NIGERIAN CLOSET RACISTS PLEASE STAND UP by Obori Adaka

                                                                                                                                        

Yesterday my last post on facebook was, “when black lives matter, all lives matter.  All lives don't matter when black lives are snuffed off by any irritant racist with a badge.  When we say blacks we do not just mean African Americans.  We mean the entire black race in the United States and the entire world including Africa the home of the black race.  

However, let’s examine closely the roles of Africans in general and especially Nigerians living in the USA and those living in Nigeria are playing in the protest of Black Lives Matter.  Are we Africans living up to the billings or are we closet racists castigating our brothers and sisters who were forcibly brought over to America against their collective will in slave ships?

Quite unfortunately, the video clip titled, “Message to White (Identified) Nigerians by Tanya TKO tore into Nigerians.  She did not mince words in laying it out the way it is.  She pointed out the clumsy and flimsy way Nigerians tend to dismiss the trauma of slavery as they demean the victims of over 400 years of pain. Watch the video and hear from the horse’s mouth.

My take is that our sister is right.  Some Nigerians have this colonial mentality of everything white is superior and anything black is bad.  Such warped mindset and look-down extend to our black brothers and sisters in the USA who bore the brunt of the struggle, the protests and the torments to gain freedom before Nigerians or any black for that matter, were able to come over to the USA to enjoy the freedom African Americans fought hard for and won.  

Perhaps, some Nigerians see African Americans for who they are not.  Some see them as those who are not doing enough to combat the forces marshaled against them for the past 400 years.  Some see them at times as just complaining in the land of plenty where some Nigerians think they should be doing better without giving serious thought to what African Americans have been through. 

For the record, colonization lasted less than 100 years but it left with some Nigerians colonial mentality clouding their judgement and driving a dark wedge between Nigerians and our African American relatives.  On the other hand, slavery went on for over 400 years and its effect and negative impact are still prevalent till today.  The racism African Americans suffer is overt, in your face, and persistent, while the impact of colonization was, at best, subtle and unseen, a piece of cake compared to slavery. 

While some Nigerians are displaying such crass insensitivity, they conveniently forgot their own docility and outright pacifist tendencies when it comes to dealing with their own rotten political system in Africa.  Nigeria is a country endowed with rich natural resources, human capital but with the most corrupt, incompetent and tribalistic successive leadership on the face of the earth from its inception in 1960.  Nigeria has been rudderless and in constant tailspin of underdevelopment and misrule. 

The overriding question is why have these smart Nigerians blaming African Americans not made any progress if indeed they are smarter than the African Americans in the USA? Had Nigeria and Nigerians done better, building a modern society in Nigeria, with bubbling economic infrastructural development in the model of Dubai, maybe, the remnant white racists would, at least, develop a modicum of respect and regard for the black race.  

Nigeria, as the giant of Africa shouldn’t be where it is today.  Nigeria should not be in constant song of economic degradation, beautified in tapestry of banditry, kidnapping, poverty, and penury which made it more difficult for the African Americans under the pressure of racism to exhibit any sense of pride as a black race.  The idea that these Nigerians think in their warped imagination that they are better than African Americans when they could not rise up to build their country, the so called giant of Africa makes them racists for they are displaying racism against their own relatives who came to the Americas not by choice but in chains. 

Interestingly, Nigeria as a country is not just tribalistic but is indeed afflicted from head to toe by the maladies of corruption and miseducation made worse by religion.  These maladies feed off each other in vicious reinforcement (corruption leading to miseducation as religion douses the effect).  

The tribalistic leadership is extremely corrupt and corruption has trickled down to the populace.  Bribery and embezzlement are open game on the streets and most governmental and private offices including the banking system.  With corruption comes the crash of the economy, job loss and high unemployment.  Those with jobs are owed salaries for months wiping away the entire middle class over the years. 

The educational system which is the foundational building block for the nation is degraded.  The teachers are not paid.  Students whose parents lost their jobs could not pay for school fees. The school systems are starved of funding.  Today, in Nigeria students search for miracle centers where their children could register and take the Senior School Certificate (SSC) and the West African Examination Certificate (WASC).  Such miracle centers pay off examination officials to look the other way while the students cheat to pass their exams.  Miracle indeed

The higher education system is no different.  Nigeria is about the worst in the entire world as the educationally backward North has dragged the entire country’s  educational system down to their lowly level through an obscure quota system in the university admission system where admission scores are determined not by academic performance but by state of origin.  Students from Katsina get admitted with 23 while students from Imo will be admitted with 230 scores (talk about dumbing down education). In universities students get by through sorting (paying for grades), some female students engage in sex for grade with randy lecturers.  At graduation they walk away miseducated and beret of the key skills of critical thinking or analysis. 

Ordinarily, religion should not be characterized as a malady but in the case of Nigeria it’s because it serves as the soothing balm applied to pacify the population under the dead weight of the corruption and misrule.  The penticostal megachurches have grown as refuge and members are thoroughly brainwashed in distorted prosperity preaching diverting their attention from the looting of their commonwealth by the thieving political elite who join, fund and participate in the theatricals of their church services. 

Consequently, the maladies of corruption, miseducation, and religion have left Nigeria populated by a bunch of docile citizens who cannot muster the confidence and courage to protest over 60 years of successive looting of their economy.  Both these highly educated and the younger miseducated Nigerians are in the same chorus of agreement that prayers solve all their problems.  Man has no use for brains anymore since you can pray and ask God for everything you want and it will happen in a fiat without attempting any physical work.  The religion has so crippled their ability to think critically that most have accepted the religious white supremacy stunt of a blonde Jesus with blue eyes.  It is that bad

Expectedly, this stock of religiously brainwashed Nigerians on social media are those who ticked off our sister to make her video.  These people have found an outlet to the world from the misery of the giant of Africa where they spew demented colonial mentality and racist laced tirades.  They are ready to jump on the next ship to the USA or Europe if given the opportunity but for some strange reason they do not support their fellow blacks fighting against racism instead they lean toward white supremacists. 

Ironically, many of these racist Nigerians have ignorantly pitched their political tents in the USA without votes and tepid understanding of the political dynamic of the US elections.  They have sided with the ultra conservative right wing with Trump as their bible toting messiah.  At the same time they are salivating to migrate to the USA if given a chance under the same Trump’s draconium immigration policies of walling off the outside world. 

Unfortunately, their reasons for supporting President Trump ranges from strange to the absurd.  The brainwashed Nigerians are quick to tell you that Trump is a Christian as if they bumped into him in one of their megachurches recently.  Others said that Trump is the only President who will come to Nigeria to rescue them from the Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram.  Isn’t this absurd?  

While they do not have votes, they are praying for Racist Trump to win again. However when told that Mr. Trump is described as a xenophobic, race-baiting and religious bigot these confused and miseducated Nigerians still find reason to side with the political divide detrimental to the race relationship of their African American relatives.

On a serious note, there is no doubt that the combination of colonial mentality, corruption, and miseducation made worse by religious brainwash have terribly driven some Nigerians both in the USA but mostly in Nigeria to display racism towards their African American relatives in the USA.  These are people who have not been able to build any tangible economic or political institution for their own country for 60 years since independence from Britain.  Despite crude corruption at every level of governmental institution most Nigerians have remained cowards and docile without lifting a finger forgetting that nobody will respect the black race when the home of the black race is in perpetual economic and developmental ruin and tatters. 

 In conclusion, Africa is the home of black race.  Nigeria is the giant of Africa but the giant needs to rise up as one.   Nigerians should do their part and build a country the black race would be proud of, not resort to criticizing the true victims of racism in the USA.  All lives matter only but only when black lives matter. There can't be all lives matter excluding black lives. And when we say black lives we mean the lives of every black man, woman and children throughout the world.  The racist rage knows no difference for what they see is black skin and what they want to kill is a black individual.  Black people around the world must rally in support of the African Americans and the rest of the black world who have suffered the heinous crime of slavery. It is not a matter of choice but a solemn responsibility to support the black race.

Dr. Obori Adaka, a social critic and political commentator, writes from New York.