THE NEGATIVE NIGERIAN BRAND

I stumbled on Naijarish babys' video on Linda Ikeji's blog earlier this evening, I was so close to calling 911 after watching a couple of them on Youtube because that girl is just too funny, omg, she should be locked up for having a great sense of humour, she definitely would give the likes of Lepacious Bose and maybe even Basket Mouth a run for their money if she decided to
get into the comedy business full time. LOL. Anyway, that's not the reason why I am typing this blog post.
I also stumbled on another video on Youtube, this one was a short documentary about a sting operation carried out in Malaysia to catch an internet fraud star by the name Bidemi, a Nigerian boy. I don't think I need to run a commentary on yahoo or yahoo+ as it is locally called in Nigeria or 419, the world already knows all that, let me however tell you about one very embarrassing experience.

It was a sunday evening, about 2 weeks back, I had been sitting in my apartment in Stratford all day studying and decided to check out the East London Theatre to see if any shows were coming up that evening, my brain had already reached a point where nothing more could go in, like somehow all the oil in engine had dried up or the O.S just refused to booth and to my greatest luck I found the Red Carpet - a night of comedy, music and spoken word, just my kind of place.
So I bet you are wondering, what could be so embarrassing about that, well the embarrassing moment happened when the M.C, a jamaican by the name of Shabba (funny yeah "Shabba") started asking every one present to Rep their countries. "Can all my Ghanian people make some nosie" he said and they cheered, right after that were the South Africans, they cheered to and when he said "can my Nigerians in the house make some noise" we cheered too, only that right after our voices dropped he said into the microphone "everyone take note, there are Nigerians in the house,please keep your credit cards safely", OMG.
I was so embarrassed, me, a credit card thief, damn, I almost fell down and died. But that wasn't the end of it, another Jamaican female comedian came on stage and also took jabs at Nigerian men ending with words like "If I wanted my bank account raped, I would date a Nigerian, who does that anyway,I mean date a Nigerian", Lobatan.

Now I know comedians say these things, i have heard Nigerian comedians take jabs of their own but there is no smoke without fire right, my brothers and sisters, those 2 statements just cut my toasting liver for that night, I am telling you, my liver no reach to open mouth tell babe say I be Nigerian for the place that night, I was so embarrassed. I don't know about you but listening to my people and country being ridiculed like that just cast a dark shadow on me for the rest of the night, I wondered why the many had to suffer for the sins of the few, I am still trying to figure that one out. It's so bad that people just have an impression when you mention you are Nigerian and its not how strong willed and trustworthy you are but how dodgy and unscrupulous you must be, now that ain't right.

I know Nigerians are smart, very intelligent, very resourceful and very industrious people and I am proud to be a Nigerian, well it's not like any other country is ready to give me a red passport anyway but my question is can't we channel this vibrant energy into something more positive rather than waste it on quick -cash scams and 419, I am sure our country will be better for it.
Why don't we build a legacy that makes the world want to bank with us rather than flee from us. I am tired of being labeled a scam artist because I am Nigerian, aren't you?
Let's turn things around.

Adedunmade