5 things about my country.

There are some things human being cannot decide in life. Two of those things are

• You cannot decide which family you want to be born into
• And neither can you choose which country you would like to originate from

If we are given the opportunity to select, no one will ever be born into a poor family, and many countries would not exist today because no one would like to be born where economic crisis, war, bad governance, human trafficing, and so on takes place.

We all find ourselves where we are today and we grew to love it. This is how life has shaped us and we should all appreciate our fate in that regard. I am a Nigerian who can stand at the top of a skycrapper and shout out to people around the globe that I'm a prod African child.

I love my country with the whole of my heart. I will be talking about Nigeria extensively in a way it's applicable to me. I will give an insight on the way I percive it from my perspective.
If you wanna know more about Nigeria, grab a glass of wine, sit with your back well aligned on your couch, and keep reading.

Five things I like about my country

I have countless things I love about my country, but I will pick from the top five on my list.

1. culture/food
2. proverbial sense
3. Tourist attraction/the Nigerian anthem
4. Accomodating
5. Festivals/pidgin english

• Culture: We have diverse cultures in Nigeria. This is a country where we have over 350 languages, so what do you expect? The Culture is the way of life of the people. Every group have their ways of doing things in the traditional level.
  Many things are embedded in the culture, like fashion, food, exposure and more. The three major languages in Nigeria are Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. Their dominance is up to 85%. The Yorubas in fashion are known for their "aso oke", the Hausas love their local fabrics, while the Igbos are prominent for their apoche top or blouse and wrapper.

image source

Food: Every culture have their food.

The Nigerian dishes are superb. We have different varieties of swallow, superb vegetable soups, lots of fruits and a fantamoglorious Palm wine with Bush meat. Oh! If you don't know palm wine, then you should visit Nigeria. We call it the white chemical. It's is tapped from palm trees by palm wine tappers.

fresh palmwine with bushmeat. Image source

It is very natural and alcoholic. If you taste palmi, supported with bush meat, you would forget artificial wine and embrace the local alcohol designed by the divine and not human.

• Festivals: This is one of the things Nigerians are known for. We have many types of festivals, like The argungu festival aslo called the fisher men competition.

Argungu festival. IMage source

the egungun festival, the eyo festival,the Osun festival and more. People come from differnt part of the country to see these festivals.

egungun festival. Image source

The Osun festival is one of the festival in the yoruba land that attracts many foreigners because of the devine powers involved that allow people to seek what they want from the goddess.

I attended this festival once when I was in school.
You see kings, governors, senators, and many traditional rulers walking in the crowd to receive their blessings of fertility as well. It's a very unique festival in Nigeria.

Tourist attractions: We have a series of tourist attractions in Nigeria. The yankari game reserve is located in the North-eastern part of Nigeria. It's the country's biggest wildlife retreat.You will find different animals in the reserve.

Yankari game reserve. source
You would not like to visit the place without getting to see the wikki warm spring. It's very lovely.

Obudu cattle ranch now called obudu mountain resort is a pleasant tourist centre in Nigeria located in Cross-river state. it is located far in the mountains. The environment is siren, and it is a place for relaxation.

[Obudu mountain resort. image source]

There is another called the Osun sacred groove. This groove lies in the forest close to the bank of river Osun. It is believed that the Osun goddess uses this place as an abode, of which no one could see the trace except the spiritual people worshiping the goddess.

Osun sacred groove. source
This groove is 75 hecters big and there are different shrines there. Traditional doctors love visiting this areas often because more than 400 different species of plants grows there, which is used for medicinal purpose.

Ikogosi Warm spring: This tourist attraction is located in Ekiti state in a town called Ikogosi. There is a warm spring flowing abreast a cold spring and meet at a confluence with each maintaning its thermal propperties.

Ikogosi water spring. source

According to the research carried out by some people, they made people to understand that the temperature of the water is about 70 degrees at the source while it is 37 at the confluence.This attributes makes the Ikogosi warm spring a tourist attraction for people.

