It comes to a certain stage when citizens no longer feel like human beings in their own country and that is the stage Nigerian citizens have found themselves. An average Nigerian envisage the opportunity to travel outside the country. Nigerians want to go overseas and have their children there so that they can become citizens. How many Americans or Asians are Nigerian citizens? They walk on streets in Nigeria, Invest in companies, build companies and they are not even trying to be a citizen of Nigeria. It is because at the back of our mind, we believe it is only if you go in and out of a country overseas that you can be classified as the one who belongs to the high social class. We no longer feel like human beings in our own home, but we do not mind living like animals in another man’s home.
Nigerians go outside the country to do dirty jobs for years and comes back home to say he has made it in life and has achieved despite the plans of the enemy, they will go to church and testify to the goodness of the lord and that is how everyone puts them on the social class ladder and make them role models. If you visit an International airport in Nigeria, you will feel for the citizens of this country. A young guy might leave the comfort of his home sleeping in the airport for weeks because his Visa was denied and he already told them at home that he is traveling out of the country, while his family is home thinking he is already in the white man’s land, he is still here in the airport sleeping and begging for favours to help him cross to the other side. If a teenager can fly from Benin to Lagos by folding himself in the tyre compartment of an aeroplane, elderly ones will do worse. One cannot begin to mention several ways and things people do to get out of this country; Fake weddings, personifying another person’s passport, taking a visiting Visa and avoiding deportation, human traffickers, drugs even conferences.
It will not be so painful if these actions adds more value to the image of the country, but it does not only shame the country, it takes away value from the country. Nigeria is perceived as vulnerable by other countries and our actions as citizens or as an individual just makes it worse. A good number of people in this country has made it without a white man in the story. The worse part is that,some of these people comes back to say they want establish something in Nigeria and they come to open a Bar or an Hotel and one wonders how that is of any help to the country. They come back to exploit the ones managing themselves. We need to think deeper before taking actions as an individual.
The question that can help is; how many decisions have you taken that affects the people of your country positively? God bless Nigeria.
