Nigeria @60: Some love, some can’t be bothered

By Tunde Phillips

Welcome to Encounter. This is a column dedicated to highlighting the struggles and experiences of everyday Nigerians in the diaspora. It will promote the excellence of our people in their individual endeavours. Encounter seeks the truth in divergent topics cutting across the social and political struggles of the African in diaspora. We welcome comments and opinions via the email provided below. Let us journey together to make the world a better place.

OUR great nation will be 60 in a couple of weeks, so i decided to see how countrymen in the diaspora feel about the diamond celebration.
My first encounter was with 16 years old Nigerian-American. I posed the question to her:
‘What are your feelings about Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary celebration. She immediately became elated, recounting her visit to home…
Nigeria is a funny and interesting place to her:
“Oh my God, that’s so cool, I wish am there right now. I ate amalaa (amala) in a place that looks like a shed and it’s the best amalaa I have ever had”.
Her enthusiastic response spurred me further to encounter another Nigerian in his early 40s in my Maryland station.
I posed the same question to him.
‘What do you think about Nigeria at 60?’
He responded to me with a stare that I interpreted as — ‘don’t you have anything better to do? — before he responded:
‘Bros, I am going to work; I am working double every day, I have no time for Nigeria whether she is 60, 20, or 100…
“Sorry bros, I don’t want to be late”, he apologised as he increased his pace and walked away from me.
My next encounter is with another Nigerian-American in his late 50s. I put the same question:
‘What do you think about Nigeria at 60?
He sat down, took a deep breath and as he released the air out, he belched…
‘I wish Nigeria well, but I am not going back there!”
I inquired why.
He looked at me straight in the eyes and said:
“I lost everything I have in Nigeria.”
He went on to recount how he started a business in Nigeria a few years ago and lost everything he invested to mis-management of the business and greed from the same people he was trying to help. He continued, explaining how he came back to the United States and started all over; driving a cab to make ends meet and to feed his family… then he exclaimed:
“As for me and my family, Nigeria is not happening.”
Curious to hear from someone who is not Nigerian, I went after an African-American; he responded:
“That’s great. The mother land needs to get it together, so some of us can go back, and forget this white people using us for target practice.”

I DID not find anyone enthusiastic about Nigeria at 60, except for my first encounter.
The Nigerian embassy in previous years — not sure if there will be one this year due to covid-19 — would host a party in its lobby; and that was the only time you’ll see the ambassador, if you don’t work there.
After the party, which is usually for a few hours — not more than three or four at most — nothing is heard or done until another October 1st!
The embassy you would think will have a week-long of events — ranging from arts and cultural exhibitions, symposiums, business seminars, just to mention a few that could help give the Nigerian in diaspora some kind of pride or hope amidst all the negative news about the country.
The cultural attaché and all the officials of the embassy are not just there to operate the embassy, if they do at all… Organising events that could promote the country should be paramount in their official agenda.
I remember the Goethe Institut in Nigeria while I was home, promoting events that connect Nigeria and Germany, just as the United States Information Service, USIS would sponsor mostly plays that sell the American culture to Nigerians. These were experiences that promote enlightenment and information exchange and business opportunities between the two countries.
The Nigerian Embassy in the United States has not, at any time, done anything in recent years to promote the image of this great nation. This is sad. A visit to the embassy is a nightmare. The mission does not seem to care about promoting the country it represents.
Anybody can organise a party; and trust me, Nigerians in the diaspora are the best host; so the embassy’s show of deceit held every October 1 is nothing; it does not worth an attendance.
Every Nigerian deserves to walk with his head up and shoulders high; and we work hard always to counter negative news about Nigeria in the diaspora through representing and identifying ourself as a people with high morality.
The embassy surely needs to do more, so we as a people can have some sense of patriotism.
American institutions promote Nigeria more than our embassy.

HAPPY Birthday to Nigeria at 60, we need to do more to make it worthwhile to be called a Nigerian and, it starts from the top to the individual.
Phillips, a broadcast journalist, artiste and company executive lives in Maryland and works in Washington DC. He can be reached at [email protected]