aisha2:

The best you can do for your country is actually to help solve its problems pratically not just to stay and make exagerated critism.

i agree. the fact that i'm in europe does not mean that i'm not contributing to the development of my country.

aisha2:

She said the truth,

i disagree. she seemed to me to be aiding the destructive spirit of complacency for something unacceptable. this spirit has given our inept leadership and unmbrella of excuses and contentmen for their intentional failures. that is why someone in nigeria will be happy to hear that a governor did not steal too much money as against another who stole too much as if we elected our governors to compare thieves

aisha2:

People like you just stay and make empty. . .

wrong again sister. i dont make empty uninformed noises (except in the thread on stingy uk residents which was more of a joke) read through my posts, i make sense if you are objective and dont you ever think i dont like nigeria or that i ran away from nigeria but know for sure that i'm getting prepared for nigeria-my home

aisha2:

I do not just stay and make bad cricism about my country when i see problems in Nigeria I try to see how I can intervene as a Person and appeal to good spirited Nigerians to do something which God bless their hearts they always do even not in the magnitude we expect.
Before I got a job, I wrote over 50 tests and i knew i di not do well in them so i worked harder, read harder and thought harder.

more grease to your elbows. you are the kind of people we need.

aisha2:

. . . . . . . . . Nigeria will get better we have started the process. .  . . . . NIGERIA FORWARD. WE WILL OVERCOME AS A COUNTRY AND AS A PEOPLE, WE WILL KEEP MOVING EVEN IF WE FALL WE WILL NOT STOP WE WILL CONTINUE. GAT USED TO IT,

i say AMEN to that

Afam:

I did state once that the views of Nigerians living outside Nigeria is less important compared to the views of Nigerians living in Nigeria because those within know what goes on here first hand.

All we ask for is objectivity and honesty in criticisms. No one can absolve the government of the day of any wrong doings but comments and discussions shold not include fabricated and manufactured allegations.

It is also important for us to know that amongst those that will always say negative things about Nigeria and Nigerians are 419ners, corrupt officials and other get rich quick people that have woken up to a whole new way of doing things.

point one. the views of all nigerians are important and the importance should not be weighted by location.
point two. there is no point trying to bring 419ners into this criticism. focus on the criticism. does it make sense. when a 2 yr old kid is abducted in the niger-delta you turn around to blame the BBC/CNN for painting nigeria in a bad light. have u ever considered if it were your own child?   call a spade a spade. a problem tolerated is a problem enthroned. why can't the military take over the british govt? after-all they have the ability. b/c the british people will not tolerate it at all. and they know it?
point three. power belongs to the people. if the govt knows that the people cannot tolerate something, trust me, they wont do it

@jakumo
you are not a bad freelance writer

Mark My words and quote me some day, very soon people will start lining up for Visa to come to Nigeria.
Then all those Whinners will know they are proudly Nigerian. For God sake even a 1 yr old baby knows the problems we face as a Nation, so please stop unnecessary repeatation.
if any body does not have any meaningful contibution to make please let us be, thank you we are aware of our problems what we want now are people who will do something to change our situation. It is everybody's responsibility not only Government

Many Nigerians embellish and embrace kolomentality.  An insurmountable prevalence of subsequential colonial mentality is the cause of our noticeable lack of national jubilation. Colonial mentality is undoubtedly highly responsible for the unacceptable feelings of national inferiority that clog up our minds, the minds of our people. The unquestioned effects of the colonial mentality we undergo is clearly seen causing our minds to relish the limiting aversion that our inferiority complex vouchsafes upon us.  These feelings can be suppressed through electrifying practices of self-celebration and appreciation.  In order to celebrate ourselves we must reward ourselves; if we don't we won't see the shining bright light Nigeria has to offer us.  We, the people of Nigeria, devote so much time to bashing or glorifying the political and economical negativity that has our nation bedridden in an ICU that we forget about those who suture up their voices to spark a change, a rebellion. We as Nigerians are asininely intimidated and fearful of the ensuing consequences that will arise if we speak out against corruption and devilish violence, but I ask you, what can the government do if we speak collectively as a whole, what else can they do but listen?  We must pull together and work against this unpalatable menace that has become of our currently distasteful society.  Come to think of it, we can definitely learn a thing or two from Black Americans about what it means to be prideful, about what it means to prosper when facing image-shattering adversity. We must stand together - together we shall overcome.

aisha2:

Mark My words and quote me some day, very soon people will start lining up for Visa to come to Nigeria.
Then all those Whinners will know they are proudly Nigerian. For God sake even a 1 yr old baby knows the problems we face as a Nation, so please stop unnecessary repeatation.
if any body does not have any meaningful contibution to make please let us be, thank you we are aware of our problems what we want now are people who will do something to change our situation. It is everybody's responsibility not only Government

it's good to be positive and i'm not attacking you. i will work to build nigeria with all my strenth while i'm alive. but if i see something wrong with naija, i wont just shut up and continue working, i'll speak out. that's why we have freedom of speech. i dont go telling the britons that we have 419ners from nigeria. i'll rather keep quiet b/c if you read my posts you may notice some aversion to the westerners. but for crissake, when we are with ourselves we should tell ourselves some truths and see what can be done

k0be:

Many Nigerians embellish and embrace kolomentality. An insurmountable prevalence of subsequential colonial mentality is the cause of our noticeable lack of national jubilation. Colonial mentality is undoubtedly highly responsible for the unacceptable feelings of national inferiority that clog up our minds, the minds of our people. The unquestioned effects of the colonial mentality we undergo is clearly seen causing our minds to relish the limiting aversion that our inferiority complex vouchsafes upon us. These feelings can be suppressed through electrifying practices of self-celebration and appreciation. In order to celebrate ourselves we must reward ourselves; if we don't we won't see the shining bright light Nigeria has to offer us. We, the people of Nigeria, devote so much time to bashing or glorifying the political and economical negativity that has our nation bedridden in an ICU that we forget about those who suture up their voices to spark a change, a rebellion. We as Nigerians are asininely intimidated and fearful of the ensuing consequences that will arise if we speak out against corruption and devilish violence, but I ask you, what can the government do if we speak collectively as a whole, what else can they do but listen? We must pull together and work against this unpalatable menace that has become of our currently distasteful society. Come to think of it, we can definitely learn a thing or two from Black Americans about what it means to be prideful, about what it means to prosper when facing image-shattering adversity. We must stand together - together we shall overcome.

i really couldn't understand your grammar but i noticed a statement about "feelings of national inferiority". i do not feel inferior to anybody. however, when my beloved country cannot count it's citizens, or conduct elections, it is painful. but even at that, one may understand the nitty gritty of a 3rd world country, but what i refuse to understand is when a sitting president and his cohorts will come out openly to say the same elections and census were good. that, though, wont make me have "feelings of national inferiority" but some terrible feelings of internal shame for my country.

you're not in grade school are you, you should understand. yes, feelings of national inferiority like "why can't we be like them" "they're better than us"

no, we cant be like them b/c they are not us. we should be advanced at least with the basic things. i must confess, the biggest problem with the nigerian followership is the fact that the vast majority of nigerians have no idea of how life should be. yes quote me. the child selling pure water in the street does not know that he should never be in the streets etc

if we nigerians realise that we have the wherewithal to tarr every road, build clean hospitals in every village, have clean drinking water in every home 24hrs, and constant power supply.

when i was a student in nigeria, i became used to 3-6months strike that i almost forgot that strikes are an aberation.

that's the problem. if we nigerians know how a nation should be governed, we'll ask our leaders more questions

@Kobe

Perusing through your vituperations, it behoves me to conjure an unequivocal reply that will conjure into an armagedorial petulance that will aim to juxtapose the minds of so called diasporistic nin coompoops who blatantly refuses to purge their medula oblongata of the immaterialistic conjexture of ignoble colonial mannerism, this objects of national shame joins up with their oblongatedly obesse white man to continually barage the entity called Nigeria and indeed Africa.

Speaking to one of them today gave me a very tranqualised hegemony, he said, Nigeria is a country that is not progressing but retrogressing, and when he vocalised as such, i replied, it is sad to speak about your country like that, and i asked him, what have you contributed to make it progress, he said nothing, I said so shut up, and what does he do, he is a 419, can you imagine?

See grammar oh!!

una don finish me with big oyibo for here oh, who talk say we no sabi book?


but please make una no leave out we less educated ones, speak in JSS 1 English please.

Chineke God of Umunwanyi!!!! Maki una come see grammar oh. . . the conjuration of the contorted liquidificated aberasidimalous, whoa!

Some Nigerians cannot cease to spit hawkish ignorance.  Go to America and see how liberals and conservative  criticize ther government. The same holds for UK. There needs to be constant criticism of Nigeria in order to stir the minds of people on how to move the country in the right direction. How can you improve without criticism? Practical example is that the grade you receive from your teachers is a form a criticism. Likes of Soyinka and Achebe constantly submit their works to be critiqued. Why does Nigeria deserve less?

