How do other African countries view Nigeria?

In my MSc class in London, A Kenyan classmate said to me - you Nigerians behave like Americans - and I asked “how do you mean?”

She said - you behave like you own the whole world. Haha…. I had a good laugh. Then I said to her - we don’t behave like Americans. We behave like Nigerians. I went ahead and told her few things about us:

·      We generally have unbridled deep sense of purpose and strong drive to succeed. Whether born in Nigeria or abroad - it’s encoded in our DNA!

·      We know who we are and what we represent. We have deep rooted culture that we appreciate as it defines our identity or identities; if you may.

·      We know where we are from and we refuse to be brainwashed by anyone. We also refuse to be oppressed. Nonetheless we remain respectful.

·       We have a deep sense of freedom and we love life; and do celebrate it. We are smart and extremely hard working and we love to party when chanced.

·       We know about all our problems, but we don’t let them hold us back. We refuse to be depressed cos we believe we can make it.

·       We are Nigerians, we know ourselves, we love our beautiful country, hate our corrupt politicians but love our people.

·       We are confident in our abilities and we have innate pride in who we are and where we are from. That doesn’t suggest we are arrogant. Irrespective of our difficulties, we are deterministic, optimistic and happy people.

·       We are generally helpful, can easily stick together especially in a foreign land, we criticise ourselves and still get on well.

·       So you see, we ain’t Americans. We are NIGERIANS! And we love our Nollywood, Nollycomedy and Afrobeats. And of course, we are crazy football. Gbam!!

And she goes woooow! "No wonder you guys act like you own the whole place". I said oook, if you saaaay so!! We became good friends and 2 European girls fell in love with me because of the sense of pride and love I have for my country despite our problems. Strangely, they didn’t feel so strong about their countries/boys. There you go!

In conclusion, my experience is that other Africans view us as hardworking and always willing to stand up for other people especially Africans anywhere in the world; even if they don’t appreciate it. They also think we are loud, like to party and love jollof rice (or yellow rice like some call it. I don’t know why they call it yellow. It’s more orange than yellow). Irrespective of the colour, its tasty and …mmmmmm yummy! yummy!! I feel like eating it right now. 

Quick tip -  If you ever want to make up with a Nigerian and they are proving difficult, just offer them Naija "party" jollof rice + full options or pounded yam with vegetable egusi soup & assorted meat. Oh boy! I guarantee you it'll work. Don't be surprised if they want both. We just can't resist them. Haha... I’m outta here!! Going to eat... you know what!!!

I love technology and I promote solar power banks. Let’s hook up on Facebook - Dave Ebi

For Nigeria’s national day I made this for our UK audience. You’ll soon see why I really wanna get outta here to eat some jollof rice.

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