People of white origin in Nigeria live a better life than the average Nigerian!! This misnomer is proven by various instances given by the professional class of Nigerians. It smells of a re-colonization tendency which states that the average “Oyibo” foreigner in Nigeria is presumed to be of better qualification than Nigerians of equal academic qualifications as well as professional experience!! This is an unacceptable state of the affairs as all tiers of government would love to see your “white man” for them to consider your propositions for a better Nigeria . If the white expatriate factor is not thoroughly identified in your proposals then your success rate is halved. You either come using this Nigerian professional “oyibo” culture or you have a “Chairman” that may guarantee you an approval. If none of the above is obvious in your submissions to the authorities then your chances of been reckoned with vanishes right before your very eyes. As we embark on our 48^th year of independence it is only natural that we analyze the lasting influences of colonization in our beloved country. The only way this can be adequately carried out is via a thorough preponderance of the white population in Nigeria and how they are faring in comparison to the average “independent” Nigerian. This is our independence and the younger generation owes it to itself to look deeper into the effects\residues of colonization in our motherland so as to identify potential ways of moving beyond the covert colonization that Nigeria has had to endure!! Our independence must be a celebration of the black world by all people of dark skin all over the globe simply because we represent the unadulterated spirit of the black man all over the world. We are also the most populous black nation under the sun and as such an emancipation of Nigeria from its shackles of economic slavery and its re-colonization tendencies must be our main objective as the upcoming generation of illustrious Nigerians.

It’s amazing that the average Nigerian finds it difficult to differentiate between the different races available on earth. Everyone of a light skin hue is considered an “Oyibo” man. We love to see the Lebanese, Syrians, Arabs, Semitics, North Africans, Indians, Chinese, Caucasians, and anyone light skinned as a better representation of humanity than our own skin color!! This issue I find quite perturbing because in the United Kingdom ; our own colonial masters, the unofficial pecking order of racial inter-relations and authority is that the white man rules whilst the Asians act as the foremen of the black slave class. This slave class is further divided based on their skin pigmentation i.e. the lighter you are the better your chances of a successful career in the white world! Amazingly in Nigeria we were under the impression that the racial divides would be reversed; however what we find is even more dastardly than envisaged. In Nigeria the White man still rules via the various policy makers whilst enriching the later to the detriment of the populace. If we’ve learnt anything from our sojourns in the west, it is that there is an unofficial old boy’s network of a whitened population which perpetuates Whiteman rule whilst giving demerits to the progress of the black subclass in Nigeria their own backyard!! Nigeria is a far cry from what the founding fathers or our heroes past envisaged as a free Nigeria which we should arise to as compatriots. It is obvious that the vision of a great Nigeria has been lost in the labyrinth of successive charlatanic governments based on corrupt and illogical rule!! Anthony Enahoro the then secretary to the nationalist movement must be quizzed to find out exactly what they had in mind when they moved the first motion for an independent Nigeria in the parliament of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are lucky he is still alive to be questioned. His answers notwithstanding will show that Nigeria was created as an independent state where Nigerians are governed by Nigerians for Nigerians and not Nigerians being governed for the White man by the Blackman for the Whiteman!!