ErinIjesha water fall: The water fall as believed was discovered in 1140Ad by one of the Oduduwa daughter. Oduduwa is the founder father of the Yoruba tribes in Nigeria.

erijesa water fall. source

The water falls from the top as high as 7 floor from the mountain. The medicinal value that was believed to heal all forms of illness made it a drinking water to cure people. I don't know if that still works, but that's the belief from the past.

There are also other tourist attractions

• Aso rock Abuja
• Bar beach Lagos
• Chad basin
• Idanre hill
• Kainji dam
• Lake chad
• National war museum
• River Niger and Benue
• The confluence river
• Portharcourt tourist beach
• Queen Amina statue
• Biu platue, to mention but a few.

Check out the Nigerian anthem sang by beyounce. You woud love it. Arise o compatriot

Accomodating: Nigerian people are very accomodating. Many people from other countries that visited Nigeria testified to this. I searched the net for something and found this site where foreigners talked about the things they like and dislike about Nigeria. I was pleased to see that almost everyone that made their comment talked about the hospitality and how good we embrace and welcome foreiners in our country. We are lovely, and we love associating with people. If you visit Nigeria, be sure that you don't have to worry about how to associate with them. They are always happy to see new people in their midst.

Proverbial sense: Another thing I love about my country is the proverbial sense we use in interacting. This was prominent among the elders, but gradually instilled in the younger generations. We talk in different types of proverbs that ordinarily a nigerian who doesn't learn it would not understand. If two people are talking, and they don't want people around them to understand, they can slot this proverbs in and the listeners would be lost in the conversation. This is always easy if both parties have deep knowledge of the local proverbs.

Examples

If you shoot, you must trace so that it won't become a rotten meat. This is the english translation of a proverb. Ordinarily, when you hear this, you would think of something else, and that is if you even understand that contest.
Let me tell you the meaning: It means as a hunter, if you shoot your arrow at an animal, and it kept running, you must trace it, because it will eventually die somewhere. If you refuse to trace it, and you lost the sight of it, it will rotten away and your effort is wasted.

This in a real sense is telling the person you are interacting with to get to the root of a matter. Simple! See how cony that could look. We have thousands of proverbs like that we use to communicate. If as a Nigerian, you understand these proverbs to an extent, you are fit to get into the movie industry, because they use more of it in the Nollywood movies.

PLease let me add this. I love the pidgin english formulated by Nigerian. It is a mixed version of english and slang from the ghetto. I can call it the general language of the Nigerians. This is the language we often speak when we meet new people within the country.

Some pidgin english for you

Are you crazy - You dey craze
What's your name - Wetin be ur name
Be vigilant - Shine your eyes
There is trouble - Water don pass gari
steem is the best - steem na baba

Pidgin English is very cool. I love it to the bone.

Things I dislike about my country

There is no how you would walk without moving your head. This means no one is perfect in life. As much as I love NIgeria, there are some things I dislike about it. They are listed below

1. Governance
2. hold up in lagos
3. Area boys
4. Infrastructure
5. Unemploynent

Governance: We are currently practicing a democratic governance in Nigeria, which in a real sense should be the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but some steps and actions by our leaders shows that we have little or no say in the democratic system. The trend of leadership has been so centered on some group of people, and it gives me heartache. The same set of people that has been leading us since we gained indepent in 1960 still remains. Some are dead,but their children are placed in power, and the trend continues. It becomes difficult for anyone coming new into the political system to get into the circle.

source
The government is corrupt. There is no credibility in many things. They close it up with their powers and we are left to believe things against our will. We have a prominent Nigerian (Sowore, the owner of sahara reporter) who has come out to say no to the bad governance, but he was taken to prison and recently release. He also contested for the Nigerian president in the last election, but did't emerge the winner. If only we can support him in the struggle to free the country from one circle ruling, Nigeria will take a new turn and start seeing the light.

