Two years ago, I found myself playing host to in-laws who came visiting from England with three children who had never been to Nigeria. Overfed with a diet of bad news about the country they were travelling to, they were prepared for the worst. I observed with amusement how they warily scanned their surroundings – perhaps expecting Tarzan to spring from the bushes without warning.
I burst out laughing when one of the teenagers exclaimed: ‘Look! They even have buses,’ on sighting a Lagos BRT bus. On the drive home, they were sufficiently impressed with their environment that they confessed Nigeria wasn’t the hell on earth that they had been led to believe it was.
For the next couple of weeks they would have the adventure of their young lives, doing simple things they couldn’t do in the concrete jungle where they lived. Things as mundane as climbing trees, chasing down lizards in the compound, visiting a local market to buy a live goat that would become a pet for them for over a week. When it was time to terminate the goat, they wept like they had lost a brother.
These adventures included a visit to Ekiti where their granny and uncles made them learn how to pound yam – an exercise they took to with gusto. All these experiences they kept sharing on live feeds with their friends in England. They left Nigeria vowing to return very soon. Such was their enjoyment of a country many choose to dismiss.
Denigrating the country is a pastime that has lasted for as long as it has existed as an independent country. Hyper criticism is the default mode for most Nigerians. That’s understandable because there’s so much to criticise – everything from failure of governance, lack of infrastructure, widespread poverty to extreme corruption. Whatever hopes the citizenry had about their new country in 1960, has been dashed over and again as the brief democratic experiment soon collapsed under the weight of internal contradictions – resulting in over three decades of military rule. Those who came promising to make Nigeria better often left it plumbing new depths of despair. Little wonder our favourite national sport is self pity and hate.
While much of the criticism is deserved, a lot of it is something regurgitated by rote. A lot of Nigerians in the Diaspora are transfixed by their daily dose of bad news on social media, that they sternly warn those foolhardy enough to try, not to visit home if they loved themselves. A simple violent robbery incident or minor terror attack is blown up as though the entire country is on fire. Many are suspicious when you offer a narrative different from what they have come to believe.
The country’s terrible image flows largely from what we say about ourselves. Over time I have come to see that foreign visitors and observers are often less harsh about the state our country than we are. When the ordinary South African citizen mock Nigeria as ‘a generator nation’, it’s down to our moaning over the years about failings in the area of electricity generation and distribution.
When others ridicule us as scam artists and ritual killers, there is sufficient ammunition to do so, but it’s also down to sensationalism on social media and in Nollywood. The damage caused by movies that portray the country as nothing more than a haven for witchcraft and voodoo priests would take a lifetime to undo.
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It is one thing when you are being hard on yourselves at home, it’s a different kettle of fish when the extreme criticism is internationalised by influential figures who, in so doing, reinforce existing negative impressions. In November 2024, afrobeats star Davido who hasn’t been shy to dip his feet into political waters ever since his uncle indicated interest in the governorship of Osun State, had on a visit to the United States warned his compatriots who had made their escape from the continent, not to make the mistake of returning because there was nothing good to report. His counsel was also directed at African-Americans who were showing increasing interest in goings-on on the continent.
Speaking on the Big Homies House podcast, he said the Nigerian economy was in shambles and there were systemic issues affecting African countries. “It’s not cool back home,” he said.
Not to be outdone, the new leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, spent her first months in the position launching acidic attacks on her country of origin. From talking of how her brother’s shoes were allegedly pinched by the police, to bluntly warning that governments here destroy lives, she’s been a one-woman wrecking ball hammering away at the country’s already battered image.
Many have been scratching their heads trying to make sense of her strategy given that Nigeria’s condition is unlikely to be a major concern of British voters at the next poll. Those who would have her pause in her desperate bid to be more English than King Charles, point to the fact that her predecessor as Tory Leader, Rishi Sunak, never scorned his Indian heritage the was she was done her own roots.
There’s sufficient evidence that putting down her country of origin isn’t exactly helping her drive to become Britain’s first black female Prime Minister. A YouGov poll published late last year showed that only 32% of Tory voters felt she would be a good PM. Even more galling is that fact 24% of her party members felt that the extreme right wing politician, Nigel Farage of Reform UK, would do a better job.
The foregoing is not to suggest that all is perfectly well with the country. Far from it! We’ve all acknowledged that we are in the midst of unprecedented economic challenges. But there’s no issue or failing in this country that’s unique to her. It is disappointing when you imagine that a country with so much potential could do a better job. Still, it isn’t sufficient reason for the amount of self hate Nigerians indulge in.
In their push for power opposition politicians would magnify the economic challenges and claim civil liberties are under organised assault worse than in days of junta rule. Unfortunately, almost all their leading lights have been part of government at different levels in the last 30 years and had ample opportunities to make a difference. They didn’t. This makes their posturing as would-be saviours highly suspect.
In 2022, Nigeria’s economy was ranked largest in Africa. Today, it is fourth behind the likes of Egypt, South Africa and Algeria. Despite continuing challenges there are signs of stabilisation and recovery on the back of ongoing reforms. Growth rate is expected to be between 3% and 4.17% depending on source of statistics. The African Development Bank Group projects 3.4% in 2025, while the Central Bank expects it to be as high as 4.17%.
The government promises to drive down inflation from the current 34% to a more manageable 15%. Many analysts think this is optimistic. Still, it would welcome relief for most families who have seen their pay cheques bringing in less goods home month after month.
The tremendous developments in the oil and gas sector, with the rise of Dangote Refinery, the resurrection of a couple of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) owned refineries and other lesser facilities, has transformed the country from a net importer of petroleum products to an exporter with potentially disruptive effect on European and other markets.
Poverty isn’t going to disappear overnight. Boko Haram attacks in the Northeast, banditry in the Northwest or secessionist violence in the Southeast would continue to make headlines from time to time. But the charitable would acknowledge there’s a more stable situation with regard to insecurity which is far cry from the situation two or three years when mass abductions were almost a weekly occurrence.
Nigeria may have these issues but let’s not forget that there are countries on the African continent which up till date have been carved by militias and where ethnic conflicts have raged unabated for decades. It may have her unique struggles but it doesn’t have to worry about that uniquely American phenomenon of gunmen walking into school yards and malls on mass killing sprees.
This is a country on the mend that deserves a breather from unrelenting and unreasonable bashing.
by Festus Eriye @TheNation
