This video has been floating within social media circles for a while now. I even posted it on my personal facebook (page) but wanted to share it with you all here on AML. For starters, I am glad and happy to see Nigerians both on the continent and in the diaspora questioning those who return home and their motives. In the entertainment industry, I have said it shouldn’t just be an all access granted just because you have a British or American accent or degrees for that matter.

In addition, there is something I am noticing that I certainly feel should be placed in the spotlight. Diasporans who return home are the first to scream when they perceive Westerners are exploiting their own. Yet, they too do the very same thing they complain of. Further, many also feel they are the authority to tell Nigerians overseas how the poor in Nigeria truly live. This is so patronizing and very annoying to me.

One key reason is I know what it feels like to come from the wrong side of the tracks and have the “haves” act like they know more about your condition than even you. Yet, they won’t even be caught dead stepping outside the circles of their ac’ed cars, posh homes, elite parties, shopping in high end stores locally and overseas etc. to spend just a few hours in your hood.

Nigerians returning home are no more of an authority on poverty or the poor than those who grew up in those realities but now reside in the US, UK etc.

The reality is that many of these Nigerians that return, return to a lifestyle that includes air conditioned cars, drivers, housemaids, “celebrity” friends, mixing and mingling with the social elites and what they do has no bearing, past or present, on those in the slums or outside their immediate vicinity; except of course to market their products and services for the poor to buy and make them wealthier.

Many are there because their businesses or employment opportunities in the diaspora dried up and they hope to cash in on the current gold rush in Nigeria. It just is what it is. Let’s just call it as it is.

Is this wrong? To me, absolutely not. I just wish they would quit with the grandstanding/righteous display of “over sabi;” but then again, it might be a syndrome of the Johnnie Just (Return).

Anyway, watch the video and see if you agree or disagree with the opinions shared.

-Uduak

http://africamusiclaw.com/2013/02/thought-provoking-video-are-nigerians-returning-from-the-us-or-uk-helping-or-hurting-nigeria.html