Infrastructure

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Oh no! We are not anywhere close to having a stable electricity in Nigeria. We allowed Ghana to tap from us, and they at some point celebrated one year of constant electricity in their country. We are not close to it at all. We have bad roads too. The health care system is not encouraging. The covid 19 pandemic revealed many secrets about the Nigerian health sectors.

The first time one of my friends told me that there was no electricity in their home town, I didn't believe it. Is it because we have too much states and villages or because we have a population close to or more than 200million? But there are representatives in every local goverments. It's corruption that leaves most areas in the country undeveloped. I hate this about my country to the last core.

Hold up in lagos: Estalle is a Nigerian based in the US. When she visited Nigeria for the first time, she said " Dad, I will never come to Nigeria again"? I laughed. We were caught in a hold up that lasted more than 4 hours. Most Lagosians wake as early as 4:00 am to beat traffic to work. Also when going home in the evening,most get home late in the night. The stress is what made the hold up disgusting.

source

Some people see the hold up as opportunity to make ends meet. They go about in the hold up selling different things like gala, juice, fruits, chocholates, and so on to people stuck in the traffic. One man's diasadvantage is nother man's advantage.

Area boys: Ha! If you hear this name, please take to your heel, else, you will see what these guys are capable of. They will remove money from your tight pocket without you noticing them. They are everywhere on the street of Lagos especially Oshodi.

Area boys. source
The first time I walked at oshodi, the bag I carried was unzipped totally. It was one good samaritan that called my attention to it. I would have lost my last #20,000 equivalent to $70 (The value of our currency is that bad. It was #1 to $1 in the 80s). That is how bad our economy is managed by the corrupt leaders up to date.

These guys are mostly uneducated, but want to live big among their peers. Whenever they are caught, the angry mobs gives a capital punishment by beating and burning them alive, which is against the rules. It's bad in my opinion. The police should be the first resort in such case.

Unemployment: I am a part of this. After getting a BSc In linguistics and completed my National youth service corps, I've not secured any appointment. We live in a country where the number of graduate we produce yearly is more than the employed cictizens. How easy can the goverment get job for all these graduates? As a graduate in Nigeria, you need to learn something different from what you read at school. For someone like me, I learnt how to sow cloths. I'm not perfect yet, but I'm trying to master the skill for future purpose.

Those that can't take up appreintice work find other means of survival, by engaging in robbery or Aristo (giving sex for money in a packaged way). It's very painful seeing people doing things against their wish. Frustration can lead to many things that one never plan in life.

The slogan that every citizens must contribute to the growth of his country will always remain the truth. To have a good country, all hands must be on deck. In playing my part as a citizen, I believe I have my responsibilites.

• Obeying the rules laid down by every sectors in the country: The first role any citizen can play to contribute to the development of the country is obeying basic rules

For instance, the holdup is mostly caused by the drivers and pedestrians. I'm not saying overcrowding is not an issue, but If the majority can obey the traffic rules, the hold up would be managed easily and I'm sure the hours of staying in traffic would reduce.

• Helping the needy with the little I can afford: Many people don't understand that they don't need to have a lot before they can give to others. I've engaged in giving to the needy several times. During my NYSC, I made it mandatory to give to the needy every month. What I give is not much, but if majority can cultivate same habit, most young guys roaming the street picking pockets to get money for food would not be found on the street.
  These are the ways I can say I'm helping my country at the moment, but I have a bigger dream of doing other things.

• Creating employment: One of the bigger dream I have is creating employment for the citizens. As I mentioned earlier, one of the problem we face in Nigeria is unemployment. I have many things planned in my diary to implement once I have the opportunity. I know how to produce manythings like Automatic Transmission fluid, Radiator coolant, Car wash, engine oil and more. Don't be surprised. I learnt it long ago from a close relatives, now late.
  I've written many proposals to the agencies to help finance the business to create employment for people, but they kept posting. I know there will be a way one day to realize this dream.

