igeria and Nigerians are in a dilemma. Everybody loves Nigeria. Everybody hates Nigeria. However, nobody, particularly, the Diaspora Nigerian wants to make a marginal sacrifice to keep Nigeria alive. I do not know if to now believe Professor Dora Akunyili who, the other day opined that Nigerians in the Diaspora are the nation's greatest agent for bad publicity. It may, as well be so! It is increasingly becoming fashionable especially, within communities of Nigerians - in the Diaspora, to bad mouth Nigeria and everything about her. Surprisingly, there has not been in existence, any responsible organization formed by Nigerians abroad that should be a shining example of how an institution let alone a country should be run.

advertisement

Recently, the Nigeria Tribune citing many insider sources reeled out an article, in which it chronicled, most of the obstacles standing on the way of many Nigerians overseas from going back to Nigeria. Trust, the Diaspora Nigerian. Within seconds, missiles of defense of an impugned or maligned character began to fly left right and center, particularly on internet chat rooms across the globe. Most, who wrote, did so with venomous anger dripping from their keyboards.

They accused the writer of the article in particular and Nigerian journalists in general as a bunch of corrupt jaundiced, lousy lot who are ill informed about the well being and whereabouts of most Nigerians in the Diaspora. They asked such rhetoric questions as to why they should return to Nigeria. "If Nigeria was that good, why do hundreds if not thousands of its people still besiege the embassies of any country but Nigeria, wanting to check out of the country." Why, they queried, have there not been appreciable improvement in the standard of living of the average Nigerian. They enumerated crime, bad roads, poor power supply, murder and unhealthy business climate as some of the plethora of reasons why anywhere but Nigeria, including even the Republic of Benin is better.

However, in the bid to out do one another in the condemnation of the Nigerian Tribune reporter, most failed woefully to neither opine nor proffer solutions to the myriad of problems of the Diaspora as so catalogued. Because talk is cheap, most spoke without taking a break to thoroughly analyze the root cause of the Nigerian problem which they hammered home as the reason why most shook off their feet against motherland. None did volunteer to get into the next plane for Nigeria to go do right, a pervasive ignoble wrong. At the end of the day, most comments to me appeared like solid posturing for notice or simply put, to appear politically correct since the climate of thoughts pervading the virtual world chat rooms weighed in and passed guilty verdict on the half baked illiterate Nigerian Tribune reporter which they saw as symptomatic for all that ail Nigerian journalism.

As could be seen, the Nigerian, constantly on the move is usually the most educated. They cannot live with mediocrity. They are too scared, to raise a cry in the face of oppression. Most are so decent that they would not want to be disturbed nor be seen struggling to be agitating for a piece of the national pie which ought not to be a basis for agitation in the first place. Nor, would they want to believe, that Nigeria is a vast grazing land, where every body ought to have a piece of the pie to his heart's content.

It is summer time in America. Very soon, the market places will be filled with posters and flyers announcing one end of the year event or the other. Organizations and institutions formed and administered by Nigerians usually organize these events. Other than this boring end of year jamborees where members and friends assemble to show off their latest fashions (whose styles are badly mimicked from homeland fashion crazy Nigeria), and at times to announce the acquisition of the next years car model, there are no tangibles on the ground in Nigeria or in America to show - as collective achievement.

I was at an event in Washington some 12 years ago, where a prominent Nigerian, now holding a prominent position in Nigeria, reminisced the day when his daughter would wed at the proposed town center for this Nigerian organization in Washington. It has been 12 years since the chair of that organization assured the man that his wish would come true in not too distant future. May I report with sadness that nothing has happened since that famous declaration and the accompanying promise was made? The ground of that utopist Nigerian civic center in Washington has not been broken.

