When I left Nigeria for college in the United States in the early 1990s, I noticed that, unlike the Nigerians I grew up with, the Americans took things for granted, where at peace and at ease with almost anything, did not worry about wastage, and where very giving with their time and money.  I noticed that in the classrooms, they played around with paper, and joked around with colors or research materials.  Learning was fun, anything precious that they needed came cheap, and things could be returned at anytime for a replacement or a refund.   In Nigeria, you wrote you name on everything you bought with a pen or permanent marker.  It was not enough to just write your name on the first page of the textbook, you also had to write your name on the side of the book so that all the pages bore a fragment of your name with your unique permanent marker.  Some even went as far as using the sharp end of a compass to carve their names permanently on their math sets, rulers, and pencils.  This was because if you lost any of your school materials, you will not only get an unholy preaching from all the adults in the house, but might also get the entertainment of the cane or belt before any replacement, if it is ever replaced.  Not every mark on the skin was a tribal mark.  Why this meanness towards children and even women?

Each time I go to the airport in Atlanta, I notice the Europeans traveling with just one or two luggage, each far below the accepted weight required to travel.  But when I see the citizens of the “Giant of Africa” traveling, you have no choice but to pretend that you are Black American.  My goodness!!!!  Where do I begin?  About 10 of them will come to the airport, but only one or two is traveling.  The load going to Nigeria is so much that the people returning back home are more than those who really need to be at the airport to travel.  Then, the luggage are always over the weight limit.  After filling the luggage to their brim and paying for excess luggage, those going back still have to go back with some stuff that did not fit in an empty luggage they brought for “plan B”.  Don’t they have scales at home? Some of the luggage were scarily huge that I demanded to inspect their luggage as they were removing their overweight items.   I saw packs of tissue paper, baby formula, cereal, dippers, toothpaste, medicine, cookies, body lotions, and body wash etc.  For how long has Nigerians being having babies, using the restroom, and taking a shower that we still have to carry the world to Nigeria when we travel?  When Europeans travel, they go light because they are going to see family and all their needs are not only manufactured there, but are usually cheaper and in some cases, better that the American brand.  When Nigerians travel, they carry luggage that can hide humans in them because they are not only going to take care of everybody, but also to inform the world at the airport that Nigeria manufacture nothing of quality even for their basic needs, if they manufacture anything  at all.

It is because Nigeria manufactures nothing or products of low quality that there are no jobs in Nigeria.  When you manufacture things you have to sell and keep accounts of them.  This automatically opens opportunities for salespeople, marketing and advertising companies, wholesalers and retailers, distribution companies, accountants to keep records, and even information technology to help acquire customers that are far away.  It is because of this that the financial and banking sectors will be more effective in helping to manage wealth and money transactions adequately.  But if there is no manufacturing or ordinary electricity, only the rich and opportune will have access to do all the importation and inflate the prices to make profit.  This is the simple foundation of why we have crime, inflation, bad leaders, and corruption.  If our daily needs are based on importation of inflated goods, then the average Nigerian is paying more than he has to for that product.  So a man losing money every second based on the global value for an actual product for his daily livelihood is actually living in poverty no matter how rich he thinks he is.  This leads to lack of respect for self, culture, fellow citizens, and the nation.  This leads to people killing their mothers because she refused to sell the land to fund the travel expense to America, or selling of their father’s house to travel abroad while the father is still living in the house.  I am sure that you have heard of top Nigerian naval officers selling Nigerian naval ships for their personal bank accounts.  What about Obasanjo giving Lake Chad and Bakassi Peninsula away?  Was it about national interest or his personal account?  I only wonder when the United States will give up Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Some years ago, Libya was in Nigerian waters for 3-6 months in the Atlantic Ocean, and Nigeria did not know until the Libyans radioed them to tell them how long they stayed and that they were leaving.  How will they detect foreign invasion when the naval chief has sold the ships that should receive signals and defend the nation?  Some submarines can carry tanks, soldiers, and bombs.  This means that ordinary Libya can invaded Nigeria 3A.M. in the morning and place their tank and bombs in strategic places before we wake up at about 6 A.M.  We do not even have the electricity to see and differentiate the invading army from armed robbers in the dark, not to talk of listening to the news in case the government wants to warn the people.  While Libya was under Nigerian waters, Nigerians were shipping imported goods on top of it to Nigeria for 6 months.  They were shipping dilapidated cars, worn-out tires, plastic bottle foreigners have drank from, rejected machinery parts, re-made engines, and outdated devices to sell at a profit.  Does God hear our prayers or we do not hear from God as a nation?   

There is nothing wrong with importation, but Nigeria must produce and manufacture things of quality not only to create jobs and compete for local consumers, but also to export to distant lands to acquire their citizens as consumers for our products.   While Americans can buy goods at affordable prices and return goods to the store for any reason for replacement or refund, the Nigerian customer in Nigeria gets cursed out and has to keep his over priced product even if it is defective.  This occurs because the American stores can easily return the goods to the factory and they re-make it as new, but the Nigerian stores are stuck with the imported goods and have no direct relationship with the foreign manufacturer, if he can afford to even ship it.  For Nigeria and Nigerians to truly be the “happiest people” in the world, they must first learn to generate constant electricity and manufacture things of quality to create jobs, acquire local and international consumers, and purchasing products at reasonable price that are below the global value of a product.  This will mean that Nigerians are truly saving money and are at peace with themselves.

April 24, 2008