Dear steemians
My name is Paul Okafor. I'm Nigerian.
All around the world, most people perceive Nigerians to be evil. When ever I open my email, I see notifications with quora,com with questions like "why are Nigerians evil?". When I read questions like that, it really hurts for two reasons.
The first reason being that I totally understand why people would judge Nigerians that way. A popular Western politician once said and I quote, " Nigeria is a fantastically corrupt country". Besides, I know many have fallen victim to the menace of the criminal behavior of some Nigerians online. It hurts me to learn that some bad eggs go around hurting innocent people.
The second reason why I'm hurt by is this is because I also understand the plight of most Nigerians. I understand what motivates them.
Imagine walking from Africa to Europe. Imagine how difficult such an endeavour would. Imagine walking across the sahara desert under scorching heat with little to no water. Imagine risking your life sailing across the Mediterranean sea in a less than reliable boat chaperoned by unruly pirates, all in hopes of entering Europe seeking asylum in search of greener pastures.
What would drive a person to choose to embark on such a journey risking death rather than living in Nigeria. It hurts to know that some Nigerians are faced with that choice.
But there's another side to that story. Not everything about Nigeria is evil. I hope to use this platform to change the narrative. To introduce the world to our culture by sharing our music, our movies, our tribes and languages, our food, our customs on marriage, dating, love, sex etc...
At the end of the day, I sincerely hope that your view on Nigerians will change.
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