I have come across several Nigerians that have complained about the way that they are being discriminated against by foreigners. They seem not to understand the reasons for this discrimination. Over the years, I have observed that the main reason for this trend is the way we present and talk about our country to foreigners. I will outline some examples to justify my point.
1: BOKO HARAM: The rise of Boko haram from a mere group of boy scouts to a full blown terrorist organization is Infact aided by the support and free propaganda executed by Nigerians. Boko haram is mainly concentrated in a small area of Nigeria, and they have been able to fight persistently. The rise in their morale is a result of the support that Nigerians unknowingly give to them through telling unconfirmed stories about their exploits.
These stories are grabbed by the international media and announced, thereby making Nigeria to look like a terror ravaged country. The consequence of this is that foreign countries become more wary of Nigerians, and take extra effort to check Nigerians that are going into their countries. Unfortunately, it is the same people that spread these news that suffer most from this.
2: EBOLA: Nigeria was Ebola free before Patrick Sawyer arrived with it. Few people that took care of him got infected before he died, and the LSG in collaboration with the FG struggled and contained the disease. Nigerians blew Ebola out of proportion. Some Nigerians kept spreading rumors about Ebola findings in states that were free of it. As expected, the fictitious news about how fast Ebola was spreading in the country was grabbed by the international news media, and it created panic in foreign countries. With less than 10 deaths from Ebola, Nigerians have been quarantined most at the entry points into foreign countries. This happened in HongKong, Singapore, Malaysia, US, UK etc. Of recent Nigeria was kicked out of the youth Olympics. This is the product of the way Nigerians self-destruct themselves.
3: NIGERIAN MILITARY:The Nigerian army was respected and seen as one of the strongest in the world. This is an outcome of the years of conflict resolution at home and foreign countries. Of recent, the rise of Boko Haram has created a new challenge for the Nigerian army. Unlike in conventional warfare across borders, the enemies are within and can easily blend into the civilian population without being noticed. It is actually a difficult conflict especially as the military will have to avoid killing innocent citizens.
Nigerians seem to lack understanding of this difficulty, so they keep taunting the Nigerian military. They write all sorts of anti-military texts, build propaganda to show that the military is weak and expose more of Nigeria's weakness to the world. As a result, Nigeria is seen as being very weak. The most recent effort is increasingly trying to show that the Camerounian Military is stronger than that of Nigeria. WILL IT SURPRISE ANYBODY IF CAMEROUN BECOMES GUTSY ENOUGH TO INVADE NIGERIA? We are hyping their military because they are dealing with a foreign (Nigerian) terrorist group that has barely penetrated their country. If the table was turned, and BOKO HARAM members were Camerounians, do you think It would have been difficult for the Nigerian military to contain? Like the EBOLA SAGA has shown, it is easier to contain a foreign menace.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is seen as a weak nation now, and every small nation can afford to damn Nigerians now.
4: FOOTBALL AGE ISSUE: The issue of football age has become a big problem in soccer. However, the way Nigerians trumpet about the cases involving Nigerians makes it to look as if Nigerians are the biggest age cheats in soccer. As soon as a Nigerian age grade team wins a major tournament, Nigerians take to the social media and start tainting the image of the teams by making unverified statements about the true age of the members of the teams. Unfortunately, these allegations, though mostly unverified, are noted by the members of the international community, and it reduces the respect that the teams have brought for the nation.
Recently, the Nigerian Falconets got to the final of the World Cup. Even though they didn't win, Nigerians have done the usual by going online and raising worrisome accusations against the patriots. They do this without realizing that they are shooting themselves on their feet. If foreign clubs had plans to grab them, these false age accusations may hinder their moves or reduce their values. Tomorrow, if the siblings of these critics are refused visa to play in a foreign country, they will blame the green passport forgetting that they are indirectly responsible for their misfortunes.
Nigerians must be careful about the way they speak and expose Nigeria. Nigeria is for Nigerians. If you kill her, you are killing yourselves. I BELIEVE THAT THE IMAGE OF NIGERIA WILL IMPROVE WHEN NIGERIANS STOP WASHING THEIR DIRTY UNDIES IN PUBLIC.
May God bless Nigeria and Nigerians
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