Dafur,

I would want to answer my questions. Maybe you are telling us that the elections were not mired in fraud. The only reason why she is right in your thinking is that she (Baroness) has not felt power failure, never lacked medical care, never been without a running water etc. She cannot in her myopic imagination empathize what Nigerians go through. The reason why you think that we cannot talk about bad governance in Nigeria is that you really have not imagined what good leadership is because Nigeria has never known one.  Your comparison of good leadership could be drawn from two benchmarks ie good and bad leaderships, but you have only tested one, so when your leaders tell you that we cannot move beyond big talks and dreams, we throw party for them.

Any system that is not open to criticism is going to self destruct like Hitler. Nigeria is a society that does not take evaluation. We have insisted not to overly criticize Nigeria and today our nation is squalor and we still want the status quo to remain. Abacha was not criticized and he became a living monster.
Corruption thrives in Naija because people like you have tolerance for it. The reason why Nigerians are trooping into S/Africa is because Nelson Mandela was critical of apartheid. The reason why Nigerians cluster at American Embassy is because Martin Luther King was critical of segregation. For you to resist a system, you have to be critical of it first. Criticism lays the foundation for violent or non violent movement. There must critical thinkers who will synergize ideas and bring them into fruition.
By the way , are you saying that Nigerians do not need basic things of life or that Nigeria cannot afford?

well said adconline, but the fact still remains, constantly painting us completely negative will not help the situation

things are bad alright, and what we are advocating is not tolerance/acceptance of those things, God forbid. But we need to let the positive news, no matter how small it may be, come out as well. Corruption is there in the country no doubt, but even outside the country, there are Nigerians doing excellently in their adopted lands, we can showcase these ones as well, to counter the 'all Nigerians are fraudulent' image. not to deny the existence of 419 and other vices, but to serve as a counterbalance - constant negativity will not help us.

people that moved out of Naija and restablished residence in places like the West and got green cards and citizenship. Are those people Nigerians anymore because they go back to Nigeria or they still hold on to their Naija passports?

If Nigerians in Diaspora say such things you should not even be viewed as Nigerians. Abandoning your country and adopting another countries way of life and citizenship status should mean you really aren't Nigerian anymore. You might be of Nigerian descent but you certainly are no longer Nigerian.

Ofcourse I firmly believe Nigeria deserves even more criticism than it receives. Not from outsider ofcourse as most of the time they do not even know where Nigeria is much less what life is like there. But any Nigeria in diaspora who has become a citizen of another country should focus their criticism on there newly adopted country as they essentially abandoned their former motherland by claiming another countries citizenship.

And man, adconline, I could not have even come close to saying it as well as you put it. How can any leaders come out a country where significant population of its best and brightest are fleeing the country, looking for a way to flee the country or just trying to live day to day.

You know its no coincidence that all the failed and 3rd world countries of the world are those that did not draw their own borders but had their borders drawn for them. Where there is no national unity there is no national purpose. Naija is a failed state much like most black countries around the globe. When the people of Nigeria are finally motivated to create new states/countries from within perhaps we will see change.

your comments are misplaced, most of them still have strong ties to Nigeria - family, investments, and genuine love for the country. I hope you are not saying that simply because they are not immediately affected by the situation in the country they should care less, or that they left out of hatred/lack of concern for the country.

Besides, Nigeria supports dual citizenship, you can be of Nigeria AND of another nation as well.

we deserve criticism and concrete action, too much talk alone will not be sufficient.

Besides, Nigeria supports dual citizenship, you can be of Nigeria AND of another nation as well.

Sure. On paper. The reality on the other hand is bollocks. Visiting your family members back home on vacation once a year doesn't make you a Nigerian citizen.

So, what of those who were born abroad, but grew up in Nigeria@shango? Fact remains, I am a Nigerian at heart. Nobody can strip me of my Nigerian Nationality, and that's it!. I have the right to criticize the shortcomings of the Nigerian government if the need arises, just as I can praise them too.
The fact that some people criticize Nigeria does not mean that they hate the country. Having lived abroad and observed how the system is operated efficiently, you can't help but wish that our country could be the same too. Now, why is Nigeria getting worse every year? I can still recall my brother's school fees at Unicross in the 80's was a little over 200 Naira. Now, fast forward to 2007, and I am reading that LASU is charging over 70 thousand Naira (including books). That's outrageous!. How many people can afford an education back home? Look at the quality of life back home. Just yesterday, I was with my in-law, and she was bemoaning the sad state of affairs in Nigeria. Graduates riding Okadas, because they can't find jobs. And for an Akwa Ibomite, I know it is true, because my state and my tribe is considered a minority. Now, disillusioned parents, noticing this trend may ask themselves the benefits of acquiring an education and choose to pull their wards out of school. What am I even writing? When I was in Nigeria the last time, I noticed that some of the girls dormitories at my alma mater had been converted into staff lounge. Which meant that boarding houses was becoming obsolete, due to the rising school fees.

Point is, we have the right to criticize Nigeria when the need arises. If Nigeria was any better, like it was in the 80's, most likely I would be home, warming myself by the fire hearth, roasting corn and hiding 'eben' under the firewood ash

^{If Nigerians in Diaspora say such things you should not even be viewed as Nigerians. Abandoning your country and adopting another countries way of life and citizenship status should mean you really aren't Nigerian anymore. You might be of Nigerian descent but you certainly are no longer Nigerian.}

These days you don’t even need a Nigerian to tell a foreigner that Niger delta is bad. Instead of us to criticize Peter Odili, Alams, FG and co who stole what belonged to these renegades who are causing a lot of damage to Nigeria than Nigerians living abroad. Tell our govt to develop Niger Delta instead of chastising Nigerians for criticizing Nigeria. Why do we continue to live a lie of Nigeria that was bestowed on us by colonialists.

^{Ofcourse I firmly believe Nigeria deserves even more criticism than it receives. Not from outsider ofcourse as most of the time they do not even know where Nigeria is much less what life is like there. But any Nigeria in diaspora who has become a citizen of another country should focus their criticism on there newly adopted country as they essentially abandoned their former motherland by claiming another countries citizenship}

Myopic estimation of Nigerians. Some times most of these folks are more abreast with what is happening in Nigeria than Nigerians living in Nigeria with the quantum of information they have at their disposal. ICT has buried all those barriers so quit living in cold war mentality of Nigeria. You need to read  the recent Foreign Policy magazine on Nigeria.

Nigeria has a lot of positives.

But Nigeria has a lot of negatives too.

Criticizing Nigeria is a patriotic act.

there is a difference between criticising and offering positive suggestions - Nigerians offer no positive suggestions but talk more about negatives, even at the face of positives, they still add a bit of sceptimism to a very act well done, example, government announced the plan to build a modern railway line, the first thin these people will say is, it will never succeed, or things like it wont work etc. Isint that shameful?

When history has shown them that government talk is just it - talk.

They said they'll do this and that for NEPA. They spent billions changing the name to PHCN and that was it.

People are expressing how they feel. Let the government start proving them wrong and then people will begin to change their views.

For now, many Nigerians just want to get out of the country 'because it's frustrating living in it for so many. Visit the UK and US embassy in VI, Lagos.

adconline:

Some Nigerians cannot cease to spit hawkish ignorance. Go to America and see how liberals and conservative criticize ther government. The same holds for UK. There needs to be constant criticism of Nigeria in order to stir the minds of people on how to move the country in the right direction. How can you improve without criticism? Practical example is that the grade you receive from your teachers is a form a criticism. Likes of Soyinka and Achebe constantly submit their works to be critiqued. Why does Nigeria deserve less?
[b]
Dafur,

I would want to answer my questions. Maybe you are telling us that the elections were not mired in fraud. The only reason why she is right in your thinking is that she (Baroness) has not felt power failure, never lacked medical care, never been without a running water etc. She cannot in her myopic imagination empathize what Nigerians go through. The reason why you think that we cannot talk about bad governance in Nigeria is that you really have not imagined what good leadership is because Nigeria has never known one. Your comparison of good leadership could be drawn from two benchmarks ie good and bad leaderships, but you have only tested one, so when your leaders tell you that we cannot move beyond big talks and dreams, we throw party for them.

Any system that is not open to criticism is going to self destruct like Hitler. Nigeria is a society that does not take evaluation. We have insisted not to overly criticize Nigeria and today our nation is squalor and we still want the status quo to remain. Abacha was not criticized and he became a living monster.
Corruption thrives in Naija because people like you have tolerance for it. The reason why Nigerians are trooping into S/Africa is because Nelson Mandela was critical of apartheid. The reason why Nigerians cluster at American Embassy is because Martin Luther King was critical of segregation. For you to resist a system, you have to be critical of it first. Criticism lays the foundation for violent or non violent movement. There must critical thinkers who will synergize ideas and bring them into fruition.
By the way , are you saying that Nigerians do not need basic things of life or that Nigeria cannot afford?[/b]

adcoline,
are you sure you read my posts well. it is simply me and aisha that are against criticism of nigeria. i am all for governmental criticism. we are supposed to be on the same side.

simply_me:

there is a difference between criticising and offering positive suggestions - Nigerians offer no positive suggestions but talk more about negatives, even at the face of positives, they still add a bit of sceptimism to a very act well done, example, government announced the plan to build a modern railway line, the first thin these people will say is, it will never succeed, or things like it wont work etc. Isint that shameful?

wow, simply me, na you de speak this simple english so? lol. i been de fear another grammatical bombardment from you.

well it's good to be positive but dont let that cover your sense of critical appraisal of contemporary issues. that ability to look at issues critically can be protective. believe me. it sanitises a system.
finally, you wont blame a child for being scared of a renown bully who has bullied him a thousand times even after the bully is now a pastor.

folem:


"ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your. country,“

story.
your country got to give you the opportunity to do something for her. that statement was made by john kennedy, but america gave kennedy the opportunity to do something for america by 1st making him a senator, then president. nigeria should open the way for it's youth, her future. i weep b/c when i see what is happening in europe and i know that my country is rich enough to get near european standards it pains me. the poorest of governors in nigeria is richer than most ministers in the UK. corruption.
but there is hope. EFCC has started something that will turn the country around in the next decades if maintained.

darfur,
Can you specifically tell me where Nigerians have gone wrong in criticizing the government? I want specifics not by telling me that we should be happy that Nigeria is not like Zimbabwe or Liberia.

I got a question for you. How can you work hard to elevate that company you work for to a greater height when your top management does not consider you as an asset? You have an idea and you want your top management to take a look at it and they say to you don’t worry we already know and are working to implement it. Years go by and nothing is done. How can you effect a change in your organization without management approval? The government does not listen; a World Bank chief said that on Vanguard.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article07. How can you help a government that does not believe that increment in pump prices will hurt Nigerians vis-à-vis our economy.

RichyBlacK:

Nigeria has a lot of positives.

But Nigeria has a lot of negatives too.

Criticizing Nigeria is a patriotic act.

I agree.

Naija will not develope without criticism.

History of communism tells us what happens when people wake up every morning praising their government---- even blindly.

On the psychological aspect, people criticize whom and what they know best, ie their parents, brothers, relatives, friends, colleagues, and country.

Most people don't call for the destruction of naija, but the problems simply become magnified once you step out of the Nigerian shores.

adconline:

darfur,
Can you specifically tell me where Nigerians have gone wrong in criticizing the government? I want specifics not by telling me that we should be happy that Nigeria is not like Zimbabwe or Liberia.

dude it's high time i criticised your brains (if you got any). i said, go through my posts in this thread, i am of the opinion that nigeria's govt should be criticised. haba if you are looking for those who are against the criticism of nigeria under the guise of not painting nigeria negatively, go to people like aisha and simple me. those are the good image advocates. i stand for criticising the nation when necessary.

now it's either you dont understand what you read, or you have short memory that you forget who wrote what, or your computer has got problems interchanging the names of posters, or you are just being mischievous, or you are just irreversibly dumb or. . . . . . . .

There is nothing wrong with criticizing things you feel you are not happy about! Especially when you have a basis to complain!

Constructive criticism it good! It makes us better when we know that Nigerians care enough to say what makes them feel good or bad.  It is a step in the right direction. You can't say you love your child so much that you cannot tell him or her when she is doing something wrong.  That is tantamount to "cognitive scoliosis"!!!!! Both the parents and the child will suffer on the long run! You cannot achieve anything by pretending "it is all good" and "all is well"!!!! Far from it.

@ darfur
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Wetin now? I feel your pain but take it easy on adconline (adc- the airline?). Just a little bit of patience and I think he'll come round to reading this thing properly.

@adconline
Read well now!!! Take off your glasses, replace the cracked lens, put them bak on, read darfur's posts well. Apologise for misreading him, then criticise his brains right back for criticising your brains when it was your lens @ fault.

@ the magniloquent sesquipedalian extremists (Big english people)
One of you (no names) used the word magnanimity wrongly, without mentioning the wrong spelling - oh sh@*! I just did. And really, what's the point of your long-winded, orotund posts, I dey show myself

Ps. I no find anybody trouble oh, I just dey waka pass as amebo i say make i talk my own.