Okay, let's start from the basic. I am Gift Nwaka. I was born and currently living in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. The meaning of my surname is "child is better than money". Do you agree with that? Imagine things you could do with $100,000. Well, good child is definitely better than money.
Before, I go further, I like to appreciate 
for this wonderful initiative.
Everyone has a birthplace, nationality or origin. No one fell from the sky without having a place to call home or individuals to call my people. As humans, our nationality differs a lot. We all have different lifestyles according to the customs, religions or traditions of our countries.
I am proudly a Nigerian. Nigeria is a very nice and popular country located somewhere in West African. My country population is on the neutral side of about 200 million exceptional people. I love my country so much. I have many likes and few dislikes about my country.
The things I love about my country are many.
Skin color
I am the black skinned girl there
One thing that draws attraction to the human body is the skin. Speaking of this aspect, in my perspective I think Africa as a whole has that gift of a very nice and attractive skin color that pronounces our natural beauty.
Anywhere in the world that we Africans are found, our color announces us more. Now our complexion varies leaving the albino species aside which are also beautiful in their way, we also have the black and the brown skin ones. And fortunately, I fell under the black-skinned specie and I have never regretted but only appreciated it. Because of this, I was nicknamed Black-skinned girl. The only disadvantage that I see my skin has is that my color makes me kind of invisible at night as people can only notice my eyes and my teeth at night, LOL!
The most annoying aspect is that I love putting on black wears. I discovered I am dark the night my junior bro came into my room; the power went off and my room was very dark. I was sitting on the bed, but my brother couldn’t notice. I kept quiet to see his action; he kept on calling my name on and on till I answered and it surprised him when he discovered that I was in that same room with him. What I do to help myself is reducing the way I go out at night to avoid being hit by a car or a bike because of invisibility LOL.
Scientist says that the black-skinned has excess melanin that also reduces the risk of skin cancer, so that is also an enormous advantage on our side. Don’t be jealous of my skin through its natural adore yours.
Culture and traditions
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In Nigeria, we value our cultures and traditions the most. Though most of these traditions were said to have been instilled into us by our ancestors, we still respect them. Not all cultures are advisable though, but we try our best to emulate the pleasant ones among them.
Most of our cultures are based on our tribe. In Nigeria, we have over 250 tribes but the main ethnics groups that birthed the others are known as Igbos, Yoruba’s and the Hausas. My tribe is not one of the popular ones, though I fell under the south-south region which has a history of Yoruba’s and the Igbo’s combination.
Most of our cultures instill morals into us from childhood through different customs, but these ways yield the same positive result. Most cultures discourage disrespect from children to elders. They also encourage hard work and diligence. They teach children how to greet their elders when they wake up in the morning, come back from work and at different times too. In my place, we greet our elders in the morning, afternoon and evening (Uwoma). I am also kind of conversant with the Yoruba’s knowing their way of greeting. In the morning they say (Ekaro), in the afternoon (ekasan), In the evenings (ekurole). For Hausas, morning is Inakwna, Afternoon, Inawuni, Night, Baraka deyama. I am not too sure with the other tribe, but I know they would also have their style of greeting too.
The cultures In my country are not always about teaching. They also have the fun aspect. Speaking of that, we have different festivals according to our tribes we have the new yam festivals common among the Igbo’s. I have never experienced one, but during those festivals, masquerades are invited and different bands are called to perform. The Osun festival is common among the Yoruba’s of Osun State. It is believed that there is a river goddess they pay homage to with all kinds of sacrifices, not humans though. We also have market days. In my cultures we know our market days as,{eke},{afo},{nkwo} and {orie}.
Our culture also has many superstitious beliefs, some say you don’t sweep at night to avoid inviting spirits. Others forbid eating a particular food or animals. This is all I can say about my culture, for now, there are many other interesting facts that I don’t know about yet but if you want to explore more, you are warmly welcomed to our country for a visit after the coronavirus pandemic.
Creativity
Creativity is one aspect of life I adore the most and I believe that any creative person can achieve anything they wish. My country is the birthplace of geniuses. We have the quality, the ability and the brain to go to any length we wish to. There are many things that Nigerians have implemented that is helping everybody here in our country and abroad. You will understand what I am insinuating when you visit our museums you see many artefacts that were created by Nigerians. We have produced songs, dance steps and others that are adored by the world. I believe Nigerians have a rare gift that I treasure.
Food
Food is one aspect everyone enjoys, that feeling when you visit your grandma and you a treat of your local dish. There are different foods common in one country than the other. I tell myself that before I die I would like to have a taste of all the dishes in the world, but is that possible? Don’t tag me a foodie though. My country unique ways of cooking. I am not talking about continental dishes but local dishes. My tribe has this food that we call our traditional dish pounded yam and Ogbono soup. The raw ingredients are yam, the Ogbono seed, fish, meat and all kinds of seasoning according to your taste. There are other foods from other tribes that I like e.g. Amala and Ewedu. This one is common with the Yorubas. We also have Tuwo Shinkafa common in the Hausas. The way they prepare these foods with local ingredients thrills me and makes anyone salivates.
Mineral Resources
My country is also rich in mineral resources. There are many that I can’t even mention all, we have gold, coal, crude and many others in different states of Nigeria. In my state, we are rich in crude oil. Most of these mineral resources we have in excess are what other nations strive to have, but fortunately, we are naturally gifted with them. Our vegetation is one part that is also nice. We produce all sort of vegetables making all those things available for use to the masses.
I have talked about most of my likes, so I think I need to talk about my dislikes. I have only one dislike.
Corruption
Corruption is the only thing that I hate about my country and this ailment is eating up my country badly. Nigeria is a blessed country, but we have a more corrupt government than the good ones. This aspect is causing a great set back in our economy. We have wonderful resources but the people put in charge of those things mess everything up making the citizens suffer for what we have in excess. In a situation when most of the elections are rigged making the unqualified ones rule the qualified. So bad I hope all these will be over because I believe this is the only thing eating our nation up.
This is all I can say about my country. And the only advice I would give to my fellow Nigerians is that they should be sincere, vote wisely, obey rules and hope for a better future.
Thanks, guys, for reading and I hope you express your thoughts about this post in the comment section.