A friend in the US sent a video clip to me about some Nigerians in the diaspora who had invested in one of the estates about to be demolished to make way for the Coastal Road. My heart went out to them as they narrated their emotional experiences in the video. They not only lost money, they lost homes. A home is a pull. And for as long as you have a home somewhere, there is always a tendency to want to go there.

But my training as a journalist tells me not to take in any story at a surface level. Besides, I know a bit more about that area than most. Most people who had landed investments along the coastal area in the last twenty years at least, knew about the existence of a Coastal Road. It is possible that these diaspora Nigerians were scammed by land speculators. It is also possible that the detour of the Coastal Road from the original route affected them, in which case, they deserve alternative land as compensation.

Many in the video said they would never invest in Nigeria again. That was an emotional statement to which they are entitled given their experience. But the reality is that many diasporas have real estate investments in Nigeria, especially Lagos, that are going well. The caption at the end of the video was ‘Nigeria happened to them’. That got to me. You don’t have to be a scholar to know what that caption denotes.

‘May Nigeria not happen to you’ is a prayer that is often said by a lawyer and activist who is currently in the news. It suggests nothing good can come out of Nigeria. It surmises that if Nigeria happens to you, then something calamitous has happened, or will soon happen to you. This is as cynical, and as negative as it can possibly be. It makes one wonder how you can claim as an activist, to fight for a country on which you have given up. A country that in your view and by your words, is beyond salvage. It is unfortunately, a prayer which resonates with a class of people who seem to have lost faith in the country.

A class of people who love to blame the country for every ill that happens to them. Rather than encourage this class of people to have faith in themselves and their place in the sun, rather than urge them to be adaptable as they roll with the inevitable punches of life, this negative statement tends to make them brittle and inflexible so to break them. I have lived all my life in Nigeria and I can say Nigeria has happened to me in more ways than one. I have experienced both the negative and the positive. Yet, all things considered, I don’t believe I am worse off than many in my age grade who left the shores of the country decades ago to seek greener pastures or to avoid Nigeria happening to them.

I like to spend time – when we both can spare some leisurely hours – with a lovely lady who was a victim of the Biafran War although she was too young at the time, to feel the full impact. Her father escaped being killed by whiskers when he fled home in the small hours of the morning; just a couple of hours before an invasive raid was conducted on their home.

The memory of the war which disrupted their cozy, affluent home, is still etched in her mind. The narratives of the returnees and what they had to do to survive still play like a tape in her head. One could say Nigeria happened to her. Yet, she has a balanced perspective on life. Her views on Nigeria might not always be flattering, but they are not negative. She is today a citizen of the world who holds a British passport but will not hesitate to say when asked, that Nigeria is home. 

Speaking of home, I and a few classmates had a late lunch or early dinner – more like a liquid dinner – with a classmate who came home to Nigeria in December. He is a medical doctor who resides in the US and hadn’t been back home in years. One couldn’t say he came home for Christmas because he left a day before Christmas. But one could truthfully say he came home because Nigeria happened to his daughter. It is easy to underestimate the impact of our music on the global scene as well as its impact on the psyche of young Nigerians in the diaspora.

In addition, my classmate’s daughter is into artiste management and one of her clients is a top Nigerian musician. So she possibly wanted to feel the source of his inspiration; to feel the earth that produced his, and many other musical talents. She probably also wanted be part of the much touted Detty December. It was a busy December for my classmate as he took his daughter to some old haunts which included taking her to his parents’ home in a serene part of Yaba. The place where he grew up with all his childhood memories. The place he and his siblings sold after their parents died.

The low point must be when she looked at him and plaintively asked why it was sold. It never occurred to him that a child of his would want to come back to Nigeria raised and bred as it were, in Europe and America. A family friend felt the pull of home after living in the US for years and not only decided to buy a posh apartment in Lagos, he also built a befitting one in his home town. He now enjoys coming home. The snag however was that his children had become so Americanized that he wondered what would happen to those beautiful homes in future. Then Nigeria happened to one of them. A son expressed the desire not only to visit home but to explore the possibilities at home.

The phenomenon called Detty December has become a pull to our youths in the diaspora. Many who had never been to Nigeria come home to find that the country is nowhere as bad as it had been painted to them. Many are promising to come back again. I hope the system will encourage this. I hope the leaders can use this as a pad to launch our dormant tourist industry. I hope these leaders can also see Nigeria, warts and all, with the eyes of youths who have never been home before.

I have always believed parents should always encourage their children to identify with their original roots irrespective of where they were born. That Nigeria happened to them negatively does not mean Nigeria cannot happen to their children positively. Besides, it is an option should the children find their adopted country insufferable.