WHAT A NIGERIAN DILEMMA? - an article by Vicky Awuzie!

Back in the 1990’s when most of Nigerian “so called” non profit organizations emerged, the three most pronounced objectives were: (1) To Foster & Promote Unity amongst our people by respecting, supporting and living in harmony. (2) The other popular one was to teach our children and generations to come our culture. (3) And the most popular of all was to build a Community Center which we can call our own.

Regrettably, to date all these objectives has eluded us. None has been achieved by Nigerians especially those that reside in the Bay area in California, they are still searching and in need of those intentions to fructify. Interesting, instead of supporting and living in harmony we are in disarray. Fighting and throwing jabs at one another at any cost. We have lost focus on why we started the various organizations in the first place and the objectives have become unattainable. One of the shameful reasons we can’t reach any of these goals is for the simple reason that we can’t seem to agree or disagree in a civil manner when someone else’s opinion did not jive with ours all hell will break loose. We risk losing friend’s just for the simple reason that our thoughts were not in line with theirs. This is the state of our Nigerian community and it is pitiful.

We were (and still should) supposed to support one another – that goal has become a far fetched idea. Rather, what we have successfully achieved is have cliques or as we would normally say “fractions.” It is disgraceful; we’re like bunch of high school scholars. The only way we would patronize a Nigerian business is when that business is a monopolized business. For instance those businesses that sells our Nigerian food stuff. We cannot get it at Lucky’s so we faithfully march to those few Nigerian stores to buy our craw/clay-fish and pounded yam. The other few times we would think of patronizing a Nigerian business is when we are in dire need of some inside information. At that junction we would seek out our people for they can speak our tongue. Everyone has their opinion as to why we’re in this state since I’m the one writing, I’m stating mine, we can state yours later. As Nigerians, we do not trust one another. Rightfully so, unfortunately, a lot of us have been burned in one way or the other, the fear of ones private information being given to the other in the name of business is mind wrenching since, some of the business people have loose lips. Imagine giving papa Ebere the business owner your confidential information and before you know it you and your family becomes the HOT topic in town? No one in their right mind wants to deal with that unless your name is Britney and you are in dire need of some attention. In that case, I’d suggest you dance at the Golden Gate Bridge for all to see. That would sure get you some desired attention.

In retrospect, a lot us have benefited by patronizing a Nigerian based business. My personal experience has been rewarding. And I encourage those that fear to pull themselves together and do so. My account is when the fear of patronizing a Nigerian business is ignored – we benefit. We just have to find the tight lipped ones and trust our information with them. Alternatively, you can bring glue with you when giving your confidential information. Living in harmony is probably a thing for the next generation. How can we achieve living in harmony when there’s an unexplained jubilation in our people to antagonize one another? The present generation (my generation) those of us between the ages of 35 to 50 years are in a state of pandemonium that achieving harmony will be like chasing rainbows. I have dissected this with some of my friends and we each come up with plenty of reasons. Interestingly, one of the reasons we all echoed is that we scream discrimination when the white people do something to us, but the internal discrimination and hatred we contain for one another is unsurpassed. We are a society stultified by class. Those that make more dollars than the rest want to be bowed to. I can tell you now that you will be waiting for a long time for that to happen for I will only bow to God.

Until we recognize and deal with our internal tribulations living in harmony will be for Hitler. Whatever the reason may be there’s absolutely no reason bunch of adults who left their motherland several years ago should come to a foreign land and have this amount of chaos that we have. Now, talk about confusion, it is unfathomable to begin to comprehend why we are willing to spend thousands of dollars to rent a space for our various events, but we are not willing to collectively put that money together to buy our own community center when we can afford to do so. In the year 2005, I kept record of some of the events that I was aware of that commenced in our community. By the end of October of that year I had calculated that we spent $43,000. Remember, these were events that I was aware of. If you take into account the ones I was not aware of your lovely head should start spinning. When you total this amount year after year it is VERY clear to the blind person that we can erect a place of our own. Our people just don’t know how to collectively do anything as a nation. We believe in one man standing theory. As one man standing we can beat Mike Tyson, but as two or more people we won’t even agree on who should throw the first punch. By the time we had finished arguing as to who is entitled to throw the first punch Mike Tyson would have bitten off our ear and ran. Some people have come up with ideas and ideas and ideas pertaining to how we can go about acquiring a community center, but all has failed. We are stubborn and will not accept an idea that is not consistent with ours. Without having the community center we have disagreed on who should be the manager, how it should be run, who we should rent or not rent to.

As I ponder this madness, I can’t help but wonder if this is a curse? Does it mean that we cannot figure things out in a civilized manner? Does it mean that we are not sophisticated enough to deal with our differences? My people, have I just hit the nail in the head or what? I wonder about all the charlatans’ that call themselves our leaders and I scratch my head. I haven’t claimed to have answers to our massive problems, but I hope that one day Nigerians will come together and do things as one people, one nation. There’s a lot of power and strength in a union. I haven’t completely lost hope, I think this is attainable. My ultimate joy will be the day I see a Nigerian Community Center.

What are your thoughts? Please leave me your comments!