S5 Ep. 283 Nigeria On My Mind

Nigeria has been on my mind, and I’m saying the quiet part out loud: too many of us are living like someone else will fix what we all feel breaking. I’m talking to Nigerians at home and Nigerians in the diaspora, especially anyone who feels that split inside, the part that longs for home and the part that wonders if home will still recognize you. This is a conversation about Nigerian identity, belonging, and the cost of losing touch with what “home” looks like, sounds like, and demands of us. 

I share an image that won’t let me go: a young man living two lives at once, one outside the country comparing everything to home, the other back home wishing for a way out. That conflict becomes a lens to ask harder questions about why mediocrity gets normalized, why hope feels thin, and why we keep asking who will save Nigeria. Then I return to the Nigerian national pledge, reading it as more than childhood memory, as a practical standard for integrity, unity, and service. 

I also speak directly to the Christian community in Nigeria, acknowledging persecution while urging us not to drop our hands in defeat. The core takeaway is simple and uncomfortable: the answer is with you and I, and the work starts with accountability. If you’ve been looking for a sign to re-commit to Nigeria with honesty and courage, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with one concrete thing you believe Nigerians can do today.

Transcript

Welcome And A Check-In

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi. Welcome to the World Cafe live show. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good everything. Wherever you are, at this particular moment listening to me, how are you? I really ask that question because I care. We care in this space. Has it been with you? It's been amazing. Today, on this episode of the show, there's something I want to do. I may not spend so much time. But it is directed to my country. Yes, Nigeria. You can see the way I'm yeah. Nigeria has been on my mind lately. And I'm not ashamed. Be proud Nigerian to my bones. I'm grateful to God for making me a Nigerian. You know, once I said the earth will be boring without Nigeria. Yes, the earth will be boring. Nigeria is such an amazing geography, such an amazing place. The people. If you've been with a Nigerian or encountered a Nigerian, if they ask you to define belief, you would you likely will point to that experience. So I saw this image. I saw this image. The image of a young man. I would say he was conflicted. Like he was having a dual personality scenario or syndrome. One personality was outside. Outside in the sense of like in another climb, in another geography, experiencing life and like comparing it to the other personality who is back home. The other personality who is outside was feeling homesick. And he's forgetting what it means. He's forgetting what it means to be home. He's forgetting what home looks like. While the one back home was like wishing, but he doesn't have the opportunity. So you have this conflict. There's a conflict. He's conflicted. That's how I see Nigeria today. There's a generation of Nigerians who are gradually forgetting what it means to be a Nigerian. They've been away for so long. They are longing to come back, but at the same time, they're beginning to lose touch. Then we have the set of Nigerians who are back home, who have now normalized mediocrity.

The Pledge And A Loss Of Hope

SPEAKER_00 4:26

And you ask yourself, why? Now let me read this.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

I pledge to Nigeria, my country, to be faithful, loyal, and honest, to serve Nigeria with all my strength, to defend her unity and uphold her honor and glory.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

So help me God.

The Light Is Not At The End

Accountability For Home And Abroad

SPEAKER_01 5:03

A lot of us have forgotten this. Whoever wrote this as a pledge for Nigeria, if he or she did not end it with, so help me God, I would have been taken aback. Because we're in a place as a country where a lot of us we've lost hope. A lot of us. It feels like we're drowning. It feels like are we going to be free from this shackles, from this bondage? Who will save us? Who is coming to save us? And someone will say, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? But you know, like I say it on this show, the light is not at the end of the tunnel. And this is what has been on my mind, and I said, to talk to my fellow Nigerians, both at home, but in diaspora. We're not gone. Hope is not lost. Yeah, hope is not lost. But you know what? We need to hold ourselves accountable, all of us. Each and every one of us. We need to hold ourselves accountable. As a father, as a mother, as a friend, a brother. We need to hold ourselves accountable. Do we want to see the future? Do we want to be, would I say, that solution to the world? Of course. But we need to look inwards.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

We need to ask ourselves critical questions.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Just like, you know, in the scriptures, when that question was asked, can anything good come from Nazareth?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Nigerians are asking that question.

A Word To Nigerian Christians

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Can anything good, the world, can anything good? But each time I look inwards into the country and I look at the things some individuals are doing to raise the nation, it gives me this. Would I use the word butterfly feeling in my tummy, in my stomach? Something sweet. Yeah. Something sweet. But again, we need to hold ourselves accountable as a people. Yeah. Now let me speak to the Christian community, the Christian family within this space, within this geographical Nigeria. There's so much about us. Yes, there is. There is. And that is why we're facing the persecutions that we are. And are we going to give up now? No.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Don't stop.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Don't let it go. Don't drop your hands and say we're helpless. But this is the time for us to hold on to our confession of faith, our belief for our nation, for our country, for our brothers, for our sisters, even for those who persecute us. Do you know why? I tell you why.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

The answer is with you and I.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

The answer is with us. Will Nigeria be known for something greater than what we know now? Yes. I believe it strongly. Will our story turn around?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yes. I believe it strongly.

Pledge Repeated And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_01 10:02

But do you know what? We have to work. We have to hold ourselves accountable. We have to. I think I'm going to end my thought here. And I'm going to read the pledge again and let it resonate with you. I pledge to Nigeria, my country, to be faithful, loyal, and honest, to serve Nigeria with all my strength, to defend her unity and uphold her honor and glory. So help me God. In the famous words of John F. Kennedy, he said, Do not think of what America can or will do for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Let it be what you will do for America. Till I come your way again. My name is Amakri. Amakri is away. Bye for now.