Very few uplifting things are spoken and written about Nigeria. Even people who derive their daily bread from government speak ill about the nation. To the skeptics, everything is bad at home, and the truth is that life is challenging in that beautiful place. But I just found one good thing about Nigeria, and that is all of us who rail and rant actually LOVE the nation. We may be hiding here in the US, running from pillar-to-post in the UK, treading the grounds of gold in Asia, and from these places speak ill about all that works not well in Nigeria, we LOVE that nation, we just don’t love the misleaders. I begged my wife for years to travel home at least once; I didn’t know that she was as deep in love with Nigeria as many around me until she returned. People who feel this way are not few. It is like the divorced husband and wife who don’t want to see each other dating anyone else. They still love each other.
LESSON- During the last Golden Eaglets World Cup competition, About 7 friends of mine here in the US either called in sick from work, or did not open their businesses until after the match in the finals. A Pastor-friend rescheduled a counseling session until the next day. Can anyone stake their livelihood and money on a country he or she hates? We all spent 3 hours getting in the love- bed one more time with Nigeria we claim to have finally divorced. We spent 30 minutes for the pre-game analysis, 90 minutes for the game proper, and the rest for just talking about Nigeria. It was therapeutic. If we had lost that game, a lot of us would have gone back to the marriage counselors’ office to re-evaluate the relationship with Nigeria. But Nigeria loved back, the boys won, and everybody loved Nigeria again. There was no Igbo me, no Yoruba us, no Hausa we, but all Nigerians together. Any good idea in the hands of bad people is a bad idea. Nigeria is a good idea in the hands of some bad people. We can work on changing that by massively getting involved, not just quarterbacking. Because we love, that is why we hope.
THIS IS STRAIGHTUP TALK!!!
