Something exciting happened at the Super Bowl, which was held about a week ago in the United States of America. About nine players of Nigerian descent played in both teams: two for the Philadelphia Eagles (Moro Ojomo and C.J. Uzomah), who won it, and about seven for the Kansas City Chiefs (Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Charles Omenihu, Derrick Nnadi, Joshua Uche, Chukwuebuka Godrick, Chris Oladokun, and Joshua Ikechukwu Uche.)
At the end of the game, Ojomo celebrated with the Nigerian flag. Ojomo was born in Lagos State but left for the US when he was eight years old. In 2023, when the two teams met, Kansas City Chiefs emerged as winners. That year, Prince Tega Wanogho, who was born in Delta State and left Nigeria in 2014 with the plan to play basketball, ran around the pitch with the Nigerian flag, shouting, “All the way from Naija, we did it!” The import is that less than 10 years of being in the US, Wanogho—who grew up in a country that does not play American football—was winning the Super Bowl, which is rated the most watched television broadcast in the US every year.
In 2024, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers to emerge champions of the Super Bowl. Several Nigerian players were in the winning team. This is a sport that just about two decades ago, it seemed as if Nigerians in the US were not cut out for and were not interested in. But one interesting point is that most of the players of Nigerian descent in the National Football League were born in the US to immigrant parents. Although Nigerians were not known for playing American football, they saw that it was popular and brought money and fame and therefore introduced their children to it. After some decades, the seed they sowed began to produce fruits.
Nigerians love career success that comes with a financial reward. In any profession in which success and money meet, Nigerians jump into it in droves. Before American football, Nigerians had made the same mark in basketball. Basketball was not as popular as association football or soccer among Nigerians, including Nigerians resident in the US. They saw it as an American game. But when Nigerian-born Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets became a star in the 1980s and 90s, many Nigerians turned the attention of their children to basketball. Today, there are many players in the NBA with Nigerian ancestry, and most of them use their Nigerian names.
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In the US military, a seed that was sown about three decades ago has matured to become a huge tree. Today, Nigeria can boast of a brigadier general in the US military in the person of Brigadier General Amanda Azubuike. She received her commission from the University of Central Arkansas in December 1993, earning a bachelor’s degree in communications. In 1995, she graduated from flight school and began her rise in the military. With the height she has attained, she has become an inspiration to many girls and boys who would like to join the military or other professions.
In the film industry, especially Hollywood, there are many Nigerian actors, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Boyega, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Uzo Aduba, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cynthia Erivo, etc. Across Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia, there are many Nigerian sportspeople performing. In medicine, technology, finance, communications, etc., many Nigerians are making their mark.
What is happening is that the seeds sown some decades ago in different professions and the ones being sown in recent years are maturing to form a critical mass that can no longer be ignored. The first generation of Nigerians who settled in the US and other countries has produced children who have grown to become full-blown Americans, Britons, Canadians, Chinese, Koreans, Germans, etc.
The first generation of Nigerians, like Mr Herbert Macaulay, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Prof. Eyo Eta, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Tafawa Balewa, etc., who went to the UK and the US to study, returned shortly after their study to help in building the new Nigeria. This continued until after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. But by the 1970s, a new set of Nigerians travelling to Europe and North America did not return fully like the first pre-Independence set. By the 1980s and 90s, these people began to have children born in the USA, UK, and co. The children did not have the barriers that their parents had. They did not grow up with a Nigerian accent. They did not have the Nigerian mentality of seeing themselves as 100 per cent Nigerians who were abroad temporarily. Like the ancestors of White Americans, for example, who migrated from the UK or other parts of Europe, they saw themselves as Americans and Britons with Nigerian ancestry but with no plans of leaving to settle permanently in Nigeria. They can travel to Nigeria periodically; they can celebrate their Nigerian descent; but they are Americans or Britons.
The advantage this set of Nigerians has is that they can easily mix up with citizens of all races. They can assert their rights as full citizens, and display the genes of the Nigerians, the can-do spirit of Nigerians, but they also have the surefootedness and environmental consciousness of the Americans or Britons, respectively. Therefore, they have the best of two worlds.
Consequently, a new mindset is spreading among Nigerians in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. That mentality is to recreate the Nigerian world physically and mentally in their place of abode and take conscious actions that mark them out as unique within their environment. That is why in every sphere of human endeavour abroad, Nigerians are contributing immensely. Everyone is consciously making a mark. The result is that in the next 20 years, Nigerians will have created an amalgam of successes too hard to ignore.
The positive side of it is that as Nigerians travel, they go with their cultures, dishes, dressing, languages, music, dance steps, mannerisms, and peculiar ways of speaking English. Comedians, content creators and filmmakers are replicating this Nigerian way of life in their productions, which sometimes cause people to laugh, but something significant is happening: the Nigerian consciousness is being created among people who could never distinguish between two African countries.
Afrobeats is also helping to make it easier to spread the Nigerian consciousness across the world. Nigerians are no longer shy or afraid to identify as Nigerians wherever they are. In fact, many non-Nigerians are now identifying with the Nigerian way of life on social media: they eat Nigerian food, wear Nigerian clothes, speak the Nigerian accent or pidgin English, make Nigerian jokes, sing Nigerian songs, imitate Nigerian dance steps, showcase the Nigerian marriage rites, etc. This increases their viewership online but also creates public relations capital for Nigeria.
One Nigerian politician seems to have understood the advantage the Nigerian community abroad confers on Nigeria. While most Nigerian politicians usually ask Nigerians abroad to come back home to help rebuild Nigeria, Mr Peter Obi has asked Nigerians not to rush back home. He noted that, like India and Israel, the Nigerian diaspora community will play a huge role in boosting the Nigerian economy and image. If trust is built at home, these Nigerians who earn in stronger foreign currencies can be mobilised to send more money home to execute projects.
When non-Nigerians see that the citizens have trust in their economy, too much campaigning will not be needed to convince them to invest in Nigeria. The Nigerians abroad will also serve as ambassadors who will be using their soft power to the advantage of Nigeria politically, socially, artistically, morally, culturally, etc. Whenever an issue arises that affects the interests of Nigeria, there will be people of Nigerian descent in government, parliament, public service, media, business, the stock market, entertainment, sports, etc., who will be part of the decision-making process.
Nigerians home and abroad are taking conscious and unconscious steps to rebrand Nigeria and boost its image in the world. And they have achieved tremendous results. The missing link is leadership at home. If Nigeria can get the leadership that ranks at the same level of excellence as Nigerians, Nigeria will be among the frontline countries of the world.
X: @BrandAzuka
Culled: PUNCH