The lethargic approach and non-performance of this unique Nigeria organization is symptomatic of the organizational bankruptcy of the average Nigerian - home or in the Diaspora. It has been twelve solid years. The prominent Nigerian's daughter has wed. She did not do it in that imaginary civic center in America. The daughter of this prominent Nigerian now has three kids and the wonderful wonderland civic center has not been built.

Can you then believe that it is from the rank of these Nigerians who have not been able to point to any viable institution founded and organized solely by Nigerians that we have the loudest critics of the Nigerian nation and its rulers? Can you believe it that as recent as yesterday, there have been buzzes in the chartrooms for the formation of a Diasporian Political Party. I grinned at the thought.

Most successful Nigerian professionals or non-professionals overseas are so, not because they are extremely brilliant or good. They are so because they hide in the labyrinth of well-established institutions where their Nigerian traits are shielded (or checked) away from the purview of discerning minds - the reason why Nigeria is stagnating.

Set them loose to go work for Nigeria without oyinbo man's supervision, or be on their own, in Nigeria and you expose their bare nakedness tied around crass organizational ineptitude and absolute incompetence. Whether as members of football clubs or executives of multinationals, there seems to be something in the Nigerian that makes him irredeemably, Nigerian. Except for occasional flashes of brilliance, Nigeria and Nigerians on its own have not really shone in many fields of human endeavor. This makes me wonder, if there is something in the water we drink that has corrupted out collective inventive proclivity.

When some successful Nigerians mouth the rostrum of places of public discourse to bad mouth Nigeria, you think, they come from other planets to inhabit Nigeria. Give some of them opportunities to help in remaking Nigeria they falter woefully. Look at what is now happening to Tom Isighohi - the Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Nigeria Plc.

Was he no transplanted from one of the best-managed multinationals in America to come head Transcorp? Without prejudice to the outstanding case he has with the EFCC, it is sad to write that at least a prima facie case of embezzlement of the Nigeria people's money has been established against him to warrant a court of competent jurisdiction to keep him and his colleagues behind bars while awaiting trial.

Look at the town unions of Nigerians in the Diaspora. There are no differences between them and the unions that exist back home in Nigeria. Infact, when looked at critically, the home grown organizations fair better. The Nwannedinamba in the Americas used to be one of the best socio-cultural organizations founded and run by the Igbo. It has died or tethering because of intrigues and internal contradictions that are symptomatic of similar institutions back home. It used to be a haven for foremost Igbo intelligentsia, the academic and business in continental America. However, it is a pity to announce that Nwannedinamba is dying or is in an unending state of life support.

Move over to World Igbo Congress - WIC or was it once called World Igbo Council. Whether WIC or WEAK, the acronym fits. Any one following the internal dynamics and intrigues currently roiling the organization would easily agree that there is essentially something inherently wrong with the Blackman's imaginative and or creative ability. As it is with WIC so it is with Arewa Consultative Assembly, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and their big scion - NIDO or NIDO-A as it is now known.

Yet, you find in the midst of these groups, the most loquacious, when it is time to sit on the denuded table of innocence to pontificate why, Ohakim has not done this. Why Obi is a thief and why Sullivan and Yar'Adua are the worst things that have happened to Nigeria. It is from this vast pool of self-righteous pontificators that you get the gist of what ails Nigeria most and the one and a thousand reasons why, it does not pay to either travel home to Nigeria or wish the country any good.

Recently in the Naijapolitics chat room, a war broke out between those who feel most Nigerians living abroad in spite of their superfluous outside persona are a wasted bunch who should be pitied, on the one hand and those who countered that the Nigerian nation is a wasteland of crime and malfeasance. One commentator took it upon himself to paint in a lucid despicable format, all the negative reasons why, contemplating a return to Nigeria would tantamount to self-immolation. He reeled out such reasons, as armed robbery, frequent interruption of power supply, bad roads, corruption at high and low places as some of the reasons. He got high fived from many people who bought his perspective.

