Lagos — The negative portrayal of Nigeria by foreign countries has now assumed an alarming, critical dimension. Even with its well-known limitations, this country does not deserve to be singled out for bashing.
The latest psychological onslaught against Nigeria is conveyed by two artistic works - District Nine, a movie, and Play Station Three (PS3), an advertisement currently circulating on youtube.com, facebook.com and other websites. While the former portrays Nigerians as prostitutes, destitutes, cannibals and criminals, the latter depicts Nigerians as incapable of engaging in decent business. A line in the Sony advert lampoons advance fee fraud thus: "You can't believe everything you read on the internet otherwise I would be a Nigerian millionaire by now."
Not even Sony's belated and half-hearted apology that it tendered the other day can ameliorate the damage these two sad outings have caused Nigeria and her people. To begin with, PS3 could still have eloquently conveyed its themes without direct reference to any country or localizing their characterisation. After all, great works of art, for ethical reasons, are fictionalized as a salute to creativity and, sometimes, to protect concerned sensibilities.
It is indeed unfortunate that Sony, a company that has enjoyed robust operations in the country for over four decades, could sponsor productions that propagate a wholesale denigration of the people. Why would a company use its resources partly derived from its loyal Nigerian customers to criminalise them through means that are not only global but difficult to control? Sony's audacity, no doubt, smacks of corporate irresponsibility.
While not making excuses for the lawlessness of some Nigerians that has brought the nation and her citizens into disrepute over the years, there is no justification in labeling the entire people of Nigeria as social and economic misfits. It does not require any rigorous research to come to terms with the fact that crimes and other dehumanizing activities are universal and, therefore, have no particular country of origin. So, shortcomings noticed among some Nigerians ought not to be dramatized the way District Nine and PS3 have done.
We endorse the indignation and protest expressed by the Minister of Information, Professor Dora Akunyili, on behalf of the federal government on this matter. Nigerians have suffered enough humiliation in foreign countries. Many of them have been wrongly suspected of fraud, drug and human trafficking - mainly because of the nation's maligned image. Surely, no responsible government would fold its hands and watch insensitive and possibly mischievous organisations trample on its people.
However, as agents and protagonists of free speech and enterprise, we do not support Akunyili's call for outright ban of the movie. As a member of the free, civilised world, this country must not be seen to replace one form of rascality with another. It could set a bad precedence Sony has erred and should be made to take appropriate, far-reaching steps to correct the collective defamation it has bankrolled against the Nigerian people. That can be achieved.
As for the government, it should put its acts together and develop programmes that would inculcate true nationalism in the people. A good starting point would be to provide competent leadership and responsive governance. And it must not fail to enhance the country's visibility among the comity of nations.
In the end, genuine respect is a product of self-discipline, industry, focus and enduring results. It cannot be imposed!
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Bravo ,Bravo,Bravo.I have to commend the editorial board of This Day for a well reasoned,well defined,and well written article .It made my heart feel good and reinforced my belief in the innate,God -given intelligence of Nigerians ,a trait which has not,unfortunately ,been highlighted by those Nigerians who have engaged in nefarious pursuits.Nigeria is a country blessed by natural and human resources which have either been wasted,misused,underutilised,or not exploited. I hope and pray the the Good Lord in his mercy and love would give Nigeria the type of good leaders and politicians who would put the needs and interests of the country ahead of their own narrow,personal(all they want is titles and respect for doing nothing), selfish,political,religious,and financial desires. In the interim ,the international community will only start to respect us when we start to respect ourselves.We may self-promote all we want and wax indignant when we are maligned or disrespected a la Sony.Unless we get our act together,we would still be marking step in another decade as the rest of the world marches on. What will we do when oil runs out?I would like This day to send me their articles directly on a daily basis and to continue to write the truth.
Can nigerians just shut up? How many times in 1 day do you hear a joke about france on american television, let alone canada. All countries makes jokes about other countries, it can either be funny or unfunny but not 'critically alarming' like the author how used to article to show he can speak english as opposed to actually relaying his ideas to people.
And look who is talking, i can't go to a single nigerian news site with 12 new 'editorials' from 'social critics' all under the lines of
"Nigeria is a failed state"
"Nigeria would be better as a colony"
"We are failures"
"Our people are corrupt"
"Nigeria is full of thieves"
"Nigeria is being punished by God"
ect. written by nigerians, and now the authors of those articles are attacking sony cause sony is offending nigerians by mention nigerian e-mail scams in a light hearted joke on a commercial. Type in 'nigeria' on the search engine and see what nigerian 'writers' on this site have to say about nigeria. stupid people.
It is unfortunate that some individuals are still telling us that Nigeria is singled out for bashing by foreign countries.One disagrees in the sense that Nigeria is one of the MOST corrupt Countries in Africa today with over the top Government corruptions recorded in African History.One,people seek political offices in Nigeria only to enrich themselves and not to serve.In the Western countries no body can say with straight face that corruption do not exsit,it does, with good outcome, in many cases the politicians make sure the people have good Roads,good schools,adequate power supply,good drinking water, basic healthcare and good Economic environment that will attract foreign Companies or investors in the country thereby creating jobs/Employments, that means having constant electric supply or power supply call it whatever you want.Instead of looking at good and better ways to managing our Natural Resources [oil],the politicians are out on the streets briberying and corrupting the Nation away with no accountability whatsoever.As corrupt as Nigeria is,politicians never stand for real election to any office, they bribe themselves through by printing their own ballot papers and Boxes, and with money on hand,Electoral Board staffs can be paid and had been paid before to deliver victories for some parties as in 2007 hijacked election ,as seen by the Nigerian people.In a nutshell,Nigerians, if we not want to be portrayed as a corrupt Nation in the future,we have to detox ourselves from corruptive ways of doing things in our lifes for it is only then that we can collectively change for positive life,that we can be with happy and face off any external or internal critisim that may not be true and can damage Nigeria image, but until then lets stop whining and thank you.
Please, please, please, do not try to make excuses or defend a non defendable situation. Instead, you should use your medium to to try to organize and educate grassroots on democratic institutions and governance, may be there will be hope for the next generation. My Pastor was praying the other day and said, "Nigeria is 49 yrs, a 49 yr old man should have got his act together by this time by Nigeria has not, God help us all". If you live outside Nigeria, you will observe that Nigeira is group of people living together in a curcumscribed space, just moving around within that space with no rules and boundries, any thing goes and if you die, you just die. We would all like to be patriotic to Nigeria but there is nothing to be patriotic to! Thank you for letting me express my opinion.
'Thou protest too much'!
First of all, your ENEMIES aren't expected to say nice things about you!
Second, ALL Africans should recognize by now that europeans HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST CRIMINALS ON THE PLANET! See history to the present destruction of the world's economy.
Westerners are satirizing Nigerians; because CUNNING Nigerians have been giving europeans fierce competition and TAKING BACK some of the stolen African wealth.
So, Nigerians, stop whining like an old woman; stop getting mad or sad; AND CONTINUE TO GET EVEN! lol
Continue to refine your plan to bring African stolen wealth from Europe back to Africa; and reduce African poverty BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
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