02/06/2024
It's pathetic that Nigerians derive fun from ridiculing their own country. You hardly see the citizens of other countries drag their country like this, giving foreigners the opportunity to join in. The more we do this, the more we devalue our country, yet we wonder why nobody respects us. Do you really think other countries don't have their own share of embarrassments? Well, they do! You don't know about it because no one is bringing it to social media the way we do. They feel a stronger connection for (and have a great sense of belonging to) their country than the average Nigerian.
Think about this: the reason people don't drag their families on social media is because of the mentality that family is family, and they don't have another. How do you regard a person who washes his family's dirty linen in public? Foolish, immature, irresponsible, shameless, insensitive..., right? Guess what, that's how foreigners perceive us when we drag our country. We must stop it! It doesn't show we value our country at all. The truth is, whether we like it or not, we're Nigerians, and there's nothing we can do about it; we have no other original country to claim, unless we want to deceive ourselves. Realise that whatever you don't value does not and cannot have value to you. Read that again. Let's all value our country to give it more value as well as to derive value from it.
Much as we're not too proud of our country for the ugly state of affairs over the years, but we can't correct it by constantly ridiculing the country on social media and elsewhere. We can objectively engage the government through peaceful protests, demand accountability from our representatives, pray for our country rather than curse it (words are powerful!), and so on.
Finally, we should be the change we want to see: a country is a reflection of the citizens! Many of us are part of the problem. How have you transformed your little sphere of influence: your family, association, community, organisation, group etc.? How are you contributing to the development of the country in your own little way? What are you doing to solve the problem other than complaining, cursing and ridiculing? Are you a law-abiding citizen? Do you carefully elect responsible people into leadership positions or you are driven by bribes, tribalism, religion, ethnicity, selfish gain, age, political party affiliation or preference, gender bias and stuffs like that?
Nigeria will be great again, but ridiculing the country is certainly not one of the ways this will happen.
(C) Nsikan Ekaette