• Engage in politics: If we must change the political dominance, new people must emerge. This can only be possible if people like us can challenge the reigning parties. The reporter that contested for the president in the last election emerged from no where all of a sudden and tried his luck. I can say categorically that the guy has gained ground in the country when he was jailed for saying the truth and challenging the government. He was arraigned in court for treason against the government and reminded in prison for months

As a lady, I have the heart to struggle for victory. I know that if I get the support from the grass root, I can pull some crowd. My uncle is a politician, so with his help I can get some visibility. Every political leaders have a role to play no matter how small.

• Vote for the right person without allowing anyone to buy my vote: We complain that the goverment is bad, but we are the one that voted for them. I realised that many Nigerians sell their votes for stipends. When they approach them with some amount, they cast their vote for the wrong person and later complain of not enjoying their governance. Voting for those that have good credibility would be the way forward to good governance. This little approach can change a lot of things in the country if all hands are on deck, and that's one thing I will keep doing to get the right person into power in my country.

• Some africans sees Nigerians as agressive: When I begin to think about this, I could not place it well, because this is a misconception of who we are. If truly we are aggressive, I would't hide it. And besides, being agressive has to do with individual attitude. Maybe another thing was taken against us a being agressive. Maybe it's because Nigerians happens to have a better understand of every system they are found operating.

Maybe because Nigerians dominates even when there are countless countries involved in some gathering. Maybe it's because Nigerians know how to bend to rules and adapt to every conditions faster than others could imagine. Maybe because Nigerians are never afraid or intimidated.
I really could not get this aggressivenes about Nigerians into fit hole. This assumption is a round peg in a square hole. Nigerians are never agressive. We are easy going and love to associate with people.

• Nigerians are polygamists: I wouldn't blame anyone who see us as polygamist. It was our practice in the olden days when there was no civilization in the country. Most people were farmers, so they marry many wives to have many children that would help them on their farm. The more farmland they have, the more wives they marry. The civilization and advancement in technology has helped eradicate such practices. Most Nigerians are now educated coupled with the christianity religion that doesnt support polygamy. Seeing us as polygamist is a misconception, and I hope I've cleared the air.

• Nigeria is not safe because of bokoharam terrorists: We've had issues with the bokoharam insurgency, but that doesn't mean the country is not safe. The terrorist group only invaded Borno state in Nigeria, which has been recorvered by the Nigerian Military force. If you are planning a trip to Nigeria, be rest assured that you are in safe hands.

• Nigerians are all internet fraudsters: I hate it when I hear this fucking statement. I wouldn't argue that some Nigerians are not fraudaulent. I've seen a couple of them in the school. They name themselves as Yahoo boys engaging in fraudulent activituies on the internet, but it is wrong to label all Nigerians the same name. Nigerians are hardworking. Only the lazy ones go about duping people online. The whole country should not suffer from the sins of a few bad eggs.

• Most places in Nigeria is primitive: No way! Nigeria might be classified as undeveloped country, but it is in no way a primitive place. We have villages, no doubt about that, but we have mega cities too like Lagos which is in the top 5 of cities with the largest economy in Africa.

Five unusual things about Nigeria

• It's unusual to see female driving taxi in Nigeria

• Nigerians don't kiss on the street in broad light, except in the dark at night where no one would see them with their landlord daughter.

• Nigerians don't carry mortal in the car without putting a coin inside. It's very unusual. They believe that the car that carries a mortal without a coin in it would have an accident.

• Nigerians dont whitsel with mouth at night. It is very unusual to see anyone whistling at night. They belive it calls snake

Nigeria is a blessed country filled with milk and honey. There is more to write about my beloved country, but if I continue, night and day would pass by several times, and I would remain on my system typing. Let's give it a break till some other time that time would permit. Do you love the article about Nigeria? If you cannot come over to my country now, leave a comment and I will assume you've crossed the border to NAIJA. Thank you for reading this long article. I love you all.