Their daily preoccupation is to scour social media for anything remotely embarrassing about Nigeria, magnify it, embellish it where necessary and broadcast it with the enthusiasm of people who have discovered their life’s calling.
By Kamal Tayo Oropo
There is an old Yoruba proverb: Ẹrú kan ni ó mú ni bú igba ẹrú. Loosely translated, one slave’s misconduct can earn the chastisement of an entire company of slaves.
It is a proverb about collective consequences: how the indiscretion, recklessness or sheer foolishness of one individual can bring reproach upon people who have done absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Few contemporary behaviours illustrate this proverbial wisdom more vividly than the conduct of certain Nigerians who have made living abroad an excuse for perpetually denigrating their country of origin.
These are people who, having found opportunities beyond Nigeria’s shores, have apparently decided that their most important contribution to humanity is to advertise everything wrong with the country they left behind.
They have turned Nigeria-bashing into a vocation.
Their daily preoccupation is to scour social media for anything remotely embarrassing about Nigeria, magnify it, embellish it where necessary and broadcast it with the enthusiasm of people who have discovered their life’s calling.
They are never short of material. Every security challenge, political controversy, economic difficulty, infrastructural deficiency or unfortunate incident becomes another opportunity to announce Nigeria’s supposed irredeemability.
Yet, when something positive happens, their enthusiasm evaporates.
They either dismiss it, question its significance, undermine its credibility or conveniently move the goalposts. A Nigerian achievement must always come with an accompanying explanation of why it does not deserve celebration.
For these people, Nigeria is apparently incapable of redemption. Its failures are permanent evidence of national incompetence, while its achievements are temporary inconveniences to their preferred narrative.
There is nothing particularly sophisticated about this disposition. It is intellectual dishonesty dressed up as enlightenment.
But the real tragedy is that their conduct does not occur in isolation. It can impose a reputational burden on millions of fellow Nigerians who are doing everything possible to distinguish themselves abroad.
Consider the recently concluded United States midterm elections.
Nigerian-Americans recorded a remarkable showing, with 14 people of Nigerian ancestry reportedly among those elected to various positions. Americans of Somali heritage also made significant electoral gains.
These are people whose participation in American civic and political life demonstrates something considerably more consequential than social-media grandstanding.
They are building careers, engaging communities, earning public confidence and taking up responsibilities in the societies where they reside.
They are making their Nigerian and Somali heritage count through their individual achievements.
They are not waiting for their adopted countries to become perfect before contributing to their development. They are not spending their days manufacturing reasons to ridicule America or questioning the legitimacy of every achievement recorded by their communities.
They are participating in the business of building society.
And that brings us to an uncomfortable question.
What exactly have some of our professional Nigeria-bashers abroad made of their own opportunities?
Beyond their remarkable ability to discover Nigeria’s shortcomings, what have they accomplished?
Which communities have benefited from their presence? What institutions have they helped build? What meaningful contributions have they made to the societies that have offered them opportunities?
What exactly are they known for, apart from their relentless enthusiasm for ridiculing their country of origin?
Nobody is suggesting that every Nigerian abroad must become an elected politician, celebrated entrepreneur or community leader. Neither should anyone be discouraged from criticising Nigeria. Our country has enough problems to justify vigorous, persistent and uncompromising scrutiny.
But there is a difference between demanding accountability and developing an addiction to national humiliation.
There is a difference between identifying shortcomings and deliberately hunting for them.
And there is an enormous difference between wanting your country to improve and appearing personally offended whenever it makes progress.
Some of these individuals have developed an extraordinary geographical selectivity in their critical faculties.
Nigeria must answer for every failure, but their adopted countries somehow deserve a more charitable assessment.
They will dissect Nigeria’s political dysfunction while overlooking controversies in their host countries. They will ridicule Nigeria’s economic difficulties while pretending that inflation, homelessness, inequality, racism and social dislocation are exclusive Nigerian afflictions.
They demand accountability from Nigerian leaders but rarely subject their own contributions, civic participation or personal accomplishments to comparable scrutiny.
Apparently, the standards they prescribe for Nigeria are not necessarily standards they apply to themselves.
And this is where the Yoruba proverb becomes particularly relevant.
Ẹrú kan ni ó mú ni bú igba ẹrú.
One person’s foolishness can bring punishment upon everyone.
The Nigerian who has distinguished himself through professional excellence, community service, civic participation and personal integrity abroad should not have to carry the reputational baggage of another Nigerian whose principal public accomplishment is denigrating the country of his birth.
The Nigerian-American elected into public office should not be lumped together with the Nigerian who has made a career out of online contempt.
The Nigerian professional earning respect in his adopted community should not be made to answer for someone who has mistaken relentless negativity for intellectual sophistication.
The Nigerian entrepreneur creating employment abroad should not have his achievements overshadowed by another compatriot’s obsession with portraying Nigeria and Nigerians as irredeemably hopeless.
Yet, that is precisely the collective reputational damage that indiscriminate national denigration can encourage.
And the irony is almost too embarrassing to ignore.
While some Nigerians of immigrant heritage are earning public confidence and making their presence felt in American politics, others are expending their energies trying to convince the world that their country of origin has absolutely nothing worth celebrating.
One group is building a reputation through achievement. The other is attempting to build one through ridicule.
One group is demonstrating the possibilities of Nigerian heritage. The other is behaving as though disowning every positive association with Nigeria is a qualification for admission into a supposedly superior civilisation.
Let us be clear: leaving Nigeria is not an achievement in itself. Neither is acquiring foreign citizenship, speaking with a foreign accent or living in a country with better infrastructure.
Geographical relocation does not confer intellectual superiority. A foreign passport does not automatically make its holder more accomplished, enlightened or useful to society.
And certainly, a person does not become successful merely by constantly announcing the failures of those who remain at home.
There are Nigerians abroad who are making extraordinary contributions without turning their nationality into an embarrassment. They are professionals, academics, entrepreneurs, public servants, politicians and community builders.
They understand that personal achievement is a far more convincing advertisement for one’s country than a thousand social-media arguments.
They also understand that patriotism does not require blind loyalty, just as criticism does not require permanent hostility.
What is difficult to comprehend is why anyone would deliberately choose to become a walking advertisement for everything negative about his homeland while doing so little to distinguish himself through positive contributions elsewhere.
If you cannot make Nigeria proud through your individual achievements, must you also make it notorious through your online conduct?
If you cannot contribute to improving the country, must you also become an enthusiastic participant in its public humiliation?
If you have found a better environment, must you necessarily turn that privilege into an opportunity to mock those who have not?
There is nothing courageous about ridiculing a struggling population from the comfort of a foreign address. There is nothing intellectually impressive about amplifying bad news while deliberately suppressing good news.
And there is certainly nothing admirable about conduct that makes fellow Nigerians bear the reputational consequences of another person’s recklessness.
Perhaps these individuals should occasionally pause to consider the Yoruba wisdom behind the proverb.
One slave’s indiscretion can bring the whip down on the backs of many.
It is one thing to escape the plantation. It is quite another to become the reason the slave driver reaches for the whip against those you left behind.
That, in its most uncomfortable expression, is the obtuseness of the slave who gets other slaves chastised.
