Nigeria: The weight of a name, from the +234 streets to the world, by Stephanie Shaakaa

Sometimes the heaviest inheritance a Nigerian carries is simply a azygous word. Nigeria. It is stamped connected the passport. Printed connected the CV. Whispered astatine checkpoints. Before you explicate yourself that sanction has already spoken. Too often it condemns earlier it introduces.

To beryllium Nigerian is to unrecorded nether suspicion you ne'er agreed to. It is to ticker your humanity, brilliance, and ambition filtered done a lens of doubt. You locomotion into a country with ideas successful your hands lone for suspicion to greet you first.

A passport should unfastened doors. A nationality should beryllium a root of pride. For Nigerians some often consciousness similar chains. To accidental you are Nigerian successful galore parts of the satellite is to participate a courtroom wherever the verdict is already written. No transgression committed yet punishment is swift. Suspicion. Rejection. Exclusion.

It begins with the name. Niger sounds harmless. Add 2 letters and the temper changes. Smiles fade. Trust disappears. The infinitesimal it becomes Nigeria the speech hardens. To the planetary imaginativeness it is not a country. It is simply a warning.

Ask a Nigerian who has crossed borders and the stories echo each other. The pupil astatine Heathrow clutching admittance letters yet pulled speech arsenic if brilliance cannot beryllium to a Nigerian passport. The freelancer dazzling a lawsuit until the infinitesimal she types Nigeria into her profile. Silence follows. The postgraduate whose accent ends the interrogation earlier it begins. The household overseas denied lodging due to the fact that their surname raises suspicion. The aforesaid communicative retold successful antithetic forms. The infinitesimal Nigeria appears doors statesman to close.

Yes a fewer criminals scarred the name. Their scams became headlines. But fraud has nary nationality. Americans tally Ponzi schemes. Europeans launder billions. Asians hack banks. Yet nary 1 assumes that each national of those nations is guilty. Why past indispensable Nigerians transportation corporate shame.

The outgo is immense. It is the entrepreneur whose innovation is questioned due to the fact that it came from Nigeria. It is the occupation seeker dismissed due to the fact that of a passport. It is the doc overseas who indispensable beryllium honesty earlier competence. It is the household that pays rent doubly implicit due to the fact that spot was denied. This prejudice does not lone outgo money. It costs dignity.

Even geography mocks us. Niger is accepted without suspicion. Add the letters that signifier Nigeria and innocence vanishes. The borderline is not lone connected the map. It is successful perception. Niger is harmless. Nigeria is condemned. A federation of 2 100 cardinal judged by the misdeeds of a few.

The jokes sting too. A tourer introduces himself and hears it instantly. You are Nigerian? You are not present to scam maine are you? What others disregard arsenic wit is the echo of suspicion dressed successful laughter.

Statistics corroborate the burden. The Nigerian passport ranks among the weakest successful question state with less than sixty countries unfastened visa escaped oregon connected arrival. Japanese and German passports assistance entree to implicit 1 100 and eighty. In the United States Nigerian visa rejection rates tally astir treble the planetary average. To the satellite our papers are a menace earlier our humanity is seen.

Yet Nigerians bash not fold nether this weight. They rise. Wole Soyinka’s words substance state struggles. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala steers the currents of satellite trade. Tobi Amusan outran uncertainty and became the fastest hurdler alive. Paystack and Flutterwave link Africa to planetary finance. Nigerians successful America fertile among the astir educated migrant groups with implicit sixty percent holding a bachelor’s grade oregon higher. The diaspora sends location much than 20 cardinal dollars each twelvemonth sustaining families and fueling economies. These are not exceptions. They are proof. Proof that Nigerian excellence is undeniable.

Across the globe Nigerians interruption ceilings. They triumph world laurels. They people books. They nonstop films. They physique companies. They triumph tournaments. They...