This is a response/rebuttal to a thread that should not have made the front page as it reeks of ignorance and misinformation about Nigerians in diaspora. Here is the thread;
https://www.nairaland.com/1066272/why-nigerians-diaspora-bitter

thelastPope: I am really getting irritated by many Nigerians in diaspora. They seem bent on seeing Nigeria and Nigerians go down. They come here and all over other Internet sites spewing garbage about Nigeria. They will put down anything positive about Nigeria. It seems they are suffering from gross bitterness.

There is no denying the fact that Nigeria has many issues but we cannot solve it by hating ourselves with so much raw hate and talking nonsense all the time. There is a time to critisize. For example, I like to criticize our excesses on materialism as a people which leads us to many unwanted stuff like corruption and crime. But insulting the nation and saying we will never make it and making us look so pathetic to the rest of the world is just too bad! We have our dignity and pride and we will never sacrifice that on any alter of self defeat and hopelessness.

If these bitter diaspora folks can't see anything good about Nigeria and Nigerians, I wonder why they even bother to post on Nigerian forums. They should carry their crap somewhere else. They forget that they are part of those who have failed Nigeria because they have not made any meaningful contribution to Nigerian growth.

Some of us travel out of the country and know how many of these folks live in Europe and even the US. In spain, Italy and Greece, many of them beg on the streets. In the UK, I don't even want to start. They haul themselves, sometimes as much as 15 in a 2 room apartment! Yet they talk nonsense here on NL because they can afford cheap Tmobile internet connection.

We have no other country but Nigeria. We must stand up and build it. Yes, it is a long road but it is a journey worth taking! Our families and friends live here. The question we must ask ourselves today is how can we make it better?

Apologies/acknowledgement to the many Nigerians in diaspora who do not fall into this category. Your patriotic contribution is a blessing to some of us!

Here are the problems with this thread;

1) The thread is based on a faulty premise. The premise is that it is mainly Nigerians in diaspora that are bitter. This is wrong. All Nigerians are bitter about the state of Nigeria. We are all Nigerians, whether in the UK, America or Nigeria. We all want to see our country become better.
The difference is that you would probably hear more Nigerians in diaspora complaining. This could be due to them (Nigerians in diaspora) experiencing firsthand a better economic/political system or they have access to faster internet etc. This doesnt change the fact that both sides complain and heavily criticize Nigeria.




2) The thread also implies that Nigerians in diaspora are suffering and that is why they are bitter.

a) What the author of the thread terms as "suffering" is not applicable to many Nigerians. I am a Nigerian in diaspora who has been studying in the UK for over 4 years. I and most of my friends from university actually enjoy living in the UK. Nigerians are very diverse; there are rich and there are poor. I have never worked one day in my life in the UK and the same goes for most of my friends who are students or just graduated. We travel around the Uk during short breaks from Edinburgh to Cardiff, from London to Newcastle. We also go on shopping trips/holidays to the USA, Dubai or Europe on long holidays.
As you can conclude, I and my friends belong to the upper middle class of the Nigerian society (in diaspora). Birds of the same feather flock together. I think the author should start flocking with different people

b) The author also ignores the dignity of labour. Just because someone is "suffering" as a sweeper and living in a poor accomodation does not mean that he has no right to complain (just as a rich fellow can complain about the same issue) nor does it mean that he can not he can not be rich tommorrow. We as Nigerians know that many many millionaires in Nigeria suffered in the West before coming back to make it in Nigeria. My father was a factory worker who suffered before making it. He always bitterly complained about tribalism in Nigeria and how he was cheated. He suffered and then became rich and that is why I can live in prosperity-because of him. The truth remains true whether a sweeper or squatter or a rich man tells it.




