How to start this is actually the most Frustrating part. Okay, my name is Chen Emmanuel, Other names Wang and Chinelo. Now you are probably wondering how I am Nigerian, no Nigerian tribe bears such surname. You’re probably right.
My Dad is Chinese and my mom is from the remote parts of Umuahia, Abia State. I’m Nigerian by nationality or citizenship, I don’t really know or care, I’m more Nigerian than I am Chinese. I could speak Igbo language and no Chinese.
My Dad is Chinese and my mom is from the remote parts of Umuahia, Abia State. I’m Nigerian by nationality or citizenship, I don’t really know or care, I’m more Nigerian than I am Chinese. I could speak Igbo language and no Chinese.
But that’s not the point. You could say I’m an ‘Aba boy’. I was born and bred in Aba before I started moving out to other states. I have been to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Enugu, Benue, Kogi, Kaduna, Calabar, Abuja, Lagos, Nassarawa, Jos, Anambra, and Uyo and spent considerable amount of time in all these locations to know a little about the people in them.
NIGERIA IS NOT A BAD COUNTRY, NIGERIA HAS BAD PEOPLE.
No I’m not saying everyone is bad but I have had well enough experience to know so.
Let’s start from birth, I would tell you the truth. Sometimes I wish I’m fully Nigerian, some of the things I describe here wouldn’t have happened. Nevertheless, about now I’m 6 ft. tall, light skinned and long curly hair.
Since I knew myself or rather as far back as I can thread on memory lane, I have been called a whole lot of things and names: Oyinbo, Oyibo pepper, onye Ocha, Onye ocha nna ya di oji, Chin chong (and all other funny sounding Chinese caricatures). Nigerians conjure all sorts of names and with every new location comes a new name.
I cannot go to the market in peace. You have all sorts of people and sellers calling you names of all sorts to buy from them. Some would touch my hair or even pull and still ask, “Can I touch your hair?” I’m now used to people asking me that and because I can’t refuse, I have an average of 10 people touching my hair daily.
Then the question that annoys the most, “Are you a Nigerian?” “No, I’m an albino.” I don’t usually reply that but sometimes I want to because you obviously see that I am not Nigerian, the probably right question is, “Where are you from?” For people I meet personally, I tolerate answering but for those on social media, I tell them, “I’m from Heaven.” It gets more annoying as some then ask, “What are you doing here?” I don’t hesitate to reply, “I came to plant cassava.” And they laugh.
I’m basically telling you experience with individuals, I would still move on to family, organization and the state at large.
Another experience is CHEATING THE OYINBO MAN. So I am at the market one day to buy a gadget and this dude tells the other in Igbo, “Lets cheat him, he’s a white boy, he has money.” Unfortunately for the hoodlum, I understood him but I waited for him to finish all the cheating, then slowly and sarcastically I replied him in Igbo, “You have seen the rabbit that strayed to your shop to be killed right?” Then I turned and walked away gloriously. I was so filled with joy as I turned and saw the amazement at both their faces. It’s wrong to have such a mentality. CORRUPTION STARTS FROM SELF.
THE NIGERIAN POLICE. Due to my excessive travels, I am opportuned to be on the road at times. Whenever we pass a police checkpoint, the bus has to come to a halt, Why? ME! They would start asking all sorts of random questions like stated above and I humbly reply before I am beaten or shot down like I have seen with my very own eyes. I always have to carry some sort of identification or my international passport to prove to them that I’m a son of the soil.
Maybe it’s because I’m in a bus…no? Whenever we travel with any of the cars, N200 should do the trick for no questions or less.
Nigerian Families, not all, but most live in insecurity, fear of their own homes, talk more of their neighbors. My mom is not exempted. GBAM!!! A blow came to my back one fateful night from my mom, “Why didn’t you lock all the windows and the doors?” “Mummy I locked them!” “But the net is open! Is it locked when the net is open?” Actually yes it was but she was scared of her own home.
So many superstitions exist- don’t flog a child with a broom, witches that fly in all forms, don’t eat the head of a pawpaw, don’t jump over someone lying or sitting down, the gizzard is not meant for you and so many others. Trust African parents to discipline…they are masters. They could hit you with the nearest most painful object.
The laptop is a better choice to a TV remote to throw on you if they were both in the same distance. All sorts of punishments exist, frog jump, pick-pin, we even invented the crouching tiger, pepper to your eyes (I had that twice)… many items to use in caning- the superstitious broom, cane, wire, belt, tree twigs, plank, just so many of them.
As for the state, that’s where the major problems lie. But truth be told, the hierarchy of such problems begin with the individual. I remember being in Aba during the kidnapping era. We had to escape to Owerri for a while till the amnesty treaty.
Well, I have so many stories but I’ll stop here with this words …
NIGERIA IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE WITH BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, CHANGE YOURSELF: CHANGE NIGERIA.
Chen Emmanuel
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