Whether Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or Efik or Ishang or what have you, every Nigerian has one underlying trait; the ability to make the most of every situation no matter how grim. I don’t know who else has noticed that Nigerians are one people that have the uncanny ability to adapt and integrate fastest of all the people of the world.
This is probably the reason it is hard to go to any part of the earth, any part, and you would not find a Nigerian or more. And for the most part, many Nigerians have so blended into their foreign habitats that they become indistinguishable from aborigines of the society.
A Nigerian stand up comedian once told a joke about a certain new entrant to the US who was at loss as to how to find a certain address. He stopped a passerby who looked like a native for direction. And the stranger picked offence as to why he was being disturbed and started a ruckus with him. At that point, the immigrant started spurting out some Igbo words of apology in fright. His fear, however, took a flight almost immediately as the stranger suddenly changed disposition and then asked him, “So, I bu Nwafor” (translated as, so, you are an Igbo man from Nigeria). That is a Nigerian, for you.
Another comedian even advised that any country you enter and you do not find a Nigerian, most especially, an Igbo man, make haste to leave the place as that would be indication that the people is not habitable.
Now, these two analogies are not to say that it is only Igbo people that integrate so well amongst all the ethnic groups in Nigeria. I know a lot of Yoruba people, Hausa people, who also take on the langage and culture of any foreign land they find themselves as second nature. So much so that, if you were not told, you would count them as natives.
This is a special tribute to Nigerians in diaspora, who have made the foreign land their home, most of the times, because of the jinx of third world status Nigeria has been placed in, courtesy of the principalities and powers who are behind the scene, pulling strings to keep Nigeria a free for all looting ground. This is to remind us all that if we do not fix our home and keep migrating to already fixed lands, those who fixed their land and know that our land would be more profitable to them than theirs, may one day, take over land and leave us to theirs. Let me see how we would be handling earthquakes, hurricanes, below 0 degree Celsius and such like.
In conclusion, we still maintain the fact that as a people, Nigerians are very good travellers and very good at acclimatizing. But let us not make tho beautiful trait a curse to us and ours. We have a home country to make habitable and beautiful. We cannot afford to keep wasting our resources in foreign lands.
@ostareze
