Ike Val Iyioke
25 September 2007
opinion
Lagos — I suggest that Nigeria should undergo a skin resurfacing, a laser peel, that is. Otherwise how do you get people to quit viewing us with scorn, trepidation or askance? Recently, I was on an evening stroll round our lovely neighborhood and up walked a white guy in his 50s, donning a corporate outlook of a business executive.
He accosted me and asked, "What's your country of origin?" It's common with Americans who have been to Africa, when they detect your body language (African Americans don't have it), to warm up and to narrate a 20-year old experience they may have had riding an elephant in Kenya. However, this was different.
"You see, I traveled with my dad when he worked for a donor agency to Ethiopia, Liberia, and Nigeria. In Nigeria, Enugu was my favorite place but then the 1966 civil war forced us out Still there is an awful lot of bad stuff coming out of Nigeria lately, right? Gun men parading everywhere, foreigners are kidnapped for ransom ."
I couldn't let that go unanswered, "It's the same story here isn't it? It's even worse because even underage and insane people acquire guns with ease.
Remember the Columbine high school massacre, the Virginia Tech massacre, the. " That ended it. That's what you get when the media has nothing good to say about Naija. For as long as I can recall, frequent media alerts on Nigerian scams and how not to fall prey are common. It's like they have vowed to beat the Nigerian image to a pulp.
Even the fresh figures from Geneva on the world's ranking of gun ownership, has been skewed in disfavor of Nigeria. Aired on CNN's "The Situation Room" on August 29, 2007, the "Cafferty File" segment, provided the twist.
Quoting Reuters, CNN reported that the U.S. has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world. In other words, U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
Next on the list is India with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, then China with 40 million privately held guns, Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and so on. Nigeria is inconsequentially buried down under the pile. The report added that the image we have of Africa being awash with weapons is certainly misleading. But the CNN's Cafferty File had a different take.
"Gun ownership might seem high in the U.S.", it noted, "but in Third World countries such as Nigeria only a minute percentage of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities." Yeah, but why use Nigeria for Heaven's sake. Damned if she ranked high (on corruption list), and damned even if she doesn't (on weapons list). Head or tail she loses, hm? While at a criminal justice seminar the other day, the speaker chose to illustrate his presentation with the beheading of a Nigerian in Saudi Arabia for drug trafficking. It's like any way you turn some ugly thing is staring at you.
Ibrahim Babgida, Sanni Abacha and even Olusegun Obasango, not too long ago have each tried to brand and rebrand the country in the past but with hollow-ringed efforts. Details of that is a topic for another day. This time can President Musa Yar'Adua do something?
I came upon this 'laser peel' idea and quickly had a Eureka moment! Our skin has been so puckered by what people do to us and by acts we mete out on ourselves. Examples are countless. Therefore a laser is needed to remove the damaged areas, layer by layer.
Laser resurfacing is performed using a beam of laser energy which vaporizes the upper layers of damaged skin at specific and controlled levels of penetration.
All resurfacing treatments work essentially the same way. First, the outer layers of damaged skin are stripped away. Then, as new cells form during the healing process, a smoother, tighter, younger-looking skin surface appears.
To remove the stigma. Nigeria has borne for decades, does not mean we must become what we weren't. Laser resurfacing would only remove the layers that Nigeria has been forced to wear and which has distorted her image. Nigerians are vibrant, hardworking, exceedingly ambitious, cerebral, assertive, cultural, even loquacious, flamboyant, arrogant, ubiquitous and impossible to ignore anywhere.
While we are on that, let's not lose sight of the home-grown African wolves that have become willing tools in the hands of some Western media. Thankfully, Jeff Koinange, the Kenyan date rape journalist, and erstwhile CNN Africa correspondent has been pink slipped. But, who has heard Ofeibea Quist-Arcton lately? I only hope she is not the voice of Cain in Abel's body, nay Jeff resurrected. Thank Goodness that a new World Bank survey named Nigeria among 16 countries that have significantly reduced gas flaring between 1995 and 2006. But listening to Ofeibea's recent report on America's National Public Radio, you'd conclude that the whole country is engulfed in an inferno.
The final result from laser resurfacing may take several months (in this case, several years) to fully appear. Just like what you see when you pull the old rug off your floor. However, once the patches fade, Nigeria will notice a significant improvement in the quality of her skin and a fresher, smoother appearance.
It's important to make the result permanent. As with other methods of skin rejuvenation, laser treatments can usually be repeated. However, by protecting ourselves from further damage and following a skin-care regimen, we can help maintain a rejuvenated look.
Iyioke wrote from the U.S.
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