Charity Begins In Our Heads...
When last did you stand up for Nigeria in any other place beside the Internet? Before now, I was the Nigerian brother with the capital "N" written on his chest. Call me Captain Nigeria, defender of the Nigerian cause. Lately my pessimism about my motherland seem to have grown to uncontrollable limits. The news reports have not helped much, neither have the Nigerian blogs. I read as much as three opinions or headlines, this morning, portraying Nigerians and Nigeria in shady light. I believe there is a dire need for more positive news and art from our dear country.
The Story
Time: This evening
Location: Costarican investor's office in Long Island NY.
Mood: Very friendly and laid-back.
After handling the business of the day, the customary bye-bye handshake was going. Boom out of the blue the dude asks,
Investor dude: Where are you originally from?
Okay now that caught me off guard, I start with,
Omodudu: "uhm uhm actually...Africa"
Then the guilt creeps in, so I add
Omodudu: "Nigeria to be precise".
Investor dude: I have some investment stuff I am working on in Lagos Nigeria
My colleague and I burst out laughing at this point. We realize, this may not be a good idea as we had just wrapped up a rewarding round of meeting with this dude and his crew. Any misyarning could remove food our how mouths for that matter.
Omodudu: I hope it works out, pretty good.
He does not seem satisfied with our enthusiasm at all, and he continues
Investor dude:That is where the money is.. blah blah
He then takes it upon himself to convince us that Nigeria was a great place to invest, and he told us how he made tonnes of money from investment opportunities in Latin America.
Shame on us..
It finally dawned on me that, I sit here criticising the white man and his bias attitude towards the African economy. I have talked, in the past, about the artificial blockades ( I like to call blackades) to capital erected by the West, to prevent free flow of capital to Africa. I am in no way better than the The Man. Indeed I may be worse than he is in some ways. I spent all of my formative years gallivanting African countries, I should know better. What did I choose to do? Read news reports, about scam letters and form opinions about my own people. True, Africa has more than its fair share of issues, however you and I should desist from adding more to it.
6Comment(s):
Thanks for voicing out what I sometimes feel guilty to say. I often berate myself internally for being narrow-minded in my views about anything that comes out of Naija...these days I seem to have more confidence in other African countries than I do in our homeland...I guess with everything you see and hear, you just form one (negative) opinion and stick with it...that is wrong...like you rightly said...Charity does begin in our heads!
You speak for many of us. This is a great blog.
But having the guts to actually stand up for where we are from is what that matters. It puts us in so many delicate situations to be able to stand up for Nigeria.
I wouldnt be applying for a sensitive IT position and they ask me where I am from; I will politely evade the question!
Maybe actively pushing positive information the way the media pushes negative info would enable us see a less tainted Naija. I see some networks doing a good job in other African countries. Jola I am glad to know I am not alone, Naijadude I feel your pain. Thanks for stopping by pipuls.
Nice blog... I think it's more complicated than simply saying stand up for your country. I do try to do that and I'm also conscious at times that some of the bad press and caution is justified and don't want to fall foul of "false advertising"
Hmmm