WHO REALLY IS A TRUE NIGERIAN?

Is it the one who works tirelessly to ensure that the labour of our heroes past is not in vain or the one who has given up on a better Nigeria because they are too selfish to make a sacrifice?

Is it the one who is more interested in baking the national cake or the one who is more engrossed in eating the national cake?

Is it the one who blows up himself and many other innocent souls because of an unfounded ideology or the one who seeks peace and unity regardless of our diversity?

Is it the one who elopes in search of greener pastures or the one who realizes the land is green and assiduously waters it to flourish?

Is it the young woman who elopes with her lover because she can’t marry someone from another tribe or the bloke who breaks a promising relationship because the lady shares different religious beliefs?

Is it the neighbour who sexually abuses children or the one who corrects them when they go astray in the absence of their parents?

Is it the Police man who molests innocent people for a 20 naira bribe or the military man who tramples on every civilian that stands on his way?

Is the taxi driver who returns a huge sum of money forgotten in his cab or the politician in Abuja who takes public money left in his custody?

Is it the man who impregnates the house help while his wife is still pregnant or the young woman who is stabbed to death by the husband she entrusted her life to?

Is it the young boys who spend the best of their days in front of a computer defrauding unsuspecting victims or the one who runs after vehicles in traffic to make ends meet?

Is it the Nigerian musician who shoots his video in Johannesburg and New York or the Journalist who brings the plight of the people of Makoko to the attention of the world?

Is it the young lass who find comfort in the beds of randy men old enough to be her father just because she wants to live above her means or the sister who finds solace in the church just to keep her immune from the evils of the world?

Is it the Nigerian in the Diaspora who does menial jobs and is always regarded as a second class citizen or the Nigerian who paints the city red every weekend because he is a Port Harcourt Boy?  

Is it the elegant woman in her pencil skirt who walks up and down the corridors of a blue chip company in Victoria Island or the teenage mother who endures the harsh sun at Oyingbo Market trying to give her child a better future?

Is it the one who works very hard to become very successful or the one who kidnaps their well to do relatives for a ransom?

I can go on and on with these comparisons but the point am trying to pass across is that as Nigerians we all come in different shades and colours. Most of us are good, some are bad and the others are very ugly. Majority of us are very good people but we are too terrified to identify with what is right.

Apparently we are supposed to be good people from a great nation with some bad eggs and a pretty ugly reputation. I am a diplomat by training and I know how people around the world perceive this country but I care less. Tell me of a country in the universe that doesn’t have an ugly side to them but yet they label Nigerians however it pleases them. And the painful thing is that we allow them get away with it because we often lose touch of who we really are.

We are proudly Nigerians, the proud citizens of the greatest Black Country in the world and the giant of Africa. The land not only flows with milk, honey and oil but also with love; strength and faith. Arise o compatriots and let us show the world the Naija Spirit.



Happy Independence Nigeria!