians said.
“Nigerians are terrible…They are 419s…Their inordinate urge for quick wealth pushes them into unimaginable deeds…They are drug peddlers…They have fake pastors…Their girls are topping the list of prostitution in Europe, Italy to be precise…We watch in their films how they use human rituals to make money…They champion Internet scams.”
Internet scams
Internet scams
Yeah, Internet scams. This is the latest one. On September 02 2009, Sony Corporation of America produced a commercial to promote its newest game console called PS3. The advert was aired on some TV stations and posted on Youtube. A white narrator is shown saying, “I don’t believe everything I read on the Internet, if not, I would have become a Nigerian millionaire.”
Read the rest of Kobo's opinion piece here at africannews.com
Read the rest of Kobo's opinion piece here at africannews.com
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