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Nigerian Haters And Their Childish Rants By Emmanuel Chukwura Achife
Giddy from the Sunday mass at Ogbete Enugu presided by a white deacon, we went straight to the village on one of those mandatory five day granny place vacations. With childish exuberance of one touched or had touched a white person I asked my grandfather whether he had ever spoken to or shaken a white persons hand. He elapsed into one of his boisterous laughter (which am glad I inherited ) and shook his head . I was happy that I had one against him, to further my quest for more points I asked him whether he has ever seen the governor or know the car the governor uses, without replying he herded us grand kids to his barn filled with rows and rows of yam and other farm products. Inside the barn, one of my siblings screamed and jumped up after seeing a rat, my grandpa without missing a bit handed me a stick and nodded towards the rat. I was only six years old.
Here is a man my grandpa never seen or heard about the governor of his state, never held a government job was able to take care of his three wives and raise many productive children in the society. My grandpa never cared about who was in power, he knew that the only way he can make it is through hard work and team play within his locality. He loved his village as were his age mates that they effected many profound changes there. When there were problems in their locality, the men REAL men would gather around to seek and effect solutions without finger pointing. They the men did not have access to cars, bicycle was a rarity, and the nearest town was 30 kilometers away which they had to trek when the need arose. They did what had to be done and all understood that they are the architects of their lives not someone sitting in Lions house (Enugu state house) or Lagos. They built schools without any government subventions and created atmosphere where education is encouraged.
Fast forward to this era in the country where most of us have access to school, live in towns and cities with relatively good transportation network yet some of us blame the country for their own personal failings and will wish Nigeria to fail just to prove their idiocy and lack of will power to affect changes. They are the Nigerian haters. These group of Nigerians who are hell bent in seeing the country fail are either living here in Nigeria or abroad. I bring up the story of my grandpa to illustrate the common thread among Nigerian haters , which is their abhorrence and aversion to risk and hard work. They see themselves above dirty hands and creativity and would rather have someone else do the job while they spend the days attacking and destroying the country that gave them so much for free and demanded nothing in return. They fall over themselves to prove through private conversations, print and electronic media on who is more hateful of the country as a way to prove their “intellectual” abilities. The Nigerian haters can be classified into these groups
a. Patently lazies; This group after schooling in the Nigeria free of charge still blames her for their lack of motivation in life. The patently lazies believe that the only way they can be fulfilled is to munch off the government and when that is not forth coming, they leave the country for UTOPIA where they believe that the government makes sure that people have food on the table. Take the case of Nigerian men and women who beat their chest for having to cross the Sahara under inhumane conditions with some of their fellow lazies actually dying there (did they ever bother to report the deaths to their loved ones?) in the quest to get to UTOPIA. Having crossed the desert, they have to hide from Moroccan or Tunisian police, witness rape and murder in Turkey or Poland (were they man or woman enough to report to the authorities?) before arriving at UTOPIA. There in UTOPIA they still complain about the life there and cry racism at any government action. In UTOPIA where do you think they work, your guess is as good as mine but all live off the government there . So here is a healthy young man/woman in a country which is not at war, not being persecuted by anyone but had to leave because of the warped notion of UTOPIA where he/she will live off the government. Financially he/she lost a great deal in terms of time, money and energy invested in achieving the reach to UTOPIA. What’s wrong with spending this amount of money and energy to create job for himself/herself and in the course of doing that create wealth for others. Is washing dishes in UTOPIA better than owning your own bus transportation in Nigeria? Is dodging immigration officials better than dodging okra leaves in your own farms, or bottling your pure water.
b. Institutional panhandlers; This group after getting their graduate degrees sees it as a right to enter into any government institution and be recognized for their possession of a graduate degree and not the work they do. They create one scenario or another and use it as an excuse to leave and work abroad and you guessed it in a government run institution. There abroad usually a community college they suddenly become experts on Nigeria economy, politics, religion and whatever could get them cheap grants. They would in their quest to be called experts print damaging false hoods about the country reinforcing stereotypes held (about the hard working citizens) by the host country. These are the professional 419ers who in their quest to win acceptance in their host community college would only write “critical” reports about Nigeria masked in psuedo-intellectual garbage. They make their claim to Nigeria expertise through half-assed comparison with other countries in most cases the host country or ones the host countries do have considerable financial interest. Once again this group hates the country not because they were persecuted in life or work place but their inability to rise beyond their so called graduate degrees and make something independently devoid of government handouts. Another thing about this group is that even after the move to another country they never made it beyond community colleges (government owned of course) in spite of other opportunities available. They always write about changes hoping that somebody will do it , and when someone does eventually carryout some tough decisions, they will be the first to criticize and condemn the country for letting the person do what they could have done themselves. They transfer these self loathing to the hapless citizens of the nation that gave them their back bone.
c. The stranded: The stranded for whatever reason found themselves stranded abroad either because they could not sustain their position in Nigeria or that poppsies stolen money has ran out. You will find them in African restaurants abroad deriding Nigeria and complaining to anyone willing to listen that they were somebody in their other life in Nigeria and how changes brought in the country have robbed them of their livelihood that they had to leave. When you remind them that either they were in charge of some of the failed enterprises or that their father was one of the decision makers they take offence and threaten to deal with you. These ones sincerely wish that they could have done better when they had the opportunity to affect changes and some also go at length to criticize their parents in private for their short-sightedness of bundling them abroad on the assumption that they will be better there.
d. Ethnic warriors: This group “champion” various ethnic causes and when challenged on whose authority they claim their representation, guns are pointed at ones family . They claim to “represent” a particular ethnic group yet do not believe in democratic principles of election into representative posts. To them representation is all about murder and mayhem and would rather see the dismemberment of Nigeria rather than one at peace with itself because peace forces them to be creative in ways to legitimately earn a living of which they are mentally incapable.
e. Treasury looters: Need I say more. They are the cry-wolf of selective justice. They would rather see to the death of Ribadu Nuhu because he has become a formidable adversary to their evil hatred for the country Nigeria.
For the Nigerian haters I would like you to take a look at the list below and try to decipher what they have in common .
Microsoft, employs over 130,000 Wal-mart employs over 250, 000 Walgreens employs over 150, 000 Beoing employs over 200, 000 Toyoda (Toyota) employs over 1 000,000 Ford employs about 200,000 Mitsubishi employs over 15000000 Duke, Cornell, Brown, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon Dupont, Bridgestone, Dunlop Abbott laboratories. Hallmark cards Honda Hershey or Cadbury
Hint: These are names of human beings just like you who through hard work and love of country created some of the things you enjoy today in UTOPIA. They are not government entities. You too can do the same if you work hard enough.
And here is a challenge to you haters, just for the heck of it start a corporation and we the stupid Nigerian lovers will cheer you as we continue to cheer the likes of Dangote, glo-mobile, Ibru, Ifesinachi who are positively affecting the lives here in our beloved Nigeria.
May you diety give you happiness and love for life
Sincerely
Emmanuel Chukwura Achife
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