Nigeria and other African countries have always been portrayed negatively by Western media. Always being described as what it is not (it's not organized, it's not civilized, it's not up to date with technology. . .etc.).

But what is Nigeria (or even the rest of Africa) to you? I want to know what the Nigeria that you see everyday is (not some comparison of what it is compared to the western world).

I have my own reasons why I am interested in this. . .most of which I will present later. But what really made me curious, was not that of my own personal experiences, but what other people see. I'm not sure how many of you saw this, but there was a documentary on NTA a few weeks back. There was a white Londoner who was going to Nigeria (Lagos to be exact) and he was asking around what people thought about him going there. Of course he got varying responses, but none of which were positive. Either they were negative on all of Africa, or it was saying that "if you wanted to go to , you should go to Ghana because. . ." Things of that nature. And looking at it, I couldn't believe that they would think that if you went to Lagos you were going to get robbed because of high crime rates and whatnot. But at the same time, I could probably see myself feeling similar at one point. . .not to that extreme. But just not knowing what to expect because of conflicting things that I had heard from my parents and the media.

So to change people's minds. . .who ever might be reading this. What is your Nigeria like? And if there was something you wanted people to know (to change their minds, or to reaffirm something), what would that be? Pictures are welcome as well

@PTBNaija

This is my comment to you, do not believe hearing what Western media and ignorants people tell you about Nigeria so negatively, especially do not believe what Oprah Winfrey said about Nigeria too.

419/scammers are everywhere beside Nigeria---India, Russia, Malayia, Brazil, and 9 other "banned" countries according to the PayPal free merchant account, Federal/Goverment agencies and all major credit card issuing companies, their restricted for Nigerians.

Tell me why you so much interested in Nigeria as well as involved in Nairaland in the first place? I am not Nigerian, I am fully black America female U.S. citizen making several Nigerian-friends who are not 419/jobless/uneducated ones, and still learning their culture more for one year and one month now.

Finally, do your homework FIRST studying the history, economic, politic, and population of Nigeria. You will be surprised REAL TRUTH all about Nigeria. Yes of course, Nigeria has bad image that the whole  world hate. DO NOT EVER FORGET THAT Nigeria is not only one poorest country that the world hate, what about Cuba, what about other "banned" countries where USA refused them entering to the states?

Check out U.S. cenusus website tell you how many Nigerians legal immigrants as well as other Africans in the US already.

Go looking more details threads on Travel, Family, and Politic to discuss about Nigerian perspectives. In Travel section, there are lot of pictures of Lagos, other states/cities of Nigeria you will find there.

I don't believe what the western media is telling me about most things. I'm just didn't know what to expect in terms of living conditions (I never believed the whole "all Nigerians are 419ers" kind of thing, and I feel like those that get scammed get scammed out of greed). . .but anyways, I don't feel the same about it anymore. But thanks for your input.

Bleep that london man that was asking that question about Nigerians ,mind you all of those white shit are in Nigeria carry all the govt out of the country while the citizen are suffer crying for food but while man fool go come to Nigeria come carry all the money go back to there country to develop there country and start talking bad about Nigeria USA is the must bad country in world but who cares? cos they are white and they have the world power ,today we got about 8,000 Turkish Arab people in Nigeria - those who with out document what are those people doing in Nigeria? they have already know that the govt are still mugu self,No black is free in there country but they are 100% free in Nigeria even they go around them with security ,come to turkey and see how Turkish police deal with the blacks and they even start to kill them now there was a guy from Nigeria that was killed by the Turkish police in turkey who cares? i am just waiting to come back to Nigeria to start dealing with those idiot white men there i dewy come make Una dewy wait me Io.

PTB,
Naija is home. Naija is inspiring. Naija has given me certain necessities (besides electricity and the like), Naija requires my input no matter how small. Naija, believe it or not is the big brother to many African countries especially with her numberous peace-keeping missions, thats the Naija we tend to be not so familiar with. Naija has been blessed with biz enterpreneurs, diplomats, economists, mathematicians, prolific writers, lawyers, scientist and other great minds. I also believe that Nigerians (at least most of them) are quite patrotic. This is the way i understand it. I think when people really love their families, it extends to their village, and from the village to the state to the nation. this is how i look at tribalism, not so much as a bad thing. i'm not saying it is ok or it is right, i am only giving some sort of reasoning behind it. did you know that Murtala had wanted to commit a genocide on the Ibo's? but today he is dearly loved by all Nigerians, both those whom he killed/fought against and those whom he fought with. i think he is dearly loved because nigeirans were able to appreciate the great patriotism he had for his people (from clansmen, to state, to nation). the big difference between Murtala and some of our recent leaders may be in their corruption levels. but i would dare to say that the patriotic levels or solidarity for their ppl are similar.
like i mentioned earlier, i think naija is a nation teeming with entrepreneurs, and it would only be a matter of time before we become the next India or Malaysia or China or Singapore. No one knew India would become an IT giant, or that Malaysia would plant Nigeria's palm produce in their land and soon after become the largest producers and exporters of palm produce. but thanks to the entrepreneurs in those places, those nations have built histories that future students would have to reckon with. so in short, when ppl ask you what you think about Naija, tell them naija is filled with optimist like myself, who may complain on the outside, but are very hopefull on the inside. i am glad to hear your impression about naija changed for the better.