To my utter dismay, Nigerians have continued to bemoan the recent ‘push against globalization’. So many people have been griping about how resentful, hateful, intolerant, discriminatory and racist the developed world has become. While I understand that the Brexit and Trump phenomena are borne out of other factors, in addition to immigration issues, I am focusing on Nigerians’ reaction to the situation.

Before I continue, I enjoin the reader to please check the meaning of ‘Independence’. It will be helpful to understand that at some point, our leaders agitated for independence from our colonial masters, and this was negotiated and granted. In the ensuing years however, it has become evident that we are thoroughly incapable of managing ourselves. Fifty-six years is such a long time.., and in all this time, we are yet to develop necessary infrastructure, functioning systems and institutions, as well as other elements required to make a nation. Since the country is practically dysfunctional, Nigerian citizens are strewn all over the World, attempting to make the best of their lives.

Regardless of how we spin this, here is a salient point: Nigerians have no right to be upset about the current ‘hostile’ situation. The reason is simple; Our situation is dismal and the environment is not enabling, hence, in order to be productive, there (may be) a need to relocate to better locations that can provide the required facilities for productivity. However, we must take responsibility for our collective
misfortune. We must not assume that civilized people are bound /obligated in any way, to be responsible for us. If these people choose to be gracious about our continuous dependence and retardedness, nice! If they choose not to be magnanimous about our fate, please we cannot blame them.

They were not created to fend for us and pick up our loose ends infinitely. Certainly, Nigerians have proven to be very productive immigrants in many parts of the world participating constructively in commerce, research, academia, et cetera; contributing significantly to growth and development in the Countries they have chosen to reside. This is however, not the crux of the matter, the issue here is
that you cannot blame the indigenous citizens for being wary of the massive influx of Nigerians and other foreigners into their home country. We should also remember that while there are many productive Nigerians, there are some others who have proven to be liabilities to these systems. Do we really expect that civilized people will be comfortable watching people come in, overstretch their resources, contaminate their civilization, attempt to skew their heritage and even threaten to out- populate them, and not be even slightly uncomfortable? Let me remind us that this sort of reaction is not that strange after all..I know that many Nigerians remember the ‘Ghana-must-go’ movement.

We are not superior human beings in this regard. And although people continue to rant about the benefits the developed world continue to enjoy from Nigeria, I do not see the point at all. There are no legit benefits that I can pin point. We continue to be the recipients of all kinds of aids; healthcare (to combat HIV/AIDs, Polio and numerous other diseases), educational incentives, social and environmental benefits amongst others. I need to know how Nigeria is a benefactor of the West! Our citizens continue to live in poverty, frustration and hopelessness and many die of preventable diseases. These features do not strike me as stellar in any way. I wish to implore all disgruntled Nigerians, to divert their venom to their leaders not the people who are now perceived to be intolerant.
It is time for us to begin to insist on accountability, on quality leadership, on leadership that tirelessly works to stimulate and retain our strongest resource-the people. We must now fight to make our country great indeed. We must agitate for political cleansing and reform and collectively resist Faustian, myopic, visionless political leaders.