pufectskin: Let's stop kidding ourselves; nigerian culture is over hyped! We diasporans like to think we morally better off or our culture is sooo much better dan dat of Americans. If we have such a great culture, why isn't it reflected in our society? Why is Nigeria sooo corrupt? Why do we leave 80% of our society in abject poverty? Why are our leaders; even just regular citizens sooo corrupt? I just got back to Nigeria barely less than a year and been scammed/duped by my best childhood friend (she doesn't pick my calls or returns my BB msgs anymore cos she is ashamed; dis is a girl from a notable family for dat matter). I am sorry to say if u r a diasporan, u really need to come home to see dat we really hv no values in this society anymore. Girls use their bodies to get high marks in unis, even d married girls r on parole, ppl marry for d wrong reasons, d private schools cost as much as american schools but d standard is about 60% close to wat u get in d US, d kids only respect ppl with a lil money, actually every1 here respect only ppl with a lil change; bottomline is I don't know what Nigerian values r...
Americans have a sense of who they are and where they want to be...we know American ideals of Dignity, self respect, hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, human rights and equal opportunity for all. What are Nigerian ideals? Do we have any? Or are we just fantasizing about family/villages raising kids? How many little kids in Nigeria have d level of advanced thinking an average 5yr old american has? How come we glorify scammers/get rich quick no matter d means men here in Nigeria? We call d scammed maga (I wasn't even greedy when I got scammed...long story for another day).
As I said b4, I have been here less than a year, and I hv concluded dat dis is not d Nigeria I used to know; frankly this is not d type of society where I would love to raise a kid. I want my kids to be exposed to science, innovation, diverse cultures; I want them to know what real love is..., I want them to learn to love ppl for who they are and learn to stand up for what is right...dats not very possible here.
D orientation here is of very low quality. No surprise we r where we r.

Gosh ! Well said...i really felt everything you said in your post .

shymexx:

You're not making any sense at all... Maybe, you need to study why Nigeria is the way it is, before posting your skewed assertions...

Why is Nigeria so corrupt?? Has it ever occurred to you that the whole country is in shambles because of the system of government we practice - and over imitation of western culture on the Nigerian mentality

What's the Nigerian identity?? What should have been the Nigerian identity with it roots in our various cultures has been eroded by western influence - and we don't even know who we're anymore - we're just a bunch of headless chickens trying to fit in somewhere... Don't blame the culture for that - blame the people and their over imitation of everything 'western' at the expense of the Nigerian culture(s)...

The balderdash you posted has nothing to do with the culture - but the people, who have no sense of belonging and are trying too hard to be everything but Nigerian...

The poster you are referring to might not be directly hitting on the Culture thingy but the Value system in Nigeria. Has it ever occured to you the Culture of a Community and its generalised or aggregate Values have some correllation? Go figure bro...

Thanks Pauloman. I had to vent; I hv been feeling that way for a while.

pauloman:

Gosh ! Well said...i really felt everything you said in your post .