3) The thread implies that Nigerians in diaspora do not contribute to the prosperity of Nigeria

a) Even the poor sweeper in the London underground sends money through western union money transfer to his relatives in Nigeria and Ghana. How this basic fact escaped the author is beyond me. Nigerians in diaspora, down to the poorest contribute to Nigeria in different ways

b) Anyone who has stayed in London would know that there are numerous Nigerian accountants and immigration lawyers based in the UK. There are many Nigerians who have made it and give Nigerians a good image in the UK (despite the illegal immigrants and yahoo boys). There are bloggers like me in the UK that spend their time writing about Nigeria and the West in order to educate my Nigerian brothers. To say that we in diaspora do not contribute is a joke.




4) A simple question for the author;

-Is it the local Nigerians or Nigerians in diaspora that take pictures of crazy things in Nigeria and post them on the internet? Which of the two groups is based in Nigeria to do that?

The local Nigerians are as critical of Nigeria as the ones in diaspora. You are just more likely to hear it coming from the ones in diaspora for the reasons mentioned above.





In summary, we are all Nigerians and there are both foolish Nigerians at home and abroad (just as there are good ones too). To vilify one group and leave the other is very biased. Please, let us come together and work in peace not in division.

You won't have a good traffic for this thread because it has been exhaustively debated yesterday.I refused to comment yesterday because I have some reservations. I agree with you to some extent, and an appraisal of yesterday's topic will explain why Nigerians abroad will be more cynical and critical about the country because no Nigerian will take delight in traveling to Europe or America for greener pasture if our acts are right at home. These folks seriously want things to be in good perspective to facilitate their earlier returns, however, understood, I strongly think that there is a problem of mindset. Most Nigerians abroad could have made it better in Nigeria than abroad but people had this mentality of traveling oversees thinking it is all bed's roses.. It's not a speculation or act of trying to demean that some of our country's men and women over there are suffering black and blue and I think there is no shame in humility if they find themselves back to their route and capitalize on the opportunity provided by the quest for economic transformation. They indeed will be accommodated.

Even prophet muhammed in his days, they had a problem and he was consulted,
he told them to seek for him who has travelled out of thier domain. the consulted guy provided them the solution, when asked why the referal,

Even prophet muhammed in his days, they had a problem and he was consulted,
he told them to seek for him who has travelled out of thier domain. when asked why the referal? he told them the guy would have acquired a different education from their cultural environment.
those that fought for nigerian independence were those that returned from abroad in the 40s and 50s.
they was how things were done and refused to settle for mediocrity and slavery governance from the colonial masters.

All Naija based guys on this forum had a bad perception of the new traffic regulation, whilst its a norm for pple in diaspora.
Any way we'll get their.

^^
At least those returnees diaspora who fought for our independence did not shoot arrows at Nigeria from abroad. They did not remind us of how we have sold our brothers to slave trade. They did not focus on our despicable cultural practices of capital punishment, witchcraft, killing of twins and human sacrifice. They rather focused on our strength, cultural diversity, and optimism that we shall rise from the dust of our then predicament. They did not even concentrate on insulting the British colonialists. They fought for a future not yet seen.

Contrast that with those of today who believe they have seen better societies and so, insult their home of birth. Awolowo, Zik and Bello, all of blessed memory, traveled abroad to tell the world that Nigeria is big enough to take care of herself. Contrast that to Sahara Reporter and most other NL posters who take an outpost with feigned white supremacists to paint the black world which Nigeria greatly represent in a terrible picture.

That, my friend, is the difference. And that was what that poster is angry with.

All these perceptions i'll consider to be ideological differences,
i see your reasoning, you prefer sugar lased sermons, when people says a knife is a small cutlas.
Boy we are in the age of globalisation, where no one is a custodian of knowledge.
What you consider bitterness is a differing opinion based on experience and exposure to another culture.

Glad this is sorted out. baseline is we must accept the TRUTH, denying it only leads to further retrogression. be it bland, negative or insulting criticism. If it is the TRUTH, then we must do something about it and FAST is way overdue. we must do something NOW. There are some positive things happening that we all appreciate. but in contrast to the overwhelming negative things overshadowing the positive, it makes good reason to face reality, deal with the problems before we are over-run completely by them. which is what a lot of Nigerians in diaspora complain about really

Wow and I begged for this topic to make front page.


Anyways. There is hope