The Nigerian factor - Opportunity or threat?

Have you ever felt refused simply because you mention that you are a Nigerian? I have!

For me the most embarrassing thing I have been asked lately has been "What country are you from". For one year of my life in Indonesia, I had to face up with many scary looks by people around simply because I was black and by the time they knew I was from Nigeria, it even made matters worse. How the hell can you just suddenly look at one person and categories all as the same, even without you knowing that person at all. In my time in Indonesia, many people who met me at the first instance were completely shocked after one or two encounters with me, to find out that this guy does not think or behave like the others and I think AIESEC really helped me to recreate people's mindset about Nigerians.

Same situation has happened quite a number of times since I came to New Zealand. Every group I come across always had on person asking me "Why do your people like to send scam emails telling about some wealth hidden somewhere, bla bla bla" I just try to give them a diplomatic answer just to escape the situation for a minute. Have you felt that?

Again, I wouldn't totally blame them. I will blame the nonchalant and malignant Nigerians who go about spoiling the country's name and leaving these mess for people like me to face out there. This is completely annoying and depressing at the same time.

I read in News daily about how Nigerians are now using this "black money" rout to dupe foriegners unlawfully off their hard earned money. This now seems to be the norm in the country and everyone seems to do this unruly act. Now the repercussion is that people like us living abroad can't afford to leave Nigeria anymore because all we get are names, stares, negative feedbacks and could even get arrased by passers-by.

Just yesterday, I was in an online skype interview and the question that came was "knowing that Nigerians are the number one most dangerous people in my country, how do you plan to work with the knowledge of this". Honestly, I don't think I answered the question appropriately because the first thought that came to my head was "Not again" and that just completely took me off my feet

Like India and China, one of their key strengths is on the fact that the population is massive, the economy is booming with more local companies springing up to become global companies and lots more global companies having a settlement in these countries, which is now enormously contributing to the positioning of the people as most sort after employees within the global market. Now the funny thing about this situation as well is that Nigeria is now turning slowly into an Emerging African market and just like India and China, it is the largest black concentration in the world and many multinational companies are now looking to invest into the country which somehow well positions us as a nation, but is it enough for me to leverage upon been a potential employee in the global market? This largely brings me to my topic that, is been a Nigerian an opportunity or a threat.

There are other blogs from friends I have read who have also shared different views points and about their experiences abroad and all of which have not been short of mine so how can we, being ambassadors of our country contribute to changing the status quo for the better? What can we do to recreate the mindset of these people abroad about Nigerian?

I feel I can't do anything about this. On second thought, I feel I should simply do my part as an individual by Showing a positive attitude to those around me and keep everyone around me on the right thought about me. So if I can do this, hopefully there are also a number of Nigerians out there creating a slowly widening positive path amidst the huge negative one.


What more can I say? May God help us all!