Since everyone of light skinned hue is considered better than us the sons of the soil, then it goes to show why Nigeria will find it difficult to develop its own pride from within its own ranks. We learnt recently that Victoria Island in Lagos State , the financial center of Nigeria pre 1960 was predominantly populated and owned by the “Oyibo man”. The Nigerian Investment Property Company [NIPC] formed under Obafemi Awolowo check mated this rise by giving loans to Nigerians with credit worthy professions so as to ensure that the Black Nigerian could compete in his own homeland. If not for such Naija-centric policies Nigeria would have been another Zimbabwe where 90% of the worthy lands would be owned by a minute percentage which represents the below minority “Oyibo” group in Nigeria . We say we thank our stars that most of the founding fathers had the foresight to ensure that our generation did not have to fight a losing battle with the white world like Zimbabwe . In the current scenario the credit worthy jobs are reserved for the white world expatriates who are given preferential treatments and are paid more than their professional worth by the white expatriate lovers in the polity!! How then is the black man supposed to fare well in his own homeland? There is a general saying in global politicking that the colonial masters gave up overt control of their colonies for covert control through economic treatises and ideologies. The psychological state which we have been dealt is the “Oyibo” mentality that everything white is definitely better than anything we indigenously have to offer. We have worked as professionals abroad and realise that the professional expertise of Nigerians will rival those of any Whiteman in the same profession. We seem to forget that the average white man is not necessarily educated. Education is not a worthy pursuit of the westerners as they have realized that education does not necessarily mean wealth. The Nigerian elite then employ the 1^st white school certificate holder over a Phd wielding Nigerian in the name of expatriation. We will state here categorically that the word white expatriate should be replaced with the term slave driver!! This will make their roles more succinct to the imagination of the typical Nigerian subjected to such humiliating professional experiences.

In the west or any other “Oyibo” country our people are treated with complete lack of respect or civility as when you are “suspected” of travelling with a fake document you are immediately treated with utter disdain! You may be thrown into a rat hole and held against your will for hours on end with the excuse of finding out your real status as reason for your detention. Lets come home, in our own land, we have not done the research but we beg to know how many “Oyibo”people live in Nigeria that do not have their complete papers or immigration status. Lest I forgot, these papers can be bought easily from the authorising agencies. Porous borders, lack of enforcement of immigration policies and corruption all add up touphold the Whiteman’s rule in Nigeria over and above the typical Nigerian!! Doing business in the globalised world usually shows the Nigerian man that it’s a white world out there unless you are one of the numerous cash cows from Nigeria . The only Nigerians that are shown any respect abroad are those that can show they have an overflowing bank account. These may even be given honorary citizenship status as money stolen or embezzled is the language that the capitalist world understands!!

It is a sad state of affairs that Nigerians are interviewed for jobs in their own country by White men called consultants! Where is ithe dignity of being a Nigerian? So this is the best our country has to offer after 48 years of independence. The same overlords that gave us independence are the same consultants, expatriates and now funders of World Bank projects in Nigeria !! Where is the independence? All we see is dependence. Maybe October 1^st should be a day of dependence as opposed to Independence where the critical infrastructures necessary for our national growth and development are critically reviewed. Our Nigeria where the brain drain is still very much inherent because the average Nigerian still seeks greener pastures outside the shores of his own independent Nigeria!! We all love the resilience of our people but it should not be mistaken for stupidity of the masses. They are watching and speaking in their backyards and grumbling at the state of the nation! The nationalistic fervor of 48 years ago has been replaced by tribal or religious sentiments of the populace! The only thing we have to show for our independence is that we are still one entity under the sun and even that is under threat by the Niger Delta invasion!! The Whiteman has covertly colonized us for 48 years and now by offering their supposed solidarity in solving the Niger Delta crisis; they have come out of hiding to come in and undermine our military might cum the E.U offer of military assistance!!

We can not exhaust our thoughts on paper regarding this controversial piece however we believe that the point is clear enough to all stakeholders on the subject matter. Nigeria is for Nigerians and all “Whiteman” philosophies will not thrive in our generation as all overarching policies will be for the benefit of Nigerians. Everyone born under the fortunate star of being called Nigerian in our time will be treated as a demigod! We will love our citizenry both poor and rich for the betterment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!! The backbone of our country will be based on our own expatriates travelling to other countries to make up for their own lack of professionalism to meet up with their developmental needs. Our brain drain will be reversed to the benefit of the Nigerian professional class. We will respect our citizens more than colonial slave drivers that are dumped on our shores for lack of use in other countries. The local content philosophy will be our watchword as anyone that transgresses these fundamental tenets will be labeled a traitor to the motherland! All Whiteman or white men that attempt to undermine our system because of the inherent weaknesses in our polity will be considered spies and saboteurs to the success of Nigeria as a nation. We love our country dearly and on this Independence Day, we hail all upstanding Nigerians that stand up to the cause of a greater Nigeria . To our members and all Nigerians of good report we implore you to stand upright and make your posture a representation of your moral rectitude towards the motherland and its aspirations for greatness on the face of the earth!!

God bless Nigeria !!!

The opinions in this write up do not constitute the official line of the organization but the opinion of the writer. If there are any queries regarding the article please send an email to Daniel@nigerianyouthleague.org and he will answer you promptly.

Robot  # 1 | 30.09.2008 22:23

...Read the full article.

Mutti  # 2 | 01.10.2008 06:28

Having found this in Shoko's mix bag I'd assumed it was written by him but then I thought the writig style was not typical but then thought perhaps he had had a negative experience until I reached the end and saw it was not Shoko. That said, the writer has tried to tackle a topic that although we appear to be in denial about, knocks our individual teeth in almost daily. It is not so much about white Nigerians, those are few and far between but about us granting supremacy to all things foreign and refusing to make the effort to fortify our selves with the knowledge and skills, which will build our confidence and dispel all sense of inferiority. Just to give an example, I was looking for a video, a skit, anything thing to use to illustrate a customer care/ management concept at a workshop recently and all I could find was foreign and totally at variance with our culture and our traditional ethos. Now management training and high falluting organisations touting same have been in Nigeria for yonks and presumably have acquired some local experience, especialy since most claim to be Nigerian and are headed by Nigerians. But none has so far been able to adapt all of these management training concepts and ground them in our realities. The overpaid training consultants use terms and examples that their audiences have never come across and may possibly not relate too. I heard Whoopie say once in a movie that perhaps Mary did not have a little lamb? In the Nigerian context, perhaps mary wiped her little brother's nose growing up and bought breakfast from the woman next door instead of playing with a little lamb. But no, this does not happen. What happens instead is that majority of us, as demonstrated even on this forum, try to make pretences to lives we do not live, realities that are not ours just because we want to be seen to be, or to belong. We care more about how we will handle a fork in the presence of the queen we will never meet than moving our families, our neighbourhoods, our societies forward. Attitudes such as these can neither lead to progress nor development. Now I am not saying that we should eschew all that is foreign, what I advocate is that we should appropriately locate them in our context, for the benefit of our own people, for growth and development. It may be mandatory for representatives of donor countries to head up development programmes but it should not be necessary for a Nigerian to see a white person before they patronise a Nigerian Business. And enough with these wholesale adoption of American/UK fads in everything. Most of the time they are concepts that ar little known and ofetn not accepted in originating countries that are panned off to unsuspecting Nigerians - 7 habits of highly effective people!!! Rich dad Poor dad!!! Who moved my cheese!!! For heaven's sake, do we eat cheese in Nigeria? so why should we care that a person has it or that it be moved? The tortoise is our own folktale animal and our mice eat smoked fish!

Dewdrops  # 3 | 01.10.2008 06:57

Deleted for good!

denker  # 4 | 01.10.2008 07:01

Mutti, my dear loving sista, at post #2, wat precisely a point you're trying to make...my system don refuse to decipher the basis on which you dey maneuver your arguments..i just dey wonderment...in short i no understand you...lol!

Anioma777  # 5 | 01.10.2008 12:09

Good article. But It will be interesting to see the root causes of this "Nigerian yes massa" attitude. I have about half a dozen friends who have relocated to Nigeria withing the last 2 years. Some have noticed this Nigerian cancer of thinking everything "Oyinbo"is wonderful others don't see it or feel more superior to their oyinbo counterparts..and rightly so on an educational and professional basis. In my experience living and visiting Nigeria it depends on where you live and the type of job you do. If you had a business and genuinely wanted to empower Nigerians by employing them, but the Nigerians you employ don't perform. You will not think think twice to employ foreigners who will do the job. Not saying all foreigners are good workers either. Another factor is the "SELF HATE", "BAD BELLE","ANTI PROGRESS","UNFORGIVEN NATURE" of the average Nigerian. You have a company or top position in a firm. You need quality staff, you know of good professional Nigerians or friends, but some will decide why should another Nigerian be benefiting from it!!! or if bring them in they might start to be a threat to me or make trouble. Again these are common to mankind but Nigerians seem to have it a bit more!!!! The world is a global village to some extent, but Nigerians should insist on employing Nigerians first unless there is a real skills shortage and even then get them trained. Other nations empower their own people first by whatever means. If we don't respect,encourage or develop our own people, why should a foreigner respect us!!! At the end of the day most of these Oyinbo are exploiting Nigeria just as we exploit ourselves. I for one exploit Britain to my advantage but respect their laws...can we say the same for most Oyinbo in Nigeria? Until we "START THE SLOW PROCESS OF RESPECT,RECONCILIATION AND LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER" we can expect an even worse plight for future generations. Dewdrops:- Where you and others so bored and jobless to admire the building of these Asian expat refurbished house or whatever. I have seen many houses in Nigeria from my village-Asaba-Benin-PH-Lagos etc to know that keeping your place well kept is an individual thing not necessarily a race or nationality trait. You always so negative about Nigeria at times, damn was your upbringing there really bad!!! Or do you like to continue the negative barrage Nigeria gets on a per second basis!!! Anyway Happy 48th anniversary to ALL NIGERIANS!!!!!!! We are alive so there something to be happy about...abi.

lionking  # 6 | 01.10.2008 14:56

=Anioma777;275630> Dewdrops:- Where you and others so bored and jobless to admire the building of these Asian expat refurbished house or whatever. I have seen many houses in Nigeria from my village-Asaba-Benin-PH-Lagos etc to know that keeping your place well kept is an individual thing not necessarily a race or nationality trait. You always so negative about Nigeria at times, damn was your upbringing there really bad!!! Or do you like to continue the negative barrage Nigeria gets on a per second basis!!! . I sometimes wonder if her presence here is not some kind of sado-masochistic trip. If your experience of Nigeria/Nigerians was/is so unpleasant, why hang out on Nigerian websites?

Dewdrops  # 7 | 01.10.2008 15:25

Deleted for good!

Dewdrops  # 8 | 01.10.2008 15:28

Deleted for good.

2plus2  # 9 | 02.10.2008 16:48

While I echo some of the concerns raised in the emails of Mutti and Anioma777, may I point out that it is very complicated. "Another factor is the "SELF HATE", "BAD BELLE","ANTI PROGRESS","UNFORGIVEN NATURE" of the average Nigerian. You have a company or top position in a firm. You need quality staff, you know of good professional Nigerians or friends, but some will decide why should another Nigerian be benefiting from it!!! or if bring them in they might start to be a threat to me or make trouble. Again these are common to mankind but Nigerians seem to have it a bit more!!!! " . This is sooooo true it is not even funny. As a consultant that sometimes places people in places for work I cannot emphase this. Everything else, we have issues with. In training, I produce my own videos with my small camcorder. Alot easier. Get the people in the office to be actors for 30 mins. Write the script yourself, edit with microsoft video maker. What else.

Anioma777  # 10 | 03.10.2008 11:30

2plus2 I am glad you understand my point. I am often accused of "how you know,you dey live for Naija?",but whilst I understand you need to live somewhere for a certain period of time to get a rough idea of a place. I visit Nigeria so many times a year and see the same things over and over again. 2plus2 so what do you think is the root cause of this continued "self hate and mistrust Nigerians have for one another"? Also what is you professional and social experience with dealing with Oyinbo and what do your peers think. There is good and bad in all. I have met alot of oyinbo who grew up or lived in Nigeria and many "GENUINELY" feel disturbed at the state of the nation.

---

The conversation continues in our forum. Click here to read all comments

---