Unknown to most of the commentators who weighed in on the side of the Nigerian Diasporian community, (because most have really lost touch with homeland or depend 100 per cent on information gleaned from the Internet on the horrible situation at home) in spite of the war zone image of the nation majority Nigerians are quietly making strides in their individual and collective lives.

It is poignant to state here that in the midst of the seemingly uninhabitable scenario painted about Nigeria, a vibrant economy is thriving. Many of these honest Nigerians could be found in the business communities of Alaba, Aba, Kano, Abuja, Sokoto, Ibadan, etc. In the banking industry, which one of the strident critics singled out, there are successful male bankers who do not have to market their bodies to be successful. They do not know that in Nigeria exist successful professors who in addition to teaching are consultants and thus belong to the monied class.

In the Nigeria of today, I do know of cement sellers who are rich doing honest business, through which they have built houses, sent their children to some of the best schools in Nigeria and beyond. In Nigeria, live segments of the human populace that are successful legal and medical professionals. Oh, the Nigeria we the owners despise so much is the business haven and hearth-throb of the Ghanaians, Lebanese, Indians and other nationalities who have taken notice that Nigerians who ought to man the posts have left, thus the need to fill such vacuums and have now taken effective control of the weakened Nigerian middle class. I have said this somewhere in the past.

We could go on and on and on. The truth of the matter is that most successful Nigerians who live outside the country should consider returning home or consolidate in their present place of abode and forget Nigeria forever. Its either you forget Nigeria and make your newfoundland where everything is a complete automation , your only home or you still consider Nigeria your home and work towards making it better by being personally involved. You cannot sit on the fence.

Yes, be personally and proudly involved or remain forever silent, consolidate and enjoy the goodness of your newly acquired western nation's place of abode. However, bear in mind that any ofe di uto (any soup that tastes nice) is so, essentially not because of excessive ingredients but because of the aka (hand) that cooked it. Most Nigerians who badmouth her are those who do not have that now famous proverbial "testicular fortitude" to stand its heat. Nigeria is a rugged land, which only the fit and the brave could inhabit.

Since most of us have gone overseas, seen it all, done it all, it is selfishness not to return home and join in the struggle. Zik, Awo Gani Fawehinmi and the Mbadiwes of this world at least, forsook most of the goodies of the western world to go fight in the independence struggles of dear native land. You cannot, in good conscience sit on the fence to constantly, lob grenade into the Nigeria new project. It could be disheartening to people like the Yinka Odumakins, and the Femi Falanas etc, etc of the emergent New Nigerian world where eventually you may return as a final resting place.

Be bold. Go back to Nigeria and be on the firing line or quit badmouthing the brave ones who toil everyday to keep the home front warm while you cozy in foreign land from where all you do is bad mouth this beautiful land of mine. If you are bold to return home to Nigeria with all your newly acquired ideas, two things are guaranteed. Either you die in the struggle to make her whole or be part its emergent history.

I remember the Bay of Pigs. I remember some of the successful heroic efforts originated from abroad that returned to motherlands in other climes to form bedrock for the overthrow of the status quo. Here, the overthrow of the Shah of Iran comes to mind. He was overthrown, from abroad. In Chile we remember the Allendes, in Argentina the Peronists have staged and sponsored successful rebellions and revolutions - all from abroad. Who is the Diasporan Nigerian waiting for, to do the do the job of repositioning Nigeria? Nigeria is in a terrible mess.

It needs a lifeline only which could come from the Diaspora. Unfortunately, like father like son, the Diaspora Nigerian is a complete wasteland. He is Ariya crazy. He is an Owambe expert. He loves goje brand of music and thinks of the day he would reconnect with suya - the kirishi type, especially. He is petrified. He loves life so much. He is aje butter personified and unfortunately, an inveterate critic of the Nigerian Nation… oh the muse!

Godson Offoaro too, is a confused Diaspora Nigerian. He can't live in Nigeria and he can't leave Nigeria. Reach me at Offoaro@yahoo.com