Stephen Igbinedion: A Nigerian perspective (30 Days, 30 Voices)

 I sometimes want to exalt Nigeria’s growth, but deep down I know the hope most Nigerians hold onto is gradually fading away.

It all started on a certain evening, I had just finished eating rice and stew with boiled chicken. I was just about to take an afternoon nap when I convinced myself to browse the internet for a little while, so I decided to search or better still Google these two words; ‘Aspiring Nigerians’.

I am a proud Nigerian, but living in a different society sometimes clouds my affections towards my mother land. My internet searches led me into various websites and articles which all focused on the problems facing Nigeria. Most of the articles I read had no answers to these problems; all they had were questions. Why were we a continent without answers?

For the first time since I arrived in America, I asked myself the one question I had feared to answer: Do I ever want to go back home?

Nigeria, the giant of Africa has everything, a land blessed with oil and corruption at the same time. Nigeria was blessed with vast amounts of green lands and mineral resources. A great country still under developed because, of our so called leaders who continue to sink deeper into greed. One reason people never say anything positive about Nigeria is our greed; Nigeria is a corrupted country full to the brim with ignorant politicians and leaders who continue to behave like dictators.

The other day, I and some of my ‘naija’ friends argued for hours on the matter of politics in Nigeria.  We talked about how a certain former governor of Delta state was charged with abuse of office.  We all came to a conclusion that most politicians in Africa especially in Nigeria had no sense of responsibility.  Why on earth would a sworn governor get publicly apprehended for looting billions and billions of naira? The corruption in Nigeria has eaten away the beauty we once held. Yes, the world once viewed Nigeria as the motherland of all homes. I sometimes want to exalt Nigeria’s growth, but deep down I know the hope most Nigerians hold onto is gradually fading away. Nigeria is a dying mother.

Many Nigerians abroad refuse to return home and positively impact their homeland because of how bad our leaders have failed us. Why should they return? They refuse to return to their homeland because they want better lives, and they will certainly not get that back home. Nigeria is a land filled with failed politicians and their never-ending ‘longer-throat’ for money. The ever-present greed in Nigeria gives the media abroad an excuse to continually portray Nigeria in a bad light. Foreign news channels televise daily on the many charity donations given to us, they never show the other side of Nigeria.

“Back in Africa, did you live in huts?” asked one of my American friends. I guess some schools in America forgot to update their African history.

Is it fair to only tell one side of the story? Is life ever fair? Every country has it positives and negatives, but the media here forget to show the other side to the story all mainly due to our own faults.

They say to seek help, you must first help yourself. Nigeria’s leaders need to understand that our country is falling behind other countries. The patriotism in the Nigerian youth is at an all time low, and corruption will never lead to growth. Nigerians everywhere urgently need to cut off corruption from their way of life.

If we want the media abroad to portray us fairly we need to rise up and fight for our rights. We need to take our fate by our own hands. We need to grab our own ladder and climb those steps. If we start now, maybe we might still have enough time to save our country.

So, “Do I still want to go back home?”As long as I live and breathe.

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Stephen Iginedion is a published author. His piece “Blood on Africa,” came in at second place in the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Literary Magazine contest in 2011. He enjoys listening to music and cooking. His passion is writing and his goal is to use his writing to break the negative perception other nations have about Nigeria, and hopefully He will inspire other Nigerians to rise up and fight for Nigeria.

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30 Days 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians to share their stories and experiences with other young Nigerians, within our borders and beyond, to inspire and motivate them.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. The problem of nigeria is not curruption, nigeria is too large a country the resources can not match the chase with which the north and the west is employing to use the resources to develope their ethnicland to the detriment of the owner of the resources. Which means that nigeria is not one country. Therefore, to solve the nigeria problem nigeria should go back to its AMALGAMATION era for REFORMATION.

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