Nigerians are great and interesting people. Despite the way they normally criticize their country, there are still a lot of things they are known for which they would not love to trade for other foreign practices. If you have not noticed some of these things Nigerians are passionate about, start making your observations after reading this piece. You’ll soon confirm I told you just the truth. Read on…
1. Making Money
Nigerians are known to be very hardworking, but I tell you the truth, the only motivating factor is money. Nigerians so much love money that they could do virtually anything to have it. A typical Nigerian wouldn’t mind doing all sorts of odd or foul jobs in order to make money. Money-making rituals and 419 are very prevalent in the country, and Nigerians are also known for that in foreign countries. An average Nigerian man or woman is always in his worst mood when he doesn’t have money. Nigerians love to make money, and no amount acquired is sufficient enough to make them slow down the pace with which they go after it! Well, the good thing about this is that it makes them ambitious, hardworking and responsible.
2. Travelling Out
Tell a Nigerian you’re taking him or her abroad and she continues to dance about till eternity, thinking of completely nothing else. Nigerians always believe there are greener pastures beyond the shores of the country. A Nigerian will fight tooth and nail to see he leaves the country, even when it is glaring that the means would put his life on the line. There is no part of the world where you’ll not get to find a Nigerian. This has made Nigeria one of the most popular countries in the world. It has also given rise to a saying that if you get to any part of the world and never come across a Nigerian there, you should make haste and take your leave because the place is definitely not conducive for human survival.
3. Religion
Nigeria is the second most religious country in the whole world. You can never sever Nigerians from their religious ties. Nigeria is a place where you’ll come on the morning of a weekly day and see some market stalls under lock and key, and when you ask of the traders’ whereabouts, the answer you get is that they have gone to church. And mind you, they’ll spend almost the entire day there. I don’t think there’s any other country in the world that can outnumber Nigeria when it comes to the number of worship centers. There are two major religions prevalent in the country, Islam, and Christianity. The Christians are seemingly the most serious – throughout the week, be it morning, noon, evening or midnight, a church program will certainly be on.
4. Getting Married
Marriage is not just important to Nigerians; marriage is everything to them. No matter what your attainments in life may be, if you are not yet married as a Nigerian, you have not arrived. They normally refer to it as ‘settling down’, meaning that if you are not yet married, you are yet to settle, in other words, you are floating. This passion for marriage could be traced to Nigerians love and attachment to family life. Even when a man has numerous girlfriends and is very much convinced that he is not ready to stick to one sexual partner, he still insists on getting married. Same on the part of the woman, the greatest thing that’ll happen to her is to get married to a man. They cherish having a family to call their own, therefore, to have it, they must marry.
5. Extended Family Life
Nigerians cannot do without extended family relations. It is only in Nigeria that family ties that have no clear or even traceable explanations are held tenaciously. This has given rise to some coined family relationship names that do not exist in the English vocabulary. They’ll always tell you that someone is their distant cousin, uncle in-law, and so on. Whenever there are ceremonies, you have to be very careful with making a very comprehensive list of all relations to be invited because any omission could be very dangerous!
6. Culture
Nigerians stick so closely to their cultural and traditional practices such that nothing can sever them from it. This includes their native language, dishes, attires, festivals, titles, etc. Even the Christians still participate in almost every traditional ceremonies that are in place in their local communities. When Nigerians travel abroad, they can’t help but fish out where they can get their local dishes no matter the cost. After getting all the money, they still travel down to their home country to receive titles.
7. Showing Off
Nigerians are very passionate about showing off their possessions and achievements. They show off their money, phones, shoes, cars, and what have you. Even when these things are of very low quality, ‘that one be your own palaver’, a Nigerian must show off. Sometimes, the extreme ones among them would end up showing off what does not belong to them. Worst case scenarios, they’ll rather say it belongs to their grandfather’s uncle just to make sure there’s a connection between them and whatever it is that deserves showing-off!
8. Buying Cars
It is in Nigeria that owning a car is a great achievement, in fact, your status is defined by the car you ride. They acquire cars not because they need it but just that they want it. Nigerians love cars – they treat it like a child. I believe you’ve heard them call the flashy ones “my baby”. Even when they have enough cars to take care of their mobility, once they have the money, they’ll buy even more – the latest ones. You’ll see a Nigerian who does not have any investment using his last savings to buy a flashy car. Funny enough, they forget that cars are even liabilities and not assets when you come to think of the maintenance.
See Also: 15 Most Widely Spoken Nigerian Languages
9. Flowing with the Trending Fashion
Nigerians love anything that has to do with fashion, both their men and women. But, of course, it is more on the side of the women. Even if it’s a man who is not so fashion conscious, he’ll love his woman to dress in her best. They are ready to splash thousands on latest wears, even when they may not comfortably afford a balanced 3-square meal a day. Well, this is really nice and I appreciate it because you can trust Nigerians when it comes to looking good at important occasions no matter their economic status, rich or poor. They’ll never want the world to know the size of their pockets just at first sight.
10. Sports, mostly Football
Nigerians are so committed to sports that they take their football fans to be more important than their blood brothers. When they lose a match, they would not think of eating. Some even go to the extent of committing suicide. Arguments that border on football are the noisiest and most boisterous. They don’t mind betting out their last cards in favor of football. Nigerians can spend miles away from their homes just to watch a football match. Football is also one of the major games played by Nigerian children and youths. They even risk playing it along the less busy streets and roads, not minding how many times they have to pause at the approach of vehicles. This determination has also produced good Nigerian footballers as Nigerians can boast of a lot of them today who started just that way.
11. Work-free Days
For both the children and adults, they just can’t wait for the arrival of a public holiday. Nigerians cherish it beyond what you can think of. Telling them to work on a supposedly work-free day is more serious than a heinous crime. In the schools, the announcement of a public holiday is heralded with much cheering and joyful noises from the students. For the employees, it brings laughter and passionate smiles to their faces. But I must point out that it is so because most Nigerian jobs are not paid on an hourly basis because I still believe that Nigerians’ love for money surpasses that of a public holiday. If the break means a cut in their salary, I believe a lot of them will come to work o!
12. Cheap and Free Things
“Wow! Cheap and free things dey sweet Naija people like…” Nigerians would love everything to be very cheap, or preferably free. Once its cheap, great crowd would be attracted, then if its free, everyone would come – that’s a Nigerian characteristic for you. Nigerians are in love with cheap articles to the extent they could purchase ten cheap things they do not need and leave off just one costly thing that is essential to them. They want education to be free even to the tertiary level and never think of the quality of the education. For Nigerians, the wish everything’s free – women, education, movies, medical care, concerts, trainings, phone calls, internet browsing…, etc!
13. Music and Dance
Nigerian musicians are known to be among the richest in the world. This is strictly because Nigerians are in love with music and patronize them unimaginably. Whatever be the kind, type or category of the music, it is bound to sell in Nigeria. Music and dance play indispensable roles in the Nigerian society. It is usually the number one on virtually every occasion and ceremony. Nigerian men and women are capable at any time of the day to keep you spell-bound with mesmerizing music and alluring dance steps. If it’s for music and dance, that’s one of the places you’ll find Nigerians’ strong passions.
14. Schooling
Right from time immemorial till date, Nigerian parents are ever ready to sell all they have to sponsor their child’s education. Fathers sell their lands to pay school fees, while mothers sell their precious wrappers and jewelry to provide for their child’s upkeep in school. However, I intentionally used the word schooling instead of education. This is because presently, most Nigerians value and love schooling more than they do education. Everybody wants to be in school, whether they have the abilities or not. They are just comfortable with the fact that they are in school, what they are achieving in the school could be discussed later. They can pay off huge sums of money that would have been enough for them to start a business with just to gain an admission into the higher institution.
15. Partying
Partying runs in the blood of every true Nigerian. Though there are tribes that party the most but there is an Igbo adage that says ‘when a finger is dipped in oil, it stains the rest of the fingers’. The Yorubas are the people known for partying most in Nigeria. They call it “Owambe”. Nigerians do not mind spending their last dime and still borrowing to host a party. The major ones include; naming ceremonies, child dedications, traditional and white weddings, funeral and memorial services, birthdays, priestly ordinations, chieftaincy title ceremonies, etc.
16. “Express”, or What You Call Shortcuts
Nigerians are “smart” and fast people. They always want it the easy way even when their rights or justice is trodden upon. The pace matters to them than any other thing. Nigerians prefer to pay their way through instead of following the right procedures, especially when they have the cash. A Nigerian will never like to be in a queue, anytime, anywhere. He would prefer to tip a policeman instead of having his time wasted in the process of checking his car papers, even when he has all the papers intact with him. They are just always in a hurry, preferring to have it the easier way even if it’s the wrong way after all.
17. Age Secrecy – They Love Being Ever Young
Nigerians are well-known for hiding their age, especially the ladies. It is only very few people who have gotten a great deal of western exposure that usually don’t do this. Of course, I won’t call those ones ‘typical Nigerians’. They always falsify their age, even when there is no apparent reason for that. They have this passion for being regarded as still very young. They never want to grow old. In fact, for Nigerians, the thought of old age is a nightmare. Nigerians want to remain ever young, making money and having fun.