THE NATION THAT CLINCHES TO SUPERSTARS (case study - Ayshatu Jibo) - By: Babatunde Adeleke .A

Nigeria and Nigerians are a strange lot, Ken Saro-Wiwa said that Africa kills her sun, I am wont to disagree. Perhaps, we used to do that in the past, not anymore. Today, we clinch to the superstars and ensure that they return to their father’s land to defend what is left of the country. 

We do not do this in a bid to kill them, no, we do it in order to protect them. This was the same thing that happened earlier in the week when a report had it that some Nigerians were clamoring for the return of a particular United States of America sniper.

                                  

You would want to ask that on what grounds would Nigerians ask that a citizen and a soldier of the United States return to Nigeria. As always, the reasons are flimsy, ‘she was born in Nigeria’, ‘she is a native of Kano State’ amidst other thoughts that do not hold water. 

Somebody commented that she should come back to defend her father’s land and I could not help but laugh. For someone who went through West Point before joining the United States Marine whose flag she flies, she has accumulated millions of taxpayer’s monies to become the sharp sniper she is today. Yet, gullible people in my country think that she is a Nigerian because she has a name that seems native to the country. 

We are a country that uses patriotism as a double-edged sword. When Nigerians get nabbed for fraud and drug trafficking, we resort to tribe-dropping, that is when we remember that they are Igbo or Yoruba, perhaps Efik. Now that we have a success story, she is Nigerian, and she should come to defend her father’s land.

                                     

                               

She is not the first Nigerian-born that would excel outside the coast of the nation, she will not be the last either. I know that because there is a mass exodus of people, the people that can leave are promptly doing so. I am not in the place to blame such people, because when a place no longer feels like home, one must move on to where shelter can be found. 

This soldier is not also the first Nigerian-born that we will be clinching to and calling to return either. We have done that to several other people, the big question is, how did we repay them? Is it not with thorns and thistles? I remember Blessing Okagbare and her continued hustle for the country of her birth, the country that never made her but whose flag she chose to fly. How did we treat Victor Moses after we poached him and prevented him from playing for England even after the country has spent resources to take him to the big stage? 

                                     

                                 

If you want some advice from me, here it is:  This soldier is not a Nigerian, she has a father’s land and it is not Nigeria. She swore allegiance to the United States and not your thousand kumbaya would make her go back on that oath. 

Like always, I come in peace.