NIGERIA – MY NIGERIA

Nigeria, a blessed country located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. A country whose name originates from the River Niger which runs through it, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black.

Over the years a lot of things have been said about this Pride of Africa some of which are constructive while a lot of others, just baseless. For instance in time past, Nigeria use to have so many teething problems in her election processes and militancy pressure in her Niger Delta region however all these has been duly tackled and grinded to a halt. Thus, the recently concluded national election emerged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country and the militancy pressure had since been successfully put to rest. Presently, the on-going over flocked terrorism attack by the Boko Haram group in the north is gradually phasing out and peace is being restored to distressed zones thereby reaffirming the mandate of the federal government to curb all vices. Fascinatingly, despite the challenges that were on then, Nigeria never seized to host visitors who constantly came in from far and near to explore great opportunities all over the country because they understood the Nigerian spirit which guarantees continual development.

Typical to every country in the world, Nigeria has her own frailties and weaknesses and is constantly working towards the betterment of her society. For instance, Nigeria presently has one of the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world, the second largest economy in Africa and has positioned herself as the 12^th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the second largest oil exporter among the OPEC nations (an improvement from seventh position last year) thereby transcending into a significant decline of all forms of evil while on the other hand increasing employment opportunities. Nigeria is blessed with enormous mineral resources some of which include natural gas, coal, bauxite, tantalite, gold, tin, iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead and zinc.

Interestingly, what is more special about Nigeria is not just her striving developmental antecedents but her great people. Nigerians are lovely, passionate and determined people. If you have ever met a true Nigerian then you can attest to this obvious fact.  Nigerians have achieved great feats in almost every field of the world today. From Literature where we have Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, to sciences where we have Africa’s greatest scientist of all time, to sports where our male and female teams have recorded great strides, to leadership where we have a good representation across the globe and the success categories goes on and on. Nigerians indeed have an excellent spirit but sadly, the international media has never done any good in portraying these terrific characteristics of ours.

No matter what people say, no matter what they do, I will always be a proud Nigerian anywhere, anytime, any day.  We are on our course to becoming a first world country. I can see it, I can feel it, I believe it. No individual can make this happen all alone but a collective effort from us all will ensure this feat doesn’t become a mirage.

Nigeria – Good People, Great Nation

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