By Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD
With the world as a global village, every country needs the other one way or the other. This is the meaning of international relations; existing, occurring, or carried on between nations. It struck me that Nigeria mainly has a foreignational relation with most other countries of the world. I have coined the word “foreignational” to capture the mutually exclusive relationship between Nigeria and many other counties of the world. At all levels of existence, smart countries of the world all have a thing or the other to tap from Nigeria, but hardly do we know what to demand, derive or even snatch in return. If we ever talk about an exchange, it is one that puts us at a loss, such as selling our crude oil to rebuy.
With the exception of the hip-hop artistes who have made Nigerian hip-hop one of the most patronised genres of music in the world, it is difficult to think of two more industries where Nigeria is drinking from the tap of other countries who, on their own part, are swimming in the Nigerian rivers. And one wonders what the popularity and dominance of the Nigerian hip-hop translates to for Nigeria beyond gangsterism, drug addiction, objectification of women and get-rich-quick syndrome.
The “big men” take their children abroad to acquire an education that is not culturally and contextually useful for Nigeria, and the ones who struggle to make the best of themselves in Nigeria also find their way abroad to work for foreigners, ending in a two-way win for the foreign countries and of course a two-way loss for Nigeria. We citizens are regularly “peppered” by fine graduation pictures of the children of our big men on the internet after which they will return home to head ministries and directorates without native intelligence or any connection with the citizenry. What do you expect? They must have even been begged to come home.
Away from big people. Even in academia where locally solid ideas should emanate from us and for us, the postulation is not considered reputable until it is sent out for foreignational validation. “Who named you scholar without offshore publications?” We get grants and loans to go share our thoughts in foreign conferences but when foreigners come to Nigeria they are keynote speakers. The news of Professor Wahab Elias of Lagos State University as a guest speaker at the Lewis and Clark University international conference sometime this year has to be the most elating news for me so far this year as an academic.
Among us the bourgeoisie as we have been stratified, we actually do not mind the shoes coming from Aba, just inscribe “Italian” on it. That will do for our sense of dignity even if our feet would have erased the inscription before the end of the first outing. Italian shoes, French perfume, Arabian gold, Ghana jollof; it has to be foreign to be solid.
Shall we discuss religion? With the number of Ifa worshippers in Brazil, USA, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, if the Nigerian government beautifies the Osun Osogbo festival and enlarge it to accommodate the celebration of other deities, the country will realise more money than we need to subsidise for pilgrimages. But no! Ours is not international relations; it is foreignational relations. We give; we don’t take.
Let us go linguistic now. Of course our children do not say “baami” or “nna” or “uba”. Their school fees would be a waste if they do that. We have to be called “dad” to fulfil the righteousness of western sophistication. Even our own languages are called “vernaculars” (the languages of the ORDINARY people), and some of us even had to pay or got caned for speaking them.
I should not forget one that is very annoying. If I cannot eat eba, fufu, semo and pounded yam with fork and knife in public, I become the topic of the supposedly sophisticated people. Some have even likened the ability to use cutlery to a sign of intelligence. I have to be a dullard to say I cannot use cutlery, and wish to eat eba with my hand. But we will not dare to sell the idea of eating his own rice with his hand to the foreigner.
Foreignational disposition is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria, sadly, at all levels. While it is desirable to be/go international, it is unhealthy for the development and image of any country to be foreignational. Shall we all do something about it then?
(c) 2024 Ganiu Bamgbose writes from the Department of English, Lagos State University.
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