Nigerian People - What's Special About Them?The Nigerian people are the country’s most interesting attraction. Without doubt, as a country Nigeria is rich in culture, literature and art, music and now movies, numerous points of interests and thousands of years of history. However in my view it is the friendly Nigerian men and women with their remarkable creativity, sense of humor, endowment, entrepreneurship, diligence, and a burning passion and desire to “make it” under the hardest of circumstances that makes Nigeria worth visiting! Obviously there are significant exceptions, in a nation of over 140 million people and more that 250 distinct ethnic group no generalization can apply. But in general Nigerians are very friendly to foreigners.
Every where you go in Nigeria, you will encounter people young and old trying to “make ends meet” – the same thing people do all over the world, but with a difference - Nigerian Style. There is always this debate going on about what makes one a Nigerian and by extent what defines the Nigerian way of life; and this debate will continue. I have however observed something unique among all the Nigerians I have encountered at home and in all the four continents of the world I have been to. Because many Nigerians have gone through decades of unimaginable hardship and poor governance; they have more history of a non working system. For example the average Nigerian household has power less that 50% of the time and running water less than 25% of the time. As a result most Nigerian people come to expect that things might not work.
There maybe some exceptions though, however I have seen that by default most Nigerians expect things to be less than perfect. And therein lies the secret for enjoying your trip to Nigeria – expect less! Cut your expectations in half! Rather be impressed than disappointed. From the moment you step into Nigeria, you will notice more things not working the way you will expect them to work. However, you will be amazed on how the Nigerian people are adapting and thriving in this environment where most things are not working the way they ought to. The environment and the structure may not look decent to you on arrival, but as you stay you will discover more “good” places and even some places that have a “Wow factor” to them. But beneath this decay and chaos lies the true beauty of Nigeria – the People. What’s special about Nigeria people you may ask? The answer is diversity and contradictions! Nigeria is a land of diversity and contradictions. You will encounter the nicest, funniest, warmest, kindest, smartest, cleanest, richest and most resilient people you will ever meet. But at the same time you are bound to run into some mean and poor people, people that are poorer than poverty as you have known it. You will see abundance and lack. You will see the healthy and the weak. You will see excellence and nonsense, the gentle man and the thug. But behind all these contradictions lies the one thing that Nigerian people share in common– Dream. The average Nigerian has a big and grand dream. Dreams that have led to such themes and slogans like – Giant of Africa, Happiest People on Earth and Centre of Excellence. However some of these dreams are a classic example of acquiring something with nothing. Many Nigerian people set out on ambitious goals with neither planning nor adequate resources except some questionable Faith in God, hoping that somehow, someway, someday things will work out. Matter of fact there is a very common Pidgin English saying that says “God dey, na poor man prayer” basically meaning with God all things are possible. Beginning from the 1990s this kind of “dream” has unleashed a generation of Nigerians all over the country and the world known as hustlers! These are the group of people that set out to make big money, drive big cars, build big houses and marry the most beautiful girl! Some of these hustlers have little or no education or training. With these group of hustlers emerged a new phenomenon that became known as “419” which basically refers to the practice of making money through fraud and crime. There is also a group of hustlers that are people that are committed to improving their lives through non fraudulent means. To this group of people I gladly belong to. In all, many of these generation of hustlers have met with some success (or thought they did) and many have simply wasted their lives.
The success of one hustler can influence as many as 50 hustlers to join the hustling fold; while it could take up to a 100 failed hustlers to discourage the undecided person to seek other career path! If you are thinking on visiting Africa, I encourage you to visit Nigeria. It will be more than a holiday or vacation trip for you. It will also be a learning experience, an exposure, an eye opener and appreciation trip for you. You will come back with memories that will stay with you for a very long time. You can even write a book about your visit! Recently we have a friend of one of our members come to our monthly Nigerian meeting here in San Diego, CA. Nigerian people in different parts of the world have a practice of forming an association; these associations normally meet every month. This meeting serves as a forum to discuss things of common interest and to get together with each other and be Nigerians. Mr. Claude Thayer came to one of this meeting, click here to read his
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