Why Nigeria is so Different And yet so Interesting

In Nigeria aka Naija,

If you want to be instantly hated and publicly scorned and ridiculed never to be forgiven, you just go ahead and openly declare your gay status. Or if you are a lady and you dare act nude in the movies? God forbid bad thing! I am just sorry for you!

If you want to see the highest number of religious people who so much believe in signs and wonders mixed with an unequivocal blend of mystical and deep rooted traditional beliefs then you can come and see things for yourself in Nigeria. This policy is often times referred to as giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s!

My God!

If you want to be in a place where almost everybody believes all their problems will be solved by one unseen God one day, Nigeria is your first destination.

If you want to experience this odd dramatic plus ironic situation whereby everybody easily decodes that there is problem in the system; everybody believes something should be done to correct these anomalies in the system but somehow everybody believes this correction should be done or started by the other person (and not necessarily by himself/herself), then you are already thinking Nigeria for sure!

If you really want to drive your car in the craziest of manners knowing full well that your passenger(s) won’t even care what happens to you or your vehicle as long as you get them to their various destinations in record time, my friend why don’t you visit Lagos, Nigeria and experience this craze in its purest form?

If you want to see how much or how far football can go in uniting people from different culture, language, background, origin, financial status, occupations, intelligence, not forgetting to mention people with various levels of madness; then you better think Nigeria!

It’s okay.

If you have heard that there is one very big African country with the highest population in the continent that easily makes huge and powerful online giants like PayPal, Clickbank and many others to develop cold feet whenever it comes to business deals with such a country and reaping the huge attendant financial profits, my guess is it’s Nigeria they are talking about.

Now, if you are that type of person who just want your head to be swooned almost to the point of big bang heavy explosion by endless charade displays from the ever ready praise singers coupled with so much façade from several envious fellows around you…Hhm! Why don’t you try Nigeria first? You will be filled…definitely!

If you are asked in a quiz which African country is responsible for producing the films that almost all of Africa is dying to watch and you answered Nigeria, congratulations! You are so correct!

If you want to see a country where almost every leader (or politician) is perceived as an opportunist by many of the electorates, oh boy, my guess is that Nigeria is definitely what you want to see.

I wonder what you will say if I tell you that in Nigeria, generally, people like the politicians, administrators, ministers, governors and even the President are actually praised for doing their jobs. In an odd sense, this is mostly because somehow these people in high offices are not expected to perform …wonders…miracles…all that well!

My oh my!

And if you really want to understand what the great Fela Anikulapo-Kuti meant by “suffering and smiling”, come to Naija!

If you are going to find it hard to believe and understand or maybe you don’t even want to believe at all that money rules everything; seriously speaking, that means you can’t really survive in Nigeria.

Do you know what is meant by Nigerian time aka African time? Well Nigerian time is simply a phenomenon or should I say a syndrome whereby people don’t keep to time simply because they know you don’t expect them to stick to the time always. They show up to events sometimes an hour late because they know that others will mostly do likewise. In a way, it’s fun. It’s a way of life. It’s called Nigerian time!

If you are really interested in seeing a society where anybody can easily termed as corrupt as long as he/ she is not your family member, relation, friend, does not speak the same language with you, is not from your ethnic group or worse still as long as you are not a benefactor/benefactress of his/her largess, I tell you, you should see Nigeria!

Hahaha!

Aha! I won’t forget to mention that it is only in Nigeria, as far as I am concerned, that all dead people are presented as saints during their burial, even if they happen to be the worst representation of wickedness and evil during their lifetime. This is surprisingly so because you should never talk bad of the dead! A non-stated fact…maybe!

But then,

If you want to live in a country, where you will never experience terrible natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, untold famine and long lasting drought, desert fires, freezing cold, endless wars and even mindless terrorist acts save for the normal religious (and political) skirmishes that are bound to occur in any over zealous religiously minded society; a country where the most enterprising and the most ingenious set of people on earth can easily be found, a country where people learn how to survive even before they touch the age of five, a place where people naturally learn to forge ahead no matter what, I am talking about a country where you can really get rich faster than you can ever imagine just because of the dizzying large number of business opportunities begging to be exploited, oh yes, it is about a country that is seating on top of massive crude oil deposit below her feet, a country determined to become one of the leading economies in the world come 2020, then you have no reason other than to believe me when I say to you that Nigeria is it!

Nigeria we hail thee! Naija for life!