This social media penetration in Nigeria is a phenomenon that should be carefully managed because it shows just how easy it is to penetrate the minds of our people – for good or ill. It just so happens that for now, the purveyors of pessimism, hopelessness, despair and doom happen to have secured the upper hand. They said no news is good news. Good news is boring. Bad news sell. And, psychologically, with our current state of social psychology, millions of Nigerians are wired to seek negative news about their country, and others, and to believe such news and spread them on the spur. It is also agreed that Nigerians are exceptionalists – we often go around bragging about how great we are as human beings, as ethnic groups, and as a nation. Humility is not one of our fortes. But this also spills over to the other side. When we start to complain about our country, we speak in superlative, nihilistic, and fatalistic terms – Nigeria is dead! Nigeria is finished! There is no hope for this country! And on and on. Even those whose livelihoods are established on ruining the country, its image, its resources, are often the most strident in condemning the country and writing off any chance of us escaping Armageddon. Nigerians often speak as if history itself originated here. Like Americans, we have been developing a certain tunnel vision that focuses us only on ourselves. Tell us to take a pause, contextualise and compare carefully with other nations, or carefully examine history, and many just flip into rage. This is the reason why I strive daily to contribute my quota in pushing back as much as possible; especially as it pertains to the Nigerian economy.
Tinubu’s $1 trillion GDP target and Rufai Oseni’s tears, By ‘Tope